Now it's official, I have spent more time wandering around the jungle
looking for bonobos than running after them. The dry season, presumibly,
made them stay away from our study area most of the time between June
and now and we have hardly see them during these months...maybe the
Haumania looks greener on the otherside of the river, who knows.
Following bonobos is, as any advertisement for a position would say,
very physically and psychologically demanding, and drives you to levels
of stress that I had not known before. However it is not comparable with
the lack of them, the constant axiety of searching and being unable to
make plans because of the uncertainty of when they will show up...which
is normally in the most inappropiate moment and just long enough to
drive us crazy but not to collect much data before disapearing again
beyond the boundaries of the study area. Join this with constant minor
problems of supplies, energy and communication in a Babel tower camp
with random people forced to spend more time together than expected and
you will have interesting results. Stressful but enriching, somehow.I
feel like going through an intensive course on human nature and
behaviour, plus the walks alone in the forest brought about many inner
conversations long delayed that are poping up topics that needed to be
fixed for long but never had the chance of stopping and go through
them...well, blame the lariam and the nicotine withdraw, but I wouldn't
be the first of having revelations under a tree...
Anyway, the rainy season is pushing to take its place. The days are
hotter and drier, the storms more frequent, the Annonidium falls ripe
and the bees are again buzzing around the dinning table from sun to sun
so, hopefully, the bonobos will appear soon...
Showing posts with label Bonobos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bonobos. Show all posts
Friday, September 20, 2013
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Bonobos bazali wapi?
/(Bonobos bazali wapi='where are the bonobos' in Lingala)
/
What happens if you go to DRC to study bonobos and your apes decide to
take a month and a half of dry season holidays in the other side of the
river, where you are not allowed to follow them? Well, there are answers
to satisfy everyone, possibly, but given that I´m writing this while
operating the pactor to send and receive emails and seems to be a good
connection day, I´ll be brief.
Well, the first thing is that amateur writers like me suffer blockages
and in between there is no more nicotine, because the western tobacco is
over and the tobacco local doesn´t work that well. But, one tries to
spend the time learning (or at least studying with certain effort)
French and Lingala, , baking on open fire or some guitar, now that the
third musketeer is back in Europe and left his instrument behind. Also
learn about local plants, mammals and even giving a try to birding.
There has been even some time to "travel", and visit another camp
situated in a savannah. It was awesome to see the horizon after months
of close forest as it has been to have some break of the physically (and
mentally) demanding feat of following the bonobos but, on average, we
are just looking forward to crawl under /Haumania/ oceans trying to
collect data on our skittish apes.
/
What happens if you go to DRC to study bonobos and your apes decide to
take a month and a half of dry season holidays in the other side of the
river, where you are not allowed to follow them? Well, there are answers
to satisfy everyone, possibly, but given that I´m writing this while
operating the pactor to send and receive emails and seems to be a good
connection day, I´ll be brief.
Well, the first thing is that amateur writers like me suffer blockages
and in between there is no more nicotine, because the western tobacco is
over and the tobacco local doesn´t work that well. But, one tries to
spend the time learning (or at least studying with certain effort)
French and Lingala, , baking on open fire or some guitar, now that the
third musketeer is back in Europe and left his instrument behind. Also
learn about local plants, mammals and even giving a try to birding.
There has been even some time to "travel", and visit another camp
situated in a savannah. It was awesome to see the horizon after months
of close forest as it has been to have some break of the physically (and
mentally) demanding feat of following the bonobos but, on average, we
are just looking forward to crawl under /Haumania/ oceans trying to
collect data on our skittish apes.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
A morning in the life of Zed
(Yeah, yeah, I know, I should write more often, but I getting very lazy,
my English is getting worse and so do my writing skills…nothing last
long in the jungle, my friend, very high turnover rates. Well, here we go…)
Darkness starts early in the jungle, way before the sunset. Around
16h30-17h there is a sudden switch in noises; the bonobos search for a
place to build their nests while the galagos jump out of their holes and
begin to stretchpreparing themselves to forage under the stars. Below
the canopy the absence of light is almost complete around 17h30, time
when, if we are lucky and the bonobos have decided to go to sleep, we
are heading back to camp.
Such was the situation some days ago, when my boss and I had nested a
small party far south of the home range and 9km separated us from our
bucket shower and our 60% manioc dinner. 2h walking, a couple icy water
cups poured on our bodies and some beans, kwanga and mpondu later, we
were ready to sleep 5h before coming back to the nest site. Oats, powder
milk, bananas, instant coffee and ready to go.
The night before we managed to follow two adult females until they built
they nests, so around 5h, we were ready below them to collect the early
morning urine. In my case, mine made me wait for an hour, before she
finally peed and I could try to catch a fair amount in a Haumania
leaf…which I had to discard because she also shited on it…evil primates…
Then all the individuals started to go out of their nests, and looked
around, apparently without much idea of what to do. While Ben, one of
the adult males, started dragging branches all over the place, I spotted
Zed, a subadult male whom I was gonna focal the whole morning. After
some time resting on the ground, the party started moving towards the
first feeding tree of the day, but Zed had other plans and went to find
his own bopfumo (a tree of the Tiliaceae family with tasty sour red
fruit, a member of the genus Grewia). Nina, an adult female decided to
follow him and had a couple of copulations before started feeding. The
rest of the party didn't take long to join them. While some females gged
(genitor-genital rubbings, version bonoba de la tijera, vamos), Zed
looked for a good spot in which Ben, his brother, let him alone. Uma,
another adult female, after displace him a couple of times, decided to
groom him briefly. So much activity! I thought. For most of the male
bonobos, an average day is pretty solitary, often in the periphery and
with no much social interactions, but of course, depends on the male,
the party among other variables.
After a good breakfast, the bonobos decided to go to a nice clearance
made by a fallen tree and groom for a couple of hours. While Zed and his
mother gromed in the company of the other adults, I enjoyed watching at
intervals how is younger brother and a juvenile female played up and
down the trunk. At some point, the group vocalized and soon after, Rio,
another female of the community joined the party as started promptly to
be groom by Ben.
When the grooming bout was over, it was time to rest and pee, so we were
ready and alert to collect our precious samples. The shift was almost
over when the bonobos moved to another feeding tree and the hand over
came while Zed played with his younger brother close to their mother.
Time for the humans to go grooming, feeding and socialize.
my English is getting worse and so do my writing skills…nothing last
long in the jungle, my friend, very high turnover rates. Well, here we go…)
Darkness starts early in the jungle, way before the sunset. Around
16h30-17h there is a sudden switch in noises; the bonobos search for a
place to build their nests while the galagos jump out of their holes and
begin to stretchpreparing themselves to forage under the stars. Below
the canopy the absence of light is almost complete around 17h30, time
when, if we are lucky and the bonobos have decided to go to sleep, we
are heading back to camp.
Such was the situation some days ago, when my boss and I had nested a
small party far south of the home range and 9km separated us from our
bucket shower and our 60% manioc dinner. 2h walking, a couple icy water
cups poured on our bodies and some beans, kwanga and mpondu later, we
were ready to sleep 5h before coming back to the nest site. Oats, powder
milk, bananas, instant coffee and ready to go.
The night before we managed to follow two adult females until they built
they nests, so around 5h, we were ready below them to collect the early
morning urine. In my case, mine made me wait for an hour, before she
finally peed and I could try to catch a fair amount in a Haumania
leaf…which I had to discard because she also shited on it…evil primates…
Then all the individuals started to go out of their nests, and looked
around, apparently without much idea of what to do. While Ben, one of
the adult males, started dragging branches all over the place, I spotted
Zed, a subadult male whom I was gonna focal the whole morning. After
some time resting on the ground, the party started moving towards the
first feeding tree of the day, but Zed had other plans and went to find
his own bopfumo (a tree of the Tiliaceae family with tasty sour red
fruit, a member of the genus Grewia). Nina, an adult female decided to
follow him and had a couple of copulations before started feeding. The
rest of the party didn't take long to join them. While some females gged
(genitor-genital rubbings, version bonoba de la tijera, vamos), Zed
looked for a good spot in which Ben, his brother, let him alone. Uma,
another adult female, after displace him a couple of times, decided to
groom him briefly. So much activity! I thought. For most of the male
bonobos, an average day is pretty solitary, often in the periphery and
with no much social interactions, but of course, depends on the male,
the party among other variables.
After a good breakfast, the bonobos decided to go to a nice clearance
made by a fallen tree and groom for a couple of hours. While Zed and his
mother gromed in the company of the other adults, I enjoyed watching at
intervals how is younger brother and a juvenile female played up and
down the trunk. At some point, the group vocalized and soon after, Rio,
another female of the community joined the party as started promptly to
be groom by Ben.
When the grooming bout was over, it was time to rest and pee, so we were
ready and alert to collect our precious samples. The shift was almost
over when the bonobos moved to another feeding tree and the hand over
came while Zed played with his younger brother close to their mother.
Time for the humans to go grooming, feeding and socialize.
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