Monkey Drama

It's only my fourth day on the job and I'm already intrigued by all of the "monkey drama." One of the research assistants told me that observing monkeys is like watching a soap opera, and now I know why. Today I got to watch two pretty big monkey fights. There are several different troops of monkeys in the park, and it's common that they will quarrel over territory. I have learned that the prime real estate is near the main road, where tourists enter the park, often with bananas in hand to feed the monkeys. We call this direct provisioning, when humans feed the monkeys. This is entertaining to both the tourists and myself, since I'm able to watch the tourists giggle and squeal when the monkeys jump on them, and sometimes their reactions are pretty hilarious. So this is the territory that everyone wants, and which they frequently fight over. This is how the fights go: the members of the two troops stay on their own side, either on the ground or in trees, and one by one single monkeys run up to the middle in attempt to intimidate the other troop, then a monkey from the other side will lunge out at the monkey, who will then retreat back to his own side. This goes on for a while, with all the other monkeys chirping (yes, it sounds like a chirp) or growling, egging on the fight. It is mainly the adult females and the juvenile males that are involved in the fight, while the resident male (the single dominant male of each troop) sits back and relaxes, often while being groomed by one of his female monkey friends. It's tough to keep track of who is the parent of which infant and to remember which male is in charge of the troop.

There is plenty of other drama amongst the monkeys, which I'll get into later. There is so much going on in the lives of the monkeys that I feel like I could write forever, but I'm not sure if my stories will be as interesting as I think they are. For instance, today I learned that soil can be cleaned. Yes, soil...the stuff found on the ground. I found Bella, one of the adult female monkeys, grabbing a hard ball of soil and wiping it off using her hands. I was told that she was trying to clean it off before eating it, and then a few minutes later she was chomping away at the soil. Now that I type this out it's not very interesting at all, but when you're following monkeys around in the woods all day, everything is exciting. Also, when I say the woods, I really mean a pretty dense Kenyan forest. I spent a majority of the past few days bushwhacking through the forest, following monkeys wherever they may take me. There are lots of thorns, which Kalama (the research assistant/my supervisor) calls "hooks," which I think sounds much friendlier than thorns, but these things are sharp! I already have some bushwhacking battle wounds on my legs, but I think it's just these monkeys trying to haze me since I'm new. Anyways, here are some pictures of my new friends.