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Published: January 14th 2010
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capuchin
capuchin over the embankment by CICRA A quick introduction to life in the Amazon Rainforest: just as I was sitting down to write this blog post, I heard Mini frantically calling out, “Squirrels! Squirrels!” Rushing outside with my binoculars to the embankment overlooking the river, I was greeted by the sight of squirrel monkeys grooming each other and rushing up and down branches in the trees directly in front of me. Better yet, there were several capuchins swinging about on the branches (incredibly smart monkeys; they will throw things at you when you walk near them!) and a spider monkey lounging comfortably in a nearby tree. As I stood there watching the monkeys for about half an hour, I couldn’t believe that this is actually my life.
I arrived at the Los Amigos Biological Station, otherwise known as CICRA, about six days ago via a five hour boat ride. Upon arrival, we had to carry ridiculous amounts of equipment up the 270 stairs leading to the field station. The station itself is in a beautiful location; surrounded by the Amazon, plenty of fruit trees, lush green vegetation.
That night, I trekked back to the cabin in which I’ll be staying for the duration of
my stay, immediately tucking the mosquito net into the bed to prevent any unwanted visitors. A good decision, it turns out, as I spotted several cockroaches scurrying around the walls in my headlight beam. Mild freakout ensued until I realized I was too tired to actually care (though I did obsessively check my bed before settling in, much to the annoyance of my cabin mate, Emma). As I attempted, and failed, to sleep that night, I was introduced to the complete darkness and cacophony of sounds that characterizes the jungle at night. Several times, I held my hand about an inch away from my face and somehow managed to be surprised every time I realized that I couldn’t see it. The sounds of various animal calls were constant and loud. I kept hearing a strange noise that I couldn’t place, quickly convincing myself that a jaguar was rubbing against the outside of the cabin (which isn’t completely ludicrous, as they’ve been spotted 200m from camp). Extremely terrified, I grabbed my swiss army knife and lay completely motionless for a pretty ridiculous amount of time. I finally realized that the noise was Emma moving in her sleep and was able to
relax a bit.
After a day or two of settling in, we began our follows of the tamarin group that has already been trapped and tagged. There are four adults in this group as well as two twins, and they have been marked with beads and have had their tails bleached with different patterns to allow for individual identification. Now I expected monkey tracking to be hard, but it’s even harder than I imagined. The best way I can describe it is that you are literally bushwhacking the Amazon Rainforest. It’s a pretty intense experience. You are basically frantically running around the jungle, trying to keep an eye on the tamarins with your binoculars so that you know what each individual is doing, while periodically glancing down as you run through all kinds of terrain, ranging from swamps, thick vegetation, embankments, and thick bamboo with absurdly large thorns. After a slight hesitation on one of the initial follows, Mini shouted “Go! Just go, don’t think!” Perfect advice, really. It’s best to avoid thinking about the abundance of spiders, snakes, wasps and other biting insects as you haphazardly push leaves and branches away from your face. Invariably, about 15 minutes
into a follow, you will have had several spider webs in the face(spider MIA, most likely on your body) and thorn scrapes in random places all over your body. Good news is that during this process you are completely focused on the monkeys and stressed about keeping them in sight, so you don’t notice the damage.
Despite the difficulty, following the tamarins is a truly amazing experience. They are really cute little buggers, particularly when they’re carrying the twins around on their back! And you start to get a feel for their personalities; my favorite is GBW, who basically just hangs out all the time, really laid-back. They also have pretty neat grooming parties and manage to capture insects that are almost half of the tamarin’s length! It then takes them what feels like a few years to eat the bug, but no complaints here as I fully support large meals and savoring your food. You also get to see fights that break out between the different individuals, sometimes over who is carrying the infants, which are kind of funny since the tamarins just swat at each other.
Occasionally, when the tamarins decide to take a break, you
manage to glimpse glances of the incredible wildlife that abounds in the Amazon. You will cross paths with titis and capuchins, while hummingbirds hover right next to you. Of course, there are hundreds of cool insects and birds, frogs, lizards and various other animals. And I have grown fond of the emperor tamarins, which constantly hang around the saddle-back tamarins that we’re following. Honestly, you need to google image “emperor tamarin” immediately. Tiny monkeys with handlebar moustaches. How could that not be fantastic? Additionally, the sounds of the jungle are incredible and it’s a surreal experience to hear so much going on around you, though it’s slightly overshadowed by the buzzing of insects around your head. Swatting is futile. One of the coolest sounds in the rainforest is… the rain. You can actually see the gradual darkening of the sky, as if someone is fiddling with the dimmer switch, and hear the rain’s progression as it moves closer and closer to you. All you can do is whip out the rain jacket and hope for the best. Sometimes you get caught in a rainstorm, coming back to camp completely soaked and muddy with small puddles in your boots.
After returning to camp, you get to take a refreshingly cold shower and survey the damage done to your body during the day. I’m always amazed by the amount of scrapes, bumps and bruises I have managed to accrue in one day. It’s pretty easy to acquire such small injuries in the jungle. The other day, I was hiking with Rhea, another field assistant. She pushed a tiny twig out of her face, which somehow triggered a large branch falling directly onto my head. Simultaneously painful and funny. Currently, the entire backs of my thighs appear to be one huge welt due to the plethora of insect bites; I must have over 50 on my body. This is despite application with 100% deet, which burns your skin when you put it on and deteriorates watches. Good stuff. I’ve gotten my first fire ant bite, which burns and stings for a bit, but I’m thankful I haven’t yet experienced the bullet ant. These ants bite and sting you at the same time, and supposedly produce the most painful insect bite. So I’m doing my best to avoid those.
OK I know this has gone on for a while, so I’ll finish up. I’m having a really great time and this is definitely the experience of a lifetime. I feel very fortunate to have such an opportunity, and I’m learning so much along the way! I’ll try to upload pictures, but the internet connection here is pretty slow so I don’t know if that will be possible. But you guys should definitely check out the project’s website (www.primatesperu.com) for more info and great pictures. You can see pics of the wildlife here and of the field station itself. I hope all is well with everybody and I haven’t bored you too much, leave comments because I’d love to hear from you all and get some life updates! Take care.
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uncle Mike
non-member comment
sounds like fun
Glad you are enjoying yourself!!! I thought you were going to say the loudest noise in the jungle was you yelling "get me outta here"!! Stay well and have fun.remember you only live once but if you do it right once should be enuff. just be careful,later Mike