The last of the three troops I work with is the Kakenauwe troop of monkeys. I thought it was about time introduced them to you. This troop lives in the Kakenauwe Forest reserve which is just next to the village of La Bundo Bundo. They also come out into the coffee, coconut and cashew plantations and occasionally into the surrounding farmland.
The reserve has been heavily selectively logged and as a result has fewer large trees and a lot more undergrowth. This makes it a challenging place to follow the monkeys. One thing it has a lot of though, and one reason the monkeys thrive here, is a large number of fig trees.
Like the other troops we start early in the morning and try to find the monkeys at their sleeping tree. My guides for this troop are Tamrin and Adi .
If we’re lucky the monkeys are at the sleeping tree, if not then we have to search for them.
Once we find them we watch them and record their behaviour every 20 mins and record what they’re eating etc. The fig trees are up to 40m tall and watching the monkeys at the top can give you a bit of a sore neck so bless my guides, they made a little bench near one of the fruiting figs the monkeys were spending their time in!
This gives a little idea of what it’s like following the monkeys through the forest
You can see how hard it can be to spot the monkeys
But sometimes you get amazing views. This troop has over 35 members, including 8 infants. When they move through the forest though they are often very spread out so you tend to see only a few at a time.
They spend their days foraging for food and then resting in the shade, grooming and playing.
As well as foraging in the forest they also come out into the cashew and coconut plantations which involves crossing the road. There’s only one road on the island so this is the main thoroughfare for the island and has quite a bit of traffic but it doesn’t seem to bother the monkeys much!
The Kakenauwe forest has a few other surprises too. The forest is growing on limestone karst which is essentially fossilised coral. It means there’s not much topsoil, frequent tree falls and that the rocks are flipping sharp if you happen to fall on them (as my shredded knee and shin are testament to!). It also means there are lots of caves! Usually full of bats 🙂
Including this handsome little fellow – Rhinolophus philippinensis
The forest is also home to Damar trees. These trees are highly valued by the locals as when the bark is cut it produces a resin which when hard can be used as a natural, fragrant firelighter. For many people who still use wood fires for cooking this is a god send as it saves spending money on kerosine or other lighter fuel.
Tamrin has a few trees he harvests resin from every year. All he has to do is cut the bark this year and return next year to collect the resin. This year he decided to cut a slightly more unusual pattern in the bark though … 😉
Dr Nancy Priston 
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