primatesperu

January, 2009

This past month has brought some new developments and a whole lot of waiting. The support and encouragement from all of you has been overwhelming. We especially appreciate your helpful comments about the website and hope that you won't forget to check it often!

Here's what we have been up to this past month:

Grants:  So far, we have about 7 applications sent out with 3 more in the works. the really big grants will all have been sent out by the end of this week.

Also, we have received our first bit of money. It's a great feeling!:)

Contacts: With the addition of two experienced researchers to our knowledge base, we've been able to get a lot of practical details addressed. Trapping won't be easy but it will not be a shot in the dark either. The more we talk to them the more we learn. We're ready to build our first prototype trap and estimate the cost of trapping materials more closely.

Field research applicants: We now have four applications for the position of field research assistant and we are hard pressed to make a decision.  We will have to sit down and do that by March but until then, we're still accepting applications.

Website hits: The website has so far been viewed by people in 19 different countries, our bounce rate is dropping steadily, and we're continuously making improvements to it. We have 17 registered users and are happy to accept more friends and family. Just be careful with your login information because we are trusting you to use those responsibly.

Travel: We will officially be in India now for the months of June and July. We've got plenty of travel planned but also a lot of downtime in Bangalore City, just to relax and take it all in. Our one major deviation from relaxation will be a trip to Indonesia (Borneo and Sulawesi) where we hope to finally see some pretty wild primates: proboscis monkeys, tarsiers, gibbons, orangutans, lorises, and of course, the ubiquitous macaques. When our funding comes through, we'll be back in the US and hope to set out to the field by late September. We won't be there long so for those of you with the travel/adventure bug, book your flights early so we can ensure that you have some time to spend with us.