This time I changed the strategy and, instead of trying to cover as much area as possible, I tried to do a thorough search, in a slow pace, stopping a lot for listening and keep only around 50m between each other (which was also useful to don't loose the Londoner...most of the time!).
No trace of the monkeys was found in Newfoundland, nor Dutch, as expected, nor even in Texas. In UK we found some not very old turned stones and faeces, but that was all, so we resume to go to the steep places and crossed all over Parallel and then Czech. Czech, quite steep and full of snow, gave us the opportunity to develop a funny climbing technique...Once on the reach, and after a short break; we, discouraged, decided to check the Amphitheatre and then check all the high parts doing a parallel walk to the road instead of going up and down all the time.
We went down till the Quarry, in which we heard some weird and unexplained sounds, and then to the Amphiteatre. The day before we had done a quite light search on it, so this time I decided to really look in every single depression of the terrain. In doing so, I started to find so traces that made clear that some macaques had been there recently: not too old turned stones, relatively fresh faeces and remains of bulbous plants half eaten in the middle of small patches of disturbed soil. This encouraged us a little to keep on the search.
When we were nearly leaving the place, I climbed a high hill and looked at the open area where a couple of months ago my old fellows and I made a short stop one day that we walked around the area so the girls could goodbye the forest. Right then, I saw something moving with the corner of my left eye. It could be the wind, as many other times...but not this one. Two little balls of fur were hidding behind the cedar needles. With a very silly smile, I began to walk to the place coughing and radioed the Londoner, telling her that I had some monkeys but that I thought that it wasn't our group; from far away they looked weird. However, when I could reach a fair distance, I could see. Noddy and Anna stopped feeding and stared at me. Anna was hillarious, holding a handful of grass just near the mouth and staring at me with her rounded eyes like saying "Do I know you...? Do I?...yeah, I do..:" and both resumed their feeding.
Short after the Londoner arrived and we were observing them from a prudent distance
to don't disturb them too much on their first day with humans after nearly two months. The Londoner was quite happy and surprised about all that the macaques did.I was glad to see them again...and also to prove (once again) that I'm not useless, actually, probably I'm even good! However, I think that the Londoner was starting to question my skills
Soon, we could also see Danni, Oz, Simon, Rebecca, Lewis and Helen, surrounded by the infants and the juveniles. Joan took more time to appear. It was time to start the identification training. It is funny to see the thing from the other side; when you already know the monkeys, it is (most of the time) very obvious who is who, but at the beginning you cannot tell the difference...sometimes not even between males or females or juveniles! But the monkeys are patient and Joan didn't feel insulted when the Londoner mistook her with Noddy and Mac was proud when he was confused with Simon (no so much when he was with Helen though).
Then the big George appeared. Such a great macaque! Only getting involved when necessary (well, when he wants to), with his own rules and searched by the females. When I get older I want to be a little bit like him (probably with less fur, though).
He started to feed on grass, as anybody else, and staring at us at intervals. Then, there it was, my first faecal sample of the Green Group! I was f&%cking happy, though I guess the Londoner should see the scene a little bit creepy...The Boss was right, when you start to collect shit, you become completely obsessed and most of your conversations goes around faeces (" Oh...I saw Safran (Luna) shitting twice today and we don't need her"..."Arrrrggg...Cinnamon(Osiris) is again with the shit stuck on her ass!!"...yeah I've got such deep conversations with my new fellows).
The time passed and I still missed Kerry and Artemis, but, after a couple of rounds, they appeared. The group was complete (at least as much as it was when we left it in January).
Nothing spectacular happened, apart from seeing a sandwich between Artemis and George, Helen and Anna feeding nearly in contact and an alarm call of Rebecca apparently without any reason.
Before we left the group, we were checking a little bit the IDs and then Danni
charged Rebecca "She is shitting!!" I said excited; and I got my second sample (well, I could have three today, but Lewis defecated on a place already full of fresh faeces and I wasn't sure of which one was his...yeah, obsessed, completely! Arg!! These are the psychological damages stated on the agreement that the Boss made us to sign to exempt her from responsibilities...such a clever girl!!).
I'm really glad of having been able to find them after just one day and a quarter of search. It would have been too easy if we had found them yesterday, but today was fair enough and in such a beautiful place... I was afraid of not working in the Amphitheatre before leaving; my old colleagues spoke a lot about it. So, it was a great day! Thanks Green Group, I love to be allowed to share your peaceful kingdom.
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