Banana Buffet
As much as I hated having to leave for Puerto, I have to admit that I appreciate the very many luxuries that I had sworn off that I was able to enjoy unexpectedly during this field season. I’m not talking about hot showers and chocolate, for those were still missing even in Puerto, but the other things like ice, laundered clothes, and fruit. Ahh, the fruit!
Sitting at dinner on the day we were back we reminisced mainly about the food. Dinners these days have devolved into a nightmarish narration of the things we wish we could eat. Rhea Mac, PrimatesPeru’s latest field assistant is of Indian origin and makes it particularly painful by talking about parathas and bhindi. Even when Don Pascual cooks his famous and unmatched rocoto rellena, or rocoto pepper stuffed with minced meat and cheese, dipped in a light batter and then fried, I am able to be disappointed about my meal.
It is quite wonderful, therefore, that my precious tamarins are going through just the reverse. Monkeys, contrary to common belief, do not eat bananas in the wild. That is chiefly because there are none in the Amazon. This, I’m pretty sure comes as a huge surprise to most of you, and it’s not your fault in the least. At some point, some devious individual began to feed captive monkeys bananas and so the legend was born. It’s too late now. When I say I’m using bananas to bait the little guys, nobody even blinks. They think it’s perfectly normal!
In any case, one of the chief obstacles we have to surmount in this business of trapping tamarins is to get them to discover that the banana is a) a fruit and b) a great fruit. We do this by laying it out in enticing ways all over the place and creating what is effectively a large-scale banana buffet that is chiefly partaken of by insects. I have checked traps at all times of the day and there are always ants, butterflies and wasps feasting on the bait but very rarely monkeys.
To our utter surprise, this first obstacle was indeed overcome by the group closest to our camp, fondly known as FC (short for fuscis de CICRA or Fudcicollis County, the hottest new soap in the Amazon). FC has five individuals and is quite habituated to human observation. We know this because we have on many occasions stumbled noisily upon them only to be greeted by little chirrups and hellos and then, utter indifference. It is this feeling of indifference that we primatologists crave. I want my monkeys to think of me as part of the environment and to ignore me no matter what I do. Bet some of you find that a little odd too!
My good friends in FC had discovered bananas and really quite liked them. They had begun to visit the traps regularly before we were turfed out of CICRA to Puerto and for a chilling four days, the traps remained unbaited. We returned to CICRa, hearts in our mouths, hoping against hope that the memory of a banana would still be fresh in their minds and voila! The very next day, we found them at one of our traps. Caught in the sheer shock of the moment, Gideon and I ran around like chickens with their heads cut off and alsmot didn’t successfully trap them. First, one tamarin climbed unhesitatingly into one compartment and started munching on the bananas within. We slowly closed the trap door behind it and grinned excitedly at each other.
We couldn’t see any of the others although we heard them in the area so I went off to examine the next closest trap to see if they had already moved on. As it turns out, they hadn’t and the jungle there was crawling with squirrel monkeys, a species the tamarins generally avoid. Upon returning to the original trap, I informed Gideon that I had no idea where the rest of the group was. While we stood there debating whether to let this single tamarin go, he escaped.
Much to our consternation, we were able to do nothing more but gape at him in horror. Somehow he’d squeezed out of the trao, after having spent atleast ten minutes in there trying to get out. I was sure he would never come near this strange closing fruit tree ever again. Almost in tears I gazed bleakly at him as he sat on a nearby tree contemplating the trap. As usual, I had read him all wrong because in a moment he jumped right back onto the trap again and got into the compartment next door to the one he originally occupied! Gid quickly pulled the door shut and this time, kept a really strong pressure on the string, thus preventing him from making an easy escape.
Suddenly on our right came the distinctive noise of a monkey jumping through the trees. Before we knew it three more tamarins and willingly entered a compartment each on the trap and Gideon had slid the doors shut after them. However, it was just not our day for as we waited for the fifth, the first two escaped again. In a few more minutes, one more pried the door loose. Finally, we decided that we couldn’t keep the last one in and let it out as well. It took this bright monkey few moments to figure out that it was actually free and then it took off after the rest of the group.
I was nothing short of devastated. How were they getting out? All the traps I’s seen designed looked exactly like ours! Why was ours failing? Were these guys just too smart for us? IF they were smart though, why did the first one come right back to the trap and get caught again?
Keeping his wits about him, Gideon ran off after the group and after I’d managed to regain some measure of stability I chased after them too. They circled around the camp and settled down to rest next to the staff quarters. We crouched there in the tiny shade offered by the building and cursed our luck. In whispers we devised a small modification to the traps that might make them function. We thought that we might add a small strip of wire mesh across the doors at the top, which should keep the tamarins from getting out for a little while longer.
Alas! We wouldn’t get the chance to test this new trap untilt hey got back into a trap, which I was convinced they never would, especially after that last experience.
We sat there dejectedly looking at them resting and recording their behaviour in a half-hearted way. I cursed myself for not having made the traps stronger. Gideon got so tired of being around me that he ran back, brought me something to eat from the dining hall and then busied himself by making the modification to the trap that was closest to the first one. He ran out of rope half way through, however, and wasn’t able to lasso the trap to the tree, leaving that for later in the day. Still upset about our awful luck, he let me know that he was going to make the same modification to the trap the tamarins had just visited. I agreed to stick around and watch them.
Soon after Gid was out of sight, the tamarins got up and began to move. First they stretched and yawned, flexing their arms and legs and scent-marking over everything as they got ready for their next journey. I stood up wearily, ready to follow them. To my surprise, they turned and began to head over to the second trap. This one was positioned in the large anona tree right outside my dorm. It was practically inside the camp and we’d seen the monkeys in that tree when no one was around.
I quickly and quietly walked ahead of them to the tree and crouched by its base, ready to pull the traps shut. I was still pretty sure that they were going to leave a wide berth around the trap. Again, I was wrong. A mere two hours after being stuck in a compartment for ten minutes, they cheerfully approached and entered the second trap. I quickly shut two doors on two unsuspecting (how??) animals. Three others were sitting on top of the trap.
Realising that this might be my chance I kept a firm hold on the strings that were shutting each trap compartment’s door. In fact, in my efforts to prevent another escape I pulled too hard and the trap, unsecured after Gid made the modification to it and ran out of rope, began to slide slowly out of the tree. Hurriedly adjusting my hold on the strings I looked about me helplessly, hoping the other tamarins wouldn’t notice the trap’s recent movement and really hoping that the trap would still stay in the darned tree!
Glancing about me I had to gesticulate wildly to prevent several researchers and staff from talking and walking by the trap – it was so very central! They all gathered a safe distance way, no doubt laughing at the awkward way in which I was half-crouched before the tree, straining to keep exactly the right amount of tension on the strings. There was no way this was going to turn out okay. I needed help and I knew it.
Looking about me I was able to mouth the words “Get Gideon!” to Allison. She charged off into the jungle to find him and bring him back from repairing the first trap. In the meanwhile I was rapidly losing all feeling in the fingers of my hand that had the strings wound around it. My leg was falling asleep. The trap kept slipping,little by little out of the damned tree and Gideon was nowhere in sight.
“Psst!” I heard, moments later, making me nearly jump out of my skin and bring the trap down with me. Gideon had snuck up behind me and was about twenty metres from the trap. “Need help??” he asked.
“Of course I bloody well need help! Does this look remotely comfortable to you?? And why the hell is the trap coming out of the tree? If I don’t pull on it the doors will open and if I do pull on it it comes out of the tree. I don’t know what the hell to do here! And by the way, can you believe how stupid these guys are?? They’re back in!!”
“I know they’re in the trap Min. I can see that! The point is, what to do we do now? Shall I come over?”
“I thought I’d made that perfectly clear. Of COURSE come over before the damned thing falls out of this blasted tree!”
Gid came over. And the remaining three tamarins took off and charged merrily back to the safety of the jungle, leaving their buddies behind.
“Oh hell!” I cursed. There was nothing to do but to get them processed and then locate the group and reintroduce them to each other. It was probably going to be our only opportunity anyway. I mean why would they return into the traps after seeing their family whisked away by us??
We rushed to the trap, brought it down and secured the doors. Carrying it carefully into the lab nearby. That’s when we realized how much work we had ahead of us. Several others at the camp, sensing our excitement, had come over to see the monkeys, which were keeping remarkably calm under the circumstances. We got offers to help and gladly accepted the assistance of a couple of people to take photographs and enter data into our animal trapping sheets.
Processing for the first time was a really terrifying thing. It’s not that we were not prepared. Looking back on it, we barely encountered a glitch with our equipment. Mostly we were just really nervous about the animals, which is normal and ought to be our primary reaction in any case. Both little tams went down really quickly and easily and we began to get the data we needed. We gave them little necklaces and bleached their tails out into patterns that we could easily discern. The large female was given the radio collar while the younger and smaller male was given a beaded necklace. They both looked terrific at the end but it was far too dark to try to find their group.
We placed them in holding cages for the night, with water and bananas and spent a restless night worrying about them. We had no trouble waking up at 4am. We rushed to the lab where they were housed and lifted the cover off of them. There they were, bright-eyed and quiet, ready no doubt to be back in the jungle. We took them to their group and released them. They rushed off without even a moment’s hesitation. We scrambled after them and they darted down the embankment, which is pretty near impossible to descend (we have since done it!). So we had to head back to camp and retrieve our radio telemetry tracking equipment. I about twenty minutes we found them all reunited and we were finally able to heave a giant sigh of a relief.
They looked terrific up in the trees, their markers making them remarkably easy to spot.
Gid and I called it a day at 9am that morning. We were exhausted from the stress and worry of it all and spent the day recouping and preparing for the next set of trapping.
As it turns out, we welcomed our new field assistant the next day and one day after her arrival, were able to trap two more members of the group. Processing was a dream the second time around and Rhea’s presence made a huge difference. We had them processed within the day and were able to release them right next to their group, which was easily located via the radio tracker.
With four of five animals marked, we now have the perfect set up. We’re doing daily follows and have really come to know the group well. More on each of the key players in the next blog post!
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