The Cast Away and the troop of Wilsons

 

Last month I spent 144h following the samango monkeys, without counting the corresponding hours of sleeping sites data collection. The Minnesotan is close with 92h and the Cardiffian with 66h,...even if is this last one the one that sounds as if she knew everything about the monkeys…An empty vessel makes the loudest sound... 

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t complain about working hard, I came this far to do so.  In Morocco we worked much more hours, but we were all in the same “business”, with pretty much the same schedule even if some people worked in a different project. Here, many days I wake up when everybody still has a couple more hours of sleep ahead and I come back when everybody is making the dinner. Some days I only have a half day follow, and I leave while most are sunbathing…I know everybody works hard here, but sometimes just feels like I’m the only suc&%r!(pringá que te cagas, c&ñ&!). So, while everybody goes to have nice hikings through the mountains or to parties, I stand quietly in the forest surrounded by the little samangos who, as a consolation prize, uncover their world for me.

One of the funniest things of these little monkeys is, actually, the matings. The poor male of my troop, whom I call Greg (cause is the House troop, and I liked the series), tries to approach a female (or the female approaches him, rubbing her tail on his nose, just in case he doesn’t get it), and then they try to make it work…but then the juveniles run towards them screaming and jumping and Greg charges them while the female looks angry blaming the kids.

My little samangos, even if quite cute, doesn’t seem to be very smart…or maybe they have decided that they are too many in the troop, indeed. The other day, they spent one hour and a half screaming, with Greg with the typical ka-train calls, because a crowned eagle was around. Not only they didn’t move away, but they slept 10m from the place. Yesterday, the eagle was close to the cliff flying while the monkeys were feeding on the Owner’s garden. The females and the juveniles went into the bushes and started with their acute screams while scanning the sky…Greg, however, was in the middle of the meadow, chewing grass passively.

Sometimes, I have to spend half a morning looking for them and this gives me the opportunity to discover new places and even monkeys. Last week (if my 80-years-old-lady-memory doesn’t betray me), I was walking the Bushbuck trail, looking for the House troop when I heard some of their typical grunts. I walked through (i.e. fight against) the vegetation and suddenly I found myself in a kind of little heaven full of little waterfalls surrounded by waterberry trees and ferns…unfortunately that wasn’t my troop, it was a bachelors one; mine was further up, in the middle of the thorny thicket ( of course!).

Relatively often, we are not alone.  Some days ago, when was almost the sleeping time for them, I was following them while they were approaching the cliffs behind the Barn when the baboons appeared with their characteristic noises (and smell). I really enjoy watching them; so much that, sometimes, I’m close to loose my samangos…when is not a baboon juvenile that hides between my monkeys trying to appear in my scans…but I’m not that blind…yet.  That day, precisely, one of the baboon males was eating something fluffy and I waited, trying to figure out what was it. When he finished, he left the leftovers, but a bunch of juveniles wanted to take a piece; but they ran away when I came closer. I just saw a fluffy fur without any meat left and some cracked bones. Close, there was a hole on the rocks covered by blood, so I assume that it was a dassie, but…Then, I realized that my samangos wasn’t around, so I jumped from rock to rock (my knees and ankles are really hating me for this) until I saw some…but also to one of the French students. “This is House troop” I said “No, Barn troop” he replied “Fuck!” I thought…both troops were pretty much at the same sleeping site, so  ,                                                                                     were the baboons!

Actually, finding baboons while following the samangos is pretty much a habit, but a couple of days ago I was pretty excited. I was with one of the scans when I thought “wait a second, that juvenile is too white” sure it was, it was a vervet monkey! So there I was, with the vervets at my left and the samangos at the right and, if it wasn’t enough, a warthog came over, foraging beneath the vervets.

Last days I have been coming back especially late because we have to record when the monkeys stop to make noises after getting on the trees. This is how the other day, close to the Barn, I saw four couples of bright eyes in the dark looking at me from a tree. The eyes dispersed and a pair came closer; Greater bush babies! One would thought that they would be scared of the light of the torches, but they seem to be quite curios about them and this bush baby was staring at me for a while, before another one joined him.

And these are some of the things I get in exchange for my isolation. I guess I’ll miss it when I start to work in the predator side of the project soon, but I think I won’t miss track of the little samangos, even if I will be following them less often.

And well…in a couple of days I will be hitting Kruger...I really hope to see lions!