Dr Nancy Priston

I’ve been here in the village a few days now. It’s still raining hard and we had a big storm the other night, but there are some breaks in the deluge when the sun makes an appearance which is nice! Conditions in the forest are extremely muddy and slippery and the high winds of the storm have resulted on a lot of tree fall. These forests have a high turn over of trees anyway as root systems tend to be shallow. The bedrock is limestone karst which is essentially fossilised coral. It’s extremely sharp and jagged and hold only a shallow layer of soil. This means tree falls are common and it can be quite hairy being in the forest during storms and high winds!

I’ve spent two days now out with the monkeys. There are 3 habituated troops here and I’ve been out with the one that lives in the Kakenauwe reserve just near the village. They live in secondary forest and plantations (cashew and coffee), they also venture out of the forest and raid the local maize and sweet potato farms. This troop contains 40+ individuals but thy often split into subgroups and at the moment there are approximately 23 individuals that we’re following. We record behavioural data and plot where they’re roaming using a handheld gps. We also record what they’re eating. The idea is to understand how, why and when they raid crops – whether they do it because there aren’t enough food sources in the forest, or because crops are a nice easy food source (the McDonalds of the monkey world!). This will help me to develop management strategies for this species.