A few months ago, while I was talking with some students about publications and academy in general. I don’t remember thinking too much about this while I was studying, except by a few specific advice that one professor give me. I’m not so sure how much people ask about this because I had not been in an academic environment for a couple of years as my jobs are mainly outside of universities. However, it seems that it is not so clear for some of the young biologist, at least in Colombia. Each country probably has some variations of the following main points if you want to work in academy. The main objective is to work in a university as a professor. For this, in today’s world, one of the main requirements is to have at least a master, although in most universities today a doctorate is necessary. A second and probably the most important one in this academic system is to publish your work. You can start doing this before you finish your bachelor by working in a research laboratory or with one of your favorite professors from your career. Be proactive, ask questions, participate in their research activities and read a lot about your favorite topic or your favorite organism.Participate in conferences, start with the ones that are in your country or region and present your own research. Then, participate in Latin-American or international congresses focused on the topic of your interest. While in those conferences, participate in workshops, courses and do networking (talk with others about your research). I have to admit this last one (networking) is not my favorite and I’m probably not that go at it. It had costed me a lot of effort, its never easy for me to talk with new people, but it is really important in academy.Collaborate, this one also has cost me some effort, hopefully I’m becoming better at this. Talk with other about collaborations and share ideas to combine your data and expertise with others. Volunteer in research project, this will give you experience in topics of your interest with less money investment, at least in some projects.All these things cost money, something that probably make this difficult for most people in Global South. However, there are grants that cover most of this, look for them, take the time to search and read all the requirements and if you had at least one publication, grants become more and more feasible for you. Look for grants in universities’ websites as well as in government official sites. Most of the big conferences had grants to travel and present your research, look for them! Apply to as many as you can.One final advice, make sure you learn English, yes despite if you like it or not science is still done in English and in many countries (with or without English as their main language) English is the language to apply for many grants and fellowships. There are grants that include some months to learn the local language, so that should not be and excuse to apply. And if you don’t get it in your first try, apply again. I must wait 10 years to get a grant to make my doctorate and there were many rejections before that. So, if you really want to make your career in academy, be persistent and apply to as many grants as you can and publish good science as much as you can.If you want to support our activities, please visit https://fineartamerica.com/art/xyomara+carretero or get in contact with us at xcarretero@gmail.com if you want to collaborate, donate or volunteer in our activities. You can also support our activities by buying our ornate titimonkeys stuff dolls https://www.instagram.com/p/Ctm_sEORvk8/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== and our new journals in Amazon https://www.amazon.com/X-Carretero/dp/B0CWD1DBJM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?© Copyright Disclaimer. All pictures used on this web page are protected with copyrights to Xyomara Carretero-Pinzón. If you want to use any of these pictures, please leave a message on the website.

In today’s post we like to discuss all the additional dangers that provisioning monkeys in urban settings carry to both human and monkeys. Deforestation rates on monkey distribution ranges are increasing rapidly with numerous species getting in close contact with human populations in rural and urban areas. In urban areas, that close proximity to monkey’s populations carries out many dangers to both monkeys and humans. Additionally, some structures like energy transformers and electric cables as well as roads increase monkey’s challenges in an already resource limited environment. But what are the dangers of provisioning monkeys. In some initial monkey’s studies provisioning monkeys with a food source was used to get monkeys closer to observe behaviors. However, when monkeys get used to be feed by humans and lost their natural fear and untrust to humans, they came closer to humans allowing direct contact. This contact can be dangerous to both in terms of disease and germen transmission between both. We already know that many monkey species are susceptible to respiratory and digestive human diseases from studies done in captivity.Another danger of provisioning monkeys is their use of lower structures that make them an easier target to domestic dog’s attacks. The use of lower structures and the ground increase their risk to road killings as they sometimes even use moving car roofs as support structures to pass from food trees in some cities. Although there is poor information in most areas about the numbers of domestic dog’s attacks and road kills in urban and rural areas, this is threat that is increasing more due to urbanizations and deforestation of many areas in Colombia.Provisioning monkeys also change monkey’s natural behavior increasing conflict situations between monkeys and human as they enter to stores and houses to steal food and can cause panic and even cause bite incidents. Although there are reports of this incident in some parts around the world, we also don’t know much about its frequency. Retaliations from people affected are sometimes reported. In our study are close to San Martín town we heard of at least one group of Colombian squirrel monkey poisoned because they were entering houses to steal food.This close encounters also propitiate situations in which monkeys can bite people trying to feed them. This is especially true when old people, kids and nervous people are involved as they can control their emotions and movements scaring them and causing injuries to humans and monkeys alike.Finally, provisioning monkeys can impact their health and nutrition, although we still don’t know in which extent as very few information is available of what can produce a high consumption of bananas and other human food with high content of sugar in monkey’s bodies. I understand the excitement and wishes of people having a picture with monkeys close to them and even on their shoulders, however what most people forget is that even if they live inside a city, they are still wild animals that cannot be predicted and can change their behavior without any advice. Also, if you really like animals the best way in which you can demonstrate your love for them is by not putting them (and yourself) at risk of any dangers. Just enjoy looking at them wherever you observe them and try to conserve their natural habitat and make pressure on your local authorities to implement conservation and management actions to protect forest and animals living in it inside cities.

If you want to support our activities, please visit https://fineartamerica.com/art/xyomara+carretero or get in contact with us at xcarretero@gmail.com if you want to collaborate, donate or volunteer in our activities. You can also support our activities by buying our ornate titimonkeys stuff dolls https://www.instagram.com/p/Ctm_sEORvk8/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== and our new journals in Amazon https://www.amazon.com/X-Carretero/dp/B0CWD1DBJM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?© Copyright Disclaimer. All pictures used on this web page are protected with copyrights to Xyomara Carretero-Pinzón. If you want to use any of these pictures, please leave a message on the website.