Crazy Times

I warned you, didn't I? Warned you that I wouldn't be updating regularly?

WELL IT WAS TRUE!!!

Although my gut instinct is telling me that I should just write out another bullet list of things that we've experienced again (I love point-by-point information delivery systems), but instead I'm going to create a highlight reel:

• That time we went to Spain kind of (to Ceuta specifically)
• That time we planned to go to Spain for realsies
• That time it snowed again
• Dung beetles!

and last, but not least,

• That time someone asked me to marry them within 1 minute of introducing himself

If I have time amongst the madness of field work, I might go into this more. For now, you'll have to be satisfied with this bare minimum of posting. 

Also, because people have been pestering me for photos - you know who you are -  have another picture!

The combination of semi-unreliable internet and large file sizes means that each photo takes about 5 minutes to upload after 10 minutes of file compression. So for now, NO MORE PICTURES FOR YOU! At least, not until I have much more down town or a much better internet connection (did someone say vacation?)

I also have pictures of lizards, lichen, and rocks! But I assume you're all here for the monkeys. I mean, that's why I'm here!

A few photos of Simon, the lion-faced monkey

Finally had the time to upload some of my photos! Here's a sneak peak:

This is a monkey named Simon, one of the prime age males in the Green Group. He's rather handsome for a monkey if you ask me!

This is what a good day looks like!

I realized that many of you don't know what our day-to-day life is like here in Azrou. Here's what a good day is like for the team from yesterday:

• Wake up by 5am, stretch and ready to go
• Breakfast: hot, strong coffee and peanut-butter and jelly
• Get out of the house by 6:15am
• Drive up through the park - all the while hoping to avoid road closures if its snowing
• Park as near as we can to where the monkeys were settling down the night before
• On good days, we find the groups still sleeping where we left them
• On bad days...it can take hours to track them down!

• EXPERIMENT TIME! We've been running a novel object experiment to see how different monkeys react to a new stimulus in their environment, and whether social standing, age, or sex impact how strong their responses are. Our novel object: a Spiderman-themed child's punching bag
• Despite our hopes, none of the monkeys seemed to care for our Spiderman punching bag; they continued with their regular morning schedule without much more than a curious glance. Oh well!
• After a quick attempt at the experiment, we're off to the Blue Group - fortunately, we get there in what I like to call the "magic hour"
• If you didn't know already, something special happens to the monkeys' digestive systems from 10-11 in the morning - they poop. When it's your job to collect one faecal sample from each monkey each day, 10-11am is the hour to shine!
• Speaking of poop, in the past 2 days I have:
• Scooped green goop off of the side of a tree 
• Followed a monkey for 5 hours to find out that it only had a dirty bottom
• Determined which monkey was most likely to have deposited a poop sample  based on the temperature of the sample in the tube (that's right - temperature)

As you can tell, I've had poop on the brain for some time now...MOVING ON!

• Behavioural focal follows
• These days, now that I'm more well-trained by Patrick and Liz, I'm able to do 6 to 12-half hour behavioural follows per day
• Today was a relatively calm day, as I only needed to follow 6 monkeys today starting at noon
• The monkeys were lovely; the bloody tourists were not!
• I love that the park can bring in tourists to come and visit the monkeys - I just wish that they weren't so disruptive. Massive tour busses will pull up along the side of (narrow) road at the first glimpse of a monkey, opening its doors to allow bustling loud tourists to pour out into the forest armed with biscuits, cameras, and shouting. Much like a group of toddlers overstimulated by toys and fuelled by sugar, tourists inevitably make tracking the monkeys' behaviours rather more difficult.  

• Even when there aren't tourists bustling through the forest, the monkeys are never boring. Here are some of my favourite observations from the past few days:
• Saw a lady named Rebecca self-suckle - this is seen rarely and the reason for this type of behaviour isn't clear
• It isn't the season for mating right now, so you can imagine how many times we've seen the male monkeys masturbating. More often than not, this is followed by consumption of the resultant ejaculate. Waste not, want not!
• Noddy (one of my favourite monkeys - a darling old man who appears senile and adorable), shook himself so hard during a scratch that he knocked himself over
• Nico, Sarah's daughter and a pampered member of the group (and by pampered I mean well-fed - she's bordering on obese due to the attention and feeding she receives from the tourists) faced some social hardship. This morning, she was tormented by a cheeky subadult female, Joplin. It went something like this - Nico was terribly upset at Joplin, baring her teeth and grunting, but every time she lunged out to Joplin aggressively Joplin would gracefully clamber up into narrow tree branches. Needless to say this left Nico sitting angrily like a ruffled sausage, restricted to the large basal branches.
• For some reason, young male monkeys frequently stick their faces into the older males' crotches. Any explanations for this would be welcome, but at this point the sheer number of face-to-crotch interactions between young and mature males is slightly alarming!
• Don't let these fun experiences fool you, though - most of the day is spent running, picking up poop, and generally lamenting the exasperation of chasing monkeys around the woods. 
• So. Much. Poop. So. Much. Running. So. Many. Crazy. Monkeys. 

• I also found some interesting dead things today!
• 1. A complete dog skull on the side of the hill! I won't be able to take it back to Canada with me, but for for now I've smuggled it back to the flat wrapped up in one of the many, many plastic bags that float around the tourist sites (seriously, the amount of litter here is horrifying, even in the more remote areas frequented by the Green group)
• Auto-mummified bug! Speaking of litter, there are hundreds of alcohol bottles. Inside of one I found a dung beetle, perfectly preserved in the alcohol! Naturally, it came home with me along with the skull.

Sorry for the brevity of this update, but our days are getting longer and the work is getting more tiring. I'd expect these posts to become fewer and further between until I get home to Canada.

On the plus side, now you all have evidence that I'm alive! Three cheers for cellular respiration!

Update: the sun is a jerk

We now have to leave the flat at 6:15 because of the ever-earlier sunrise.

We now leave the field at 6:30 because of the ever-later sunset.

As much as I love how spring is sproinging around here, I love sleep, and the sun is proving itself a formidable enemy.

Have I ever mentioned that I'm not exactly a morning person?

The effect of tourists on my sanity, and other updates

Working with the blue group on a Sunday is like trying to use chopsticks and flies to learn karate.

Yes, it is possible. If you succeed, you can accomplish anything. But until you do succeed, you risk permanent confusion, exasperation, and insanity.

Sundays are big party days in Azrou - many locals take the opportunity to travel to the park with picnics, percussion sets, and snacks for the monkeys. Working to the sound of singing and drums is wonderful and it's amazing to see how nature can draw a crowd no matter where in the world you might be.

However, when you're there to observe and record every behaviour that an excitable monkey acts out while in a frenzy of activity, you'd rather some piece and quiet. It can be a bit difficult to appreciate music when your focal target is running around the park jostling for food, tourist attention, or a quiet space to be left to eat.

I think the monkeys know about the Sunday draw to nature, too. This morning the Blue group was nowhere near their usual haunt when we started to look for them - they had moved down the road to a relatively secluded spot. By the time L. and I had found them, the madness had begun.

There's this one infant monkey. I don't know his name, so I'm going to call him Tigglyman. Tigglyman is a little sh*t. For whatever reason, his new favourite game is jump-from-the-tree-run-to-Mairin-and-jump-on-her-ha-ha-ha-hilarious. Despite the fact that this would normally be endearing and at least slightly acceptable, there are 2 major issues with this behaviour.

1. It is difficult to be a researcher if your subjects change their actions based on your presence. Also because it's just plain bad. Monkeys should not be that comfy with their human researchers (shakes fist angrily at tourists for setting a bad human precedent)
2. When a juvenile gets too up-in-your-business, the adults notice. And get excited. And then angry. And then aggressive. You can see how this might backfire.

Despite my best attempts to keep an eye on Tigglyman, twice he managed to do a jump-sprint at me and jump on my legs. He thinks it's hilarious. The adults think I'm being a danger to him. I think it's terrifying!

SOME HOURS LATER

I did real science today! Collected 5 focals, completed 6 hourly scans, and practiced the experimental protocols. That may not sound like much, but these data are going to be used for science! IT'S SO COOL!

Otherwise today was pretty normal, other than the fact that I had my first look-a-Westerner-scientist-who-looks-like-a-dork-in-research-gear tourist interaction today. A bunch of guys came up to me, asking for a photo. I thought they wanted me to take a photo of them. But no! One by one, they all got a photo with me. They were over the moon when I gave a thumbs up in one photo. Not sure how I feel about being a form of tourist attraction...should have known that my rubber rainpants and binoculars combo would send bring them running.

Who says science isn't sexy?