As I mention before the study area of this project include several cattle ranching farms. Some are large, other not so large and some are small. But all are important for the conservation of the biodiversity in this area, even the small ones.

More important and probably something that most landowners didn’t know is that even if they don’t have big forest fragments in their farms, every native tree and live fence that is in their properties can help to conserve and increase the survivorship of the wildlife in the region.

How? My observations as well as observations from other researchers have found that although isolated native trees and live fences probably are not enough to save big populations of any wildlife species. They can help these populations to disperse between forest fragments and find partners outside of their natal groups and families.

Traditionally, in this area cattle ranching was extensive but with time that changed and some of the traditional practices such as live fences, isolated trees and groups of native trees (forest patches of less than 1 ha) in the middle of pastures are some of the traditional practices that has been lost over the years. These landscape structures are very useful for wildlife.

Monkeys, birds, some insects, snakes, frogs and other variety of small, medium and large mammals use these landscape structures as stepping stones, temporary homes or just a more hidden routes to move between forest fragments in search of food, partners and other resources. Helping wildlife to avoid predation while dispersing.

Additional to these benefits for wildlife in areas with several months of dry season, these landscape structures are also important for livestock too. During the dry season when water is scarce, livestock losses a lot of weight not only as a consequence of less quality of the grasses but also because they are exposed to high temperatures specially at noon. Therefore, live fences and isolated natives’ trees not only provided services to the wildlife in the region but also give shadow to the livestock during those hours of high temperatures, helping them to regulate temperature and avoid losing more weight.

So, if you are a farmer, not matter where, just remember that every native tree, live fence, hedgerow you have in your property had a value to improve the survivorship of the wildlife in your region and to improve the wellbeing of your livestock.

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One of the things that I love more of this project is that every time I go to the field, I came back with more questions than answers. One of those questions that still I cannot answer and that sometimes make me wonder of what happens in at least part of my study area is why black capped capuchins move in big groups (> 10 individuals) in very fragmented areas?

Black-capped capuchins usually live in groups of 5 – 8 individuals in this area, with up to 2 adult males, several females (usually, 2 – 3) and their juveniles and infants. However, over the past 15 years I have seen groups of black-capped capuchins of up to 22 individuals moving together as a cohesive group.

Although this species of capuchins has been observed in groups of up to 19 individuals in continuous forest (Izawa 1990, a group of black capped capuchins that was feed with plantain and bananas for behavioral studies).

In fragmented areas where there is less food and more predators (including domestic dogs), black-capped capuchins groups usually are small (5 – 8 individuals). So, why are we observing these big groups sporadically.

At least for one of my observations I’m sure that big group (22 individuals) was the result of several groups (2 – 3 groups) moving together. This observation was made in a live fence on June of 2011, around noon.

All animals were moving from one live fence (a line of native trees left by the landowners to separate different pasture plots) to another by a 10 m gap, going down to the ground and up again on the other live fence. I was able not only to count them, but also to determine the composition of this big group (4 adult male, 4 adult female, 10 Juveniles, 4 Infants).

The area in which this observation happens is part of three black capped capuchin groups. However, I couldn’t determine the reason why these groups were moving together. There wasn’t any evidence of a very large availability of fruits that make this big group to remain together or any evidence from that month or the previous and following months that indicated the presence of any particular big predator.

The other observation was made in a forest fragment of 79 ha. In this case it was only one group with a high proportion of juveniles and infants (2 adult males, 5 adult females, 1 subadult male, 5 juveniles and 5 infants). And only this group seems to be living in this fragment despite its area.

There are two main theories of why monkeys live in big versus small groups. First as a strategy to reduce predation risk: if you are an individual in a big group then there are less probabilities that a predator focuses on you and catch you. Additionally, if you live in a big group there is more individuals looking for predators and therefore the time, I spend looking for predators (vigilance behavior) is reduced because I had help from other group members (Fragaszy et a. 2004).

Second, living in big groups can give you an advantage on your feeding strategy, because you have more individuals to help you find and defense those food resources (Fragaszy et al 2004). However, a research had found that for this particular species of capuchin monkeys in continuous areas, this is not true (Janson 1988).

Then why black-capped capuchins are found in this big groups in fragmented areas? We have observed 18 groups of different forest fragments with more than 9 individuals present in the study area. The answer to this question is not clear but probably both theories are playing a role here. Additionally, we don’t know if there are any factors influencing how well the capuchins in this area can disperse. We know that they can disperse using wire fences, living fences, and crossing pastures. Local people had reported this, and I had observed all three methods of dispersing in the area over the years.

We also observed predation attacks by domestic dogs, common caracaras and tayras towards juveniles from different groups in the study area. Most of them in living fences and small forest fragment. Moreover, we know that at this area there are cougar and jaguar, as well as other felines such as ocelots. We also know there are big prey birds such as crested eagle in the area.

So, it’s possible that in some cases young individuals decided to stay in their natal groups longer as a measure to reduce predation, although this could mean a reduced reproductive success for them and more competition for food (18 groups of different forest fragments with more than 9 individuals present in the study area).

References

Fragaszy D.M., Visalberghi E. and L.M. Fedigan 2004. The Complete Capuchin: the biology of the Genus Cebus. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK.

Izawa K., 1990.  Social changes within a group of wild black-capped capuchins (Cebus apella) in Colombia (II). Field Studies of New World Monkeys, La Macarena, Colombia 3: 1- 5.

Janson 1988. Food competition in brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella): quantitative effects of group size and tree productivity. Behaviour 105: 53-76.

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Why do you study monkeys? Why is important to study them? These are some question that local people and family make me very often. Sometimes these questions have led to a very interesting discussion with local people. I usually start answering these questions with my personal reasons and then explaining why monkeys are important for the forest and therefore for them.

So, why I study monkeys? Because they save my life, they give me a reason to continue living and I fell in love with them. Also, they are charismatic animals so much like us and their babies are cute.

When I decided to study biology, it wasn’t because of the monkeys, it was because I want to dedicate my life to dolphins and whales… and for many years that was my main purpose. But when I enter to the university they start talking about a place, a forest to which you can go and spend a semester studying animals in the jungle…very exciting right!

Well, that was what I though and I decided I want to try, I want to go to that place and spend a semester studying a mammal (a fury animal that drinks milk like us). There were options to study monkeys (I can choose any of the seven species present in that area) or a big bird called curassow. So, I decided for monkeys, specifically for red howler monkeys, I studied the behavior of their babies during their first months of their life. And I fell in love with them.

But, why are monkeys important? Well, they are part of the forest and therefore they have a function in the forest that make that forest work properly. All the species in my study area consume fruits, some species consumed more than others, some of them consume big fruits with big seeds and others consumed small fruits with small seeds.

Every time they eat a fruit and their seeds pass through the monkeys’ digestive system, some of those seeds can pass for a chemical process that accelerate their germination. Therefore monkeys, as well as birds and bats are the farmers of the forest, they disperse the seeds of the fruits they consume.

Also, some monkeys have been called forest engineers, because during their movements in the forest searching for insects (crickets, months, cockroach, beetles), spiders and small lizards, birds and frogs they transform their environment and open new sites for other animals to arrive, and drops sticks and leaves to the ground where they will decomposed and became new nutrients for the trees in that forest.

And why is this important, because if we don’t have new plants in those forest, there will be a time that that forest disappear and without forest, we people, don’t have water.

In an area like the Colombian Llanos where dry season can last up to four months, sometimes without a single drop of water. The forest that remains around the streams are the only option for wild and domestic animals to find shadow and water during those dry months.

So, monkeys are an important part of this system and we need to protect them to protect the forest and water that help us to maintain life in this and other areas in the world.

Although I usually don’t mention this to the people in the area, they are also important because more than 75 % of the monkeys’ species around the world are disappearing for different causes such as deforestation, fragmentation, hunting, bushmeat, and illegal pet market. Another reason to study and protect them around the world!

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In July of 2005, a student observed the change in dominance of two males in a group of red howler monkeys.

Red howler monkeys usually live in groups with one or two adult males and several females and their juveniles and infants. In general, the dominant male or alpha, is the one who reproduces, therefore the tension between males can produce fights and changes in male’s dominance over time.

Male’s dominance can be produced because an external male, usually a solitary male, or another male in the group challenge the alpha male. Some of these fights finish in body contact where the male who lose can be seriously injured. This was the case of the male in this story, we called him D.

Very little is known about those males that lose a dominance fight and are expulsed from their groups, injured. D lived in a small fragment where census survey was taken frequently, and he was usually seen during these surveys.

D was observed for four months after he was expulsed from his group, mainly in some areas of that group territory, but never in close proximity to the group. During the first days his left leg was injured, and he moves slowly and with difficulty. He has a cut in his face and leg. But he was still able to feed himself and move, which was good for his survival. After six months we couldn’t find him again and although his injuries were better, we couldn’t be sure if he survived, disperse to another fragment or died.

Other solitary males had been seen in the same fragment and other fragments we survey in the study area over the years (29 observations of solitary males in 15 years), mainly in good health and without scars, except by two adult males: one observed by a local worker, who found him crossing a pasture with a deep wound full of worms. And another adult male observed in a medium size fragment (114 ha) with slow movements and who looks sick or old at that moment.

Reference

 

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The study area is in a rural area dominated by man. Although I had known incredibly strong women in this area the reality for most of them is that they are still subjugated to men, meaning they are only value by how good they are to have children, maintain a clean house and a happy husband. Not very different from other rural areas in Colombia and in the world.

Supervising undergrad student has been one of the more challenging experiences, not only because teaching what I know in the field is not always easy, but also because the area in which I work is one with challenging situations, especially for young women that leave their house for the first time.

When a woman from the city arrives to this area, they are usually seen as an intruder for the local women, they came to steal their man. For men, they are some kind of trophy, a new prey to hunt. To them, there is no reason for a woman to study monkeys, and even less, a reason to spend long hours in the forest following monkeys. That is just illogic to them.

This make all those women who came to study monkeys in this area very special ones, strong women who faced a lot of their own fears to finish their careers. Even if they don’t know, all of them had teach me a lot about strength, love and passion and I’m very proud of had learned from them, and I hope I had taught them a little bit about monkeys in return.

I want to thank them for their friendship over the years and the lessons that they teach me. This project has not been sustainable if it wasn’t for them and all the observations they did.

Most of my undergrad students has been woman, but I don’t want to disregard the contributions that male students have done to this project and the challenges that they faced by coming to this area. In an area dominated by man, male competition is high and that also affected male students coming from the city who had different ways of see and experience life.

Another challenge of being a woman in this area is that you sometimes had to face some dangerous situations just because you are woman and you spent long hours alone in the forest.

In few occasions I had to face encounters with illegal hunters. Although nothing happened is a situation that sometimes can go wrong.

In Colombia hunting is allowed legally only for subsistence and only to indigenous and afro-descendants communities in traditional land. Therefore, as I work in private land and there isn’t any indigenous communities in the area, all hunting is considered as illegal in this area.

Additionally, meeting a man with a gun (or without it) in the forest more than an hour from the farm house can be scary and it requires a lot of internal strength to just continue working in the field. Some of these encounters had led to sexual harassment from these guys towards me.

So, How I handle this? I had a bad temper and is easy to know that I’m angry, so that helps a bit, because I didn’t show any fear towards them. And help me make some limits clear to the man in the area. But I also had carried for years a machete (long knife) in my waist, a very visible weapon that shows them I’m not afraid to defend myself. Finally, I just try to avoid any kind of encounters.

I always alert when I’m in the forest, not only because I’m searching for monkeys but because If I hear human voices, I just avoid them, specially if I felt uneasy. I follow my instincts.

I shouldn’t need to do all this, and it should be safe to be in the field alone or with people, but unfortunately not always is like that. So, we still need to change the way our culture see woman and teach man that we are not things that can be taken whenever they want.

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As I mention at the beginning of these series of post, I’m going to share some of the observations and research questions that we are still trying to answer. Here is the first one.

In August 2005, I first saw Chela, an adult female of Colombian squirrel monkey. Her gracile look and marked lines below her eyes, told me that she has more than six years (For a detailed description of how to determine age in wild squirrel monkeys see Mitchell 1990 dissertation).

A juvenile of one year and a baby from that year were moving all the time close to her, and spending all their resting time with her, eating close by and even taking some food from her hands. All these make me think that they were her babies from last and that year.

Squirrel monkeys gave birth to one baby every year. Every year between the end of December to the end of February, Colombian squirrel monkeys have babies. In the last 15 years since I had been observing her group, Chela had at least 13 babies.

Recognizing juveniles features in squirrel monkeys are difficult, even more to differentiate individuals, and they change rapidly from one year to the next. So, only few times I was able to follow Chelas’ babies to the juveniles age. Only in 8 cases I was certain that her babies made it to their first year.

But, how long a female like Chela can give birth? That is a question that is not always easy to answer for wild animals. It usually requires that you follow individual for long periods of time, almost their whole life and in the wild this can be a challenge.

For the last 15 years, Chela had given birth to one baby every year, until the end of January 2017, that year I discover that for the first time since I started to observe Chela, she didn’t have any babies on her back.

What happens with Chelas’ baby in 2017?

This observation leads me to think of three possibilities:

1) that it’s possible that females of squirrel monkeys after certain age will not produce any more babies, a menopausal phase as the one observed in killer whales, humans and other primates.

2) That Chelas’ baby in 2017 born death, or

3) Chelas’ baby was killed during the first weeks.

Although I’m not sure what of these options is the right answer. There is an open window to explore the first option in a wild group of Squirrel monkey that has been observed for the last 15 years with a frequency enough to discern possible patterns, especially from a female of which we can guess that already reach at least 21 years old and still looks very agile and healthy.

In 2018, it was not possible for me to visit the area during the birth season, therefore no data on Chela’s reproduction is available from that year. However, in the birth season of 2019, Chela was found again without a baby and in close proximity of a young female that not only had a baby from this year but also had a baby from last year. At some moments this young female was observed carrying both babies. Probably Chela’s daughter with her first two babies.

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In this post I want to share some of the challenges that I had faced over the past years to maintain this project. Some of the challenges to conduct a long-term project from my point of view are: 1) Build trust with the landowners; 2) Continuous presence in the area, and 2) funding. Here I will share with you what I had done to face these three challenges.

1) Build trust with landowners

As I mentioned in my last post this project was supposed to be a six-month project in only one farm. Get access to only one farm and build a relationship with only one farmer can be easier than do it with many farmers.

So, ¿What help me to build trust with many landowners? My short answer is being there, constantly. Take the time to know them and listen them. Answer their questions and give them your honest opinion when they ask about the monkeys and if any of the activities, they were doing in their farms were or could affect the monkeys.

This is not always received well, but because I had been honest with them and had given them the option to discuss other alternatives, we were able to build trust and friendship between us.

Being a woman, in this case had giving me some advantage in this matter. Although this is an area dominated by man, being a woman give me the advantage of project an image of someone who can be trust, just for being woman. As well as someone who doesn’t look an economically advantaged. May be because of the cultural image that woman has in the area…

Despite my shy personality I had created good friends, not only with some of the landowners, but also with some of the workers in those farms. I’m grateful for the opportunity they had giving me to study monkeys in their properties and their support to this project and the conservation of the monkeys in this area.

These friendships not only had help me to continue with this project, but also had generated some behavioral change in some of the landowners and the workers with whom I had been in contact over the years. In another post I will talk a bit more about this.

2) Continuous presence in the area

Be present in an area can be a challenge as an individual, this can compete with other personal goals such studying, having a proper job or having a family. When I chose to study biology, I knew I won’t be rich, and money had never been a big problem for me. Never had much dreams of big job, houses or cars, so this wasn’t an issue for me.

I never pay much attention to have a family, monkeys become my family some years before. Although I always being open to have a family, especially if that means to continue doing what I love the most, being in the forest studying monkeys. I’m not concern or in a hurry to have one. So, this personal goal doesn’t compete with my passion to be in the forest and with the monkeys.

Studying and making a doctorate was one of my big goals since I was 20, so this was my personal goal that competed with my passion to continue with this project.

So, ¿How can I continue studying and still maintain a long-term project?

At the same time, I started this project, I also started my master and start supervising undergrad students. I did my master fieldwork at this area and that gave the opportunity to build not only more trust, but also to be continuously in the area for over a year. And supervising undergrad students prolong my presence in the area when I was studying in the city.

Additionally, I also made my doctorate fieldwork in the area, I was lucky enough to had a supervisor who support my crazy idea to do my fieldwork in Colombia while studying in Australia and this also give me a couple of extra years of presence in this area.

3) Funding

Probably one of the most difficult part of conducting an independent research, an even more a long-term research, is to fund it. Although I had some small grants over the years, most of my field trips has been cover with my own money and some help from the landowners, who didn’t charge me for accommodation or even food.

I guess I could be more active looking for money, but I still need to practice patience and communication skills. As well as managing rejection that not always is easy to accept. At least that is how it is for me.

I know this is not a conventional way to fund research and for some of the people who knows me, it doesn’t make sense my way of funding my research. But sometimes I found this is a more effective way than just wait until funds flow in to go to the field, even if that means to use my own money.

By this I not saying if you want to make a long-term project you will need to work to fund yourself. It’s just the way I have done it until know. Just don’t be afraid as I did, apply to a lot of funding grants and involve the local people in the process.

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In March 2004, I start a small project in which I would describe and count the monkey’s species present in a cattle ranch farm. I friend and colleague had introduced me to the landowner who was curious to know what monkeys where present in his farm. The idea was to estimate primate’s densities for a period of six months.

What I didn’t know at that moment was that this small project will become my long-term research project. A project that has lasted 15 years and have given me a lot of life lessons, hundreds of research questions, some good friends and a continuous strength to live the life that I dreamed despite many challenges and economic constraints.

After the first six month finished, farmers in the neighborhood started to ask if I can tell them which monkeys’ they have in their farms, and I started to visit other farms in the area and its forest.

In 2008, I had the fortune to make a small talk in town with farmers in the area to show them what my research has found and thanks to that the owner of a private reserve in the area allows me to start monitoring the monkeys’ population of what seems to be the largest forest fragment in the area (around 1100 ha).

Therefore, what it looks to be a six-month project to study monkeys’ densities evolved to a long-term project in which densities (how many animals are in a forest area) and group composition (how many of them are females, males (adults and babies)) is continuously monitored in at least seven forest fragments for the last 15 years.

In another post I will explore some of the challenges to maintain this long-term project, such as funding and the trust that need to be built with the landowners and local workers to be able to continue working as a woman in an area dominated by man.

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This section will contain short stories, mainly my own observations with some known information of the monkeys in the story. A new story will be published once every week.

Also, I will share some of the challenges that I had faced as a woman researcher in a male dominated area.

Other stories are about some of the questions I’m still trying to answer. Some other stories are lessons I learned from being an independent researcher for many years and the challenges to keep my project going while I travel and study abroad.

Most are my personal points of view of what have work for me and can work for others, although there are many ways in which you can do research without making the same decisions and mistakes that I had done.

Some stories will try to answer biological questions, but others are about my personal life and the way I see life and how I value mine. So please don’t take anything too personal as it is just one way of see and experience life and research.

Some will ask why I decide to tell these stories now. I don’t have an answer, I guess this idea has been in my mind for a while and I feel that may be sharing some of my observations and experiences in the field I can empower other women to do research and follow their passion even when situations don’t seem the right or easy ones.

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