The monkeys

So I got to meet my monkeys a couple of days ago, they are adorable. Most of that day was spent trying to learn to ID them all, which it turns out I am not horrible at. I don't have all of them, but there are like five that I can recognise pretty consistently. The one thing I am definitely qualified to do is collect their poo, which has to be labeled and rated for consistency and content. I've been told to stop it, but I'm still able to add to my collection when no-one's looking.

Then yesterday Brendan the PhD student was off so he sent me and another assistant to go explore the territory so we would get to know their favorite spots to be monkeys. Turns out it's trees. I think I have the makings of a fine primatologist.

Basically for the next couple of weeks we will be training. We have to learn IDs and how to transcribe their behaviour using a rather long list of codes and syntax rules. It's probably not all that interesting for you guys so I'll leave it at this and give you some monkey photos. I will also be trying to get photos of other stuff so don't worry, it's not just going to be capuchins from here on out. But for now here are some of my favorite.

 First off, this is pretty representative of where they live.

It's expensive, but they have great schools

 This is Quijote, the alpha male.

He's quite boisterous and can be aggressive, but it's mainly to impress the females. He can be quite a good dad.

One day, son, all of this will be yours. Now stop humping me. Did you just poo?

This is Minstrel, the alpha female.

And here's Heinrich, a former alpha who now is basically like an angry uncle who goes about either pretending to be alpha again or else sulking when he gets called out.

I love Heinrich

Anyway you probably don't care about all their names, so I'll leave it at that for the introductions, but here are a few general comments about them. What I really love about these monkeys is that you can really see their individual personalities and the really intricate group dynamics that arise as a result of them. It's never really fair to say that "capuchins do" x or y; each individual and each group has different sets of behaviours and characteristics.

Some are beautiful

Some are derpy

derp

Sometimes they're cuddly

Sometimes they're angry

Sometimes they're shy

And it's always fun to try and figure out what they're thinking

I am the king. I am the king and this is my feast.

What... what is this? It feels like a tree, but... somehow small?

I dunno, man, I mean... How could we even tell if we're in the matrix or not?

In conclusion, monkeys.

derp