The Corridor

I had wanted to post on Dec 1 to wish a happy birthday to my dearest friend Jolyne and to my father-in-law Bruce. Unfortunately, due to general tiredness, power outages, and a country-wide lack of internet for the past several days, I am just getting around to it. So the best I can do is say that I hope a good birthday was had by all.

December 1st ended up being an eventful day for me and the monkeys. It started off though, by me swearing a blue streak when the door to the kitchen was locked and I could not get in there to retrieve my carefully packed breakfast and lunch. This has happened a few times before; I think it means that there is some night guard or something who doesn’t show up and the door is still locked at 5 in the morning. A few times I have waited for the muchachas to come in at 6 and unlock it (they appear to be the only ones with keys); once I went to the forest with a couple of Clif bars and tap water instead of purified. At any rate, this past Friday, Don Miguel saw (and heard) my predicament, and he helped me break in through the window. All set with my water, fruit, and rice and beans, I headed out to the forest.

On the way, I met up with Simeon and his cronies, who were headed to some plantain fields for work. As we walked along the path together, we encountered monkeys at the forest entrance. This was approximately the same location we had found them the day before, and Simeon assured me that it was Wrinkle Belly’s group. He surmised that the group was going to use a thin corridor of trees to head down to a different forest patch by the road, and he gave me instructions on following them before he continued on to work.

It turns out he was right. For months he’d been telling me that Wrinkle Belly’s group sometimes goes down to the road, and I had not genuinely believed him. But today I saw it with my own eyes. Wrinkle Belly and the entire group was there, in all their glory. Sure enough, they headed down the narrow corridor between fields of plantains, rice, beans, and corn. At times the trees were so sparce that they couldn’t cross the gaps. I stood directly under Wrinkle Belly (with my arms outstretched to catch him if need be) as he made a flying leap and landed squarely on a plantain tree. The frond on which he had landed promptly snapped, and just inches from the ground, he scrambled back up into the nearest tree.

The monkeys continued their sojourn down the corridor. The “forest patch” we entered wasn’t really a patch per se; it was just scrappy underbrush with a few medium size trees in what happened to be a few peoples’ backyards. I was a little bit paranoid that I was on “propriedad privado” and I should go ask these people if it was okay with them that I was in their yard. But I didn’t want to lose the monkeys in so doing, and besides, I thought it might cause more of a shock and commotion if I emerged from the underbrush and revealed myself. In the end, I just stayed quiet and hidden, observing the monkeys.

The reason that they went to this obscure locale appeared to be because there was a particular tree in bloom right there. It was a lovely tree—large and with apparently scrumptious magenta colored flowers. When the monkeys arrived, they ate for about 2 hours without stopping. I was just about ecstatic. If all else on this project fails, I can write a paper on howler monkeys’ persistence in agro-ecosystems by using thin corridors of trees that connect between patches of forest.

The next several days, I have continued breaking and entering the kitchen to get my supplies (where is this night guard anyway?!) and watching the monkeys unceasingly eat these wonder-flowers. I’ve also spent some time following the South group (Uno’s group)—who, in the absence of Wrinkle Belly’s clan—have gone to forage in some of the more traditional North group areas. The ecological aspects of this project are turning out to be hella cool.

The only thing that has me a little concerned now is that I know there should be 1-month old infants in both the North and South groups (Spud and Scout, respectively), but I haven’t seen any sign of them lately. They keep having babies, but what is happening to them?? In fact, there is a brand new baby in the South group, who I started calling Scooby (I really don’t know why I’ve given them all “S” names…). I’ll post this picture of Scoob, even though you probably won’t be able to make out anything. The little speck of gold on the mother’s belly is Scooby, and there is another female just to the right of the mother, peering at the baby.

Many thanks for reading, I’d better hurry up and post this while the internet is still working!