June 27, 2013

Things have gotten quite a bit busier

This is how they look

 Most interesting story first: yesterday we were on a follow (just what it sounds like -- trying to keep up with a group of tamarins)of a new group of monkeys we recently trapped and collared. A few hours in, we get a chance to slow down for a sec; all 7 are spread out but in the general-ish area, we mark a feeding tree, and are actually able to stand still a moment.

Then the noise increases like when there’s a cat in our yard and the blue jays get mad. I look over, and 15 feet above my teammate (one tree away from our squirrel-sized monkeys), there is a rather large bird. Red headed, chest white/black patterned like a red-shouldered hawk, impressive claws; think male golden eagle sized. I’m yelling “look at this giant bird above you! It’s going to eat the monkeys!” One of my teammates is yelling “Quiet, I can’t look away from the monkeys, they’re freaking out for some reason” and the other is just watching everything.

The bird zeros in on a tamarin, and this black fan of feathers on top of its head pops up! The 7 monkeys scatter in 3 directions, the 3 of us go off in 2, and the bird vanishes. We spent the next 5 hours trying to catch up with as many tamarins as possible.(The leaders did go and check on the group later, and confirmed that all 7 were still alive.)Turned out that bird was an ornate eagle hawk, so not a harpy eagle but still pretty impressive.

I really enjoy trapping, although we’re working in the field from 4:30 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon and then have hours of data to do afterwards. I’m pretty nervous about the follows, especially when we start doing all-day ones every day. The leaders say that once we get quieter and the monkeys get used to us it's not too bad, but 2 of the 3 groups spend the entire time leading us up and down ravines. The other day, we had to do army crawls up a muddy 50 degree inclined ravine with tracking gear in the rain, then back down the other side after them. I think the little guys just enjoy watching that.

We now are 7 field assistants total, so internet use may decrease as we are more people sharing one modem, with less free time.

I had my camera out yesterday to take pictures of some squirrel monkeys passing through camp, so I decided to follow one of the strange bird calls that I hear all the time to see what it was. The answer was toucans; I have been constantly hearing toucans in the forest, and there was a flock right at the edge of camp. I’m in a place where toucans are just around, and a squirrel is a bigger deal than monkeys.  

Welcome to the Jungle

 
Hours from nearest town by boat: 5-12
4am wakeup call: day 1, alarm clock. Day 2, bat to the face*
*Avoid a bat to any part of your body unless you’ve been vaccinated for rabies
Power: 3 hours a day
Clothes necessary: knee high rubber boots, pants, neutral colored tank top, long sleeve button up shirt, binoculars, braid, bandana, and necklace
Animal  Log:
Bugs
•    Leaf cutter ants
•    Yellow banded army ants
•    Bullet ants
•    Morpho butterflies
•    Foot-long earthworm
Reptiles
•    Common house gecko
•    Yellow-footed Amazonian tortoise
•    Caiman
•    Amazon racerunner
Birds
•    Lettered aricari
•    Crested Oropendola
•    Blue-and-white swallow
•    Coti heron
•    Pauraque (like a nightjar)
•    Undulated tinamou
•    Long tailed hermit (a hummingbird)
•    Fork-tailed woodnymph
•    Black vulture
•    Yellow-tufted woodpecker
Amphibians
•    Basin white-lipped frog
•    Bolivian bleating frog
•    Warty toad

Mammals
•    Saddle-backed tamarins
•    Emperor tamarins
•    Titi monkeys
•    Spider monkeys
•    Squirrel monkeys
•    Saki monkeys
•    Light-faced capuchins
•    Amazon bamboo rat
•    Peccaries
•    White-lined Sac-winged bat (3rd roommate)
•    Tapir tracks
•    Black agouti
Agouti - something like this needs a name to match
Living in the Amazonian rainforest is a lot like staying at summer camp; if campers went out in the forest at 4 am, there was only power from 6-9 pm, the bathroom was mixed gender, and the swimming lake had caimans and giant river otters.  The camp is located on the top of what appears to be the largest hill in view, with the Madre de Dios river curving around on 3 sides and the daunting Andes in the distance on clear days. Showers are cold, the food is hot, drinking water is pumped from a stream and boiled, and the workday starts at 4:30 am.

I felt better about the living quarters when I confirmed that the bat in my closet is not actually a vampire bat, but a helpful insectivore. All the same, he spends his days there, and barks and squeals if anyone in the room is too noisy or uses a light; it’s like having a very small, constantly hung-over roommate. Without regular internet or power, one must find other means of recreation. Popular options include swapping “One time I saw/got bit by/ran screaming from a  _” stories, and shining a flashlight into the jungle at night, to see what's looking back at you (usually, nightjars and spiders.)

During the pre-dawn morning, as I was checking to make sure that a jaguar was not following me, I had the realization that I have somehow made choices that have led to a ‘bored jaguar’ becoming a semi-legitimate concern in life.

I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane

June 3rd 2013

Time in transit: 18 hours by air, 1 hour by car, 6 hours by motorized canoe, and travel within Puerto Maldonado on the back of taxi motorcycles

Items forgotten: hairbrush, pen, bug spray, Spanish-English dictionary

Time luggage was lost: 42 hours

Items stolen from luggage: laptop charger, camera battery, charger and memory cards, the water-tight container that kept then all safe from:
 

Damage incurred to luggage: left out in Miami rain for apparently the entire time it was lost, soaked in a combination of shampoo,deodorant, and watercolor pencils. The books didn’t fare well,but I have some remarkably colorful socks. At 4:30 AM, approximately halfway to my destination, I realized that my luggage had not reached the country with me. When I got it back over  a day and a half later, I realized it had been left on the rainy Miami tarmac. There is something part humility, part hysteria that one feels when the belongings that you need to survive in the jungle are lost, you don’t remember the name of your hotel, your phone doesn’t work internationally to check the name of your hotel, and you don’t have the dictionary you need to express this to anyone of authority. That’s before you're asked to sign a Spanish document with seemingly important details left blank. On the plus side, the airline did give us a full dinner at 2 AM.
 

After the overnight flight, the helmet-less motorcycle taxis seemed

like a relaxing ride as they sped over dirt roads. And I tried to take the time to appreciate my first stay at a hostel, although next time I think I’ll spring for the $20 room with a private bathroom; I’ll be spending enough time soon sharing one shower with a dozen strangers. It was worth every nuevo sole for the unpublished perk: a fuzzy lab mix puppy newly adopted by the owner. Loopey Puppies: treat travel stress even more than a few pisco sours. I shared an odd half-van vehicle with 7 day workers to the next town, feeling every bit the out-of-place American tourist that I was.

 

Puerto Maldonado: not where I am. Where I am: 5 hours away. 

 

And then, as I approached the canoe ‘dock’, the Rio Madre de Dios came into view. Across the rushing muddy water, and on either side of the small town, there were shallow banks and reaching trees and, at understory, there were familiar herons, egrets and wood storks, and dense flocks of multicolor butterflies hovering around mineral-dense patches on the banks. I’m actually in the AMAZON JUNGLE!

Animals seen:
2 hummingbird species
Toad
Black vulture and turkey vulture