This may just be my very last post to this blog. The last five months have gone very quickly and now I will be returning to the states in 3 short weeks. I can't believe that my first field season is almost over!
May ended up being a decent month for experiments. The rain held off for the most part and although the monkeys did go some crazy places, I was able to conduct an experiment most days. All in all it has been a successful field season and it looks like I will have enough data to be able to present at the American Society of Primatologists meeting in September!
I also had a great vacation in Monteverde with my friend from undergrad. We hiked in the cloud forest and saw a quetzal. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera with me so I have no pictures for you. Sorry. It was great to get out of the heat (Monteverde is ~70 degrees) for a little while. After we returned to Bagaces, I played in another basketball game where I finally made a basket! Since we only won by 1 point, I like to think that my 2 points made a difference :) I also celebrated my last vacation Costa Rican style by hitting the dance club for some salsa and reggaeton music and going to a fiesta in town. I mentioned in a previous blog how bull riding works in Costa Rica. Basically one guy rides the bull into the ring and 20-30 drunk guys wait in the ring and try to get the bull to chase them to prove their manliness. But this was the craziest bull ring event I've ever seen since 2 guys got trampled by bulls and 1 rider was thrown off the bull and landed badly. All 3 of these guys had to be carried off to the red cross room on stretchers. In addition, the last rider of the night was too drunk to ride (this was announced over the loudspeaker) so there was a delay while they found a replacement. All in all, quite the experience.
By the way, the U.S. is playing Costa Rica tonight in soccer (7 pm PST) in case you are interested. I plan on rooting for Costa Rica since it is my current home and they are the underdogs :)
I'll leave you with some fun photos and videos (hopefully they work). Enjoy!
Wiebke, the field manager, posing with a giant mushroom found in the forest
A beautiful fig tree
A birds nest with eggs...luckily the monkeys weren't with me when I found it or they would have all been eaten!
A cleverly camouflaged vine snake
This is a video of monkeys doing what we call a group (or social) grope. Capuchin monkeys like to rub certain plants and fruits on their fur. We believe this is because the plants either have medicinal or insect repellant qualities. In most cases, the monkeys simply grope with these fruits while alone. But sometimes they find a particular plant or spot that is especially exciting and then you sometimes see them groping in a group. In this video the monkeys are trying to rub muddy water containing sap from the guapinol tree onto their fur. As you can see, they really get into it. Those monkeys that can't reach the water hole simply rub their fur on the fur of others that have already groped with the guapinol.
This is a video of monkeys playing in the mud. They got so dirty that we had trouble identifying them.
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