Mandelbrot Monkey: Setting up camp

Monday 29 June
*Posts will be delayed due to limited internet access

To get to Koshima from Inuyama, one must take a car, train, plane, busses, and boat.

Notice the Simius genericus on the sign :P

Koshima, from the main land.

I made this trip (sans boat) on Saturday, arriving at the Koshima field station on the mainland. The next day I visited the island for the first time, beginning to learn monkey IDs, get a feel for the island, and to begin anthelmintic treatment. As part of this study, and an adjacent ongoing study with Dr. Andrew MacIntosh, a subset of adult females are receiving anti-parasite medication to understand the influence intestinal parasites have on monkeys. Generally they get intestinal parasites, and today I literally saw a worm crawl out of a piece of sh** from one of the control animals :O

How do you medicate a monkey one might ask? Crushed medicine mixed with peanut butter on a peanut.

The island is very close to the mainland (~300 meters, although it looks a lot closer), and it is accessed by getting a ride on a fishing boat. Koshima, Japanese for ‘Happy Island’ is pretty awesome – a tropical forest full of exotic flora and fauna (more to come about the exotic fauna later…it is mostly of the creepy crawly type!). Fortunately, I’m probably the most dangerous animal on the island. I mean this in both an apex predator sense, and in the sense that the biggest risk to myself is…myself.

Koshima has a beach, where the study monkeys hang out a lot. The rest of the island is forest and rocky shore. At noon the town on the mainland plays music that I can hear from the island, and it has a very Hunger Games feel to it (more close to the book 2 arena than book 1). The forest varies quite a bit in altitude. Last summer I did fieldwork in Gibraltar, which is a tall giant rock, and each day it was quite an uphill walk to our study sites. Though Gibraltar was paved, and the field site was far from rustic, the exercise was still pretty intense walking up and down the incline. Before arriving to Koshima I thought “It will be much more rugged, but probably not as steep as Gibraltar.” How naïve of me :P By the end of the summer, I am going to be in awesome shape.

The Beach

The rocks that we hauled all my gear over.

Typical forest terrain.

Because it is typhoon season, I will be spending most nights on the island, instead of going back and forth to the field station. There are frequent rainstorms when I may or may not be able to collect data anyways, but the issue lies in the aftermath – even if it is sunny and beautiful weather days after a storm, the ocean waves can still be rough. Therefore you get stuck, either on or off the island. Given the short duration of my stay, it is better to be stuck on the island, so I can still be collecting data.

Accommodations on Koshima are a mix between cabin camping and backpacking. There is a hut, with a door and windows and a solid roof, but it’s not exactly bug-proof, or mold-proof, and doesn’t get the best ventilation. That being said, it is equipped with a gas stove cooker thing, a drain sink, pots and pans, and an excellent space to store all my equipment. There are two rooms – a main kitchen/living area and a bed area with 2 bunk platforms. The floor in the bedroom isn’t the most intact or stable, so I plan to actually sleep in a tent we have pitched nearby, which is more bug-proof, and doesn’t have the potential for me to step through the floor. There is a compost toilet, which lacks a door, but I am quite thankful for nonetheless.

The Hut.

The Porcelain Throne.

The Tent.

So, now I’m alone on the island. Except I’m not really alone because there are a bunch of monkeys I’ll be becoming acquainted with. The next few days I’ll be learning who the individuals are and testing out my data collection protocol. I’m not quite sure how many days I’ll be on the island. I can go back to the station anytime, unless the weather or waves are bad, and assuming I’m able to get in contact with someone over phone or radio. My pocket wifi works from very specific parts of the beach SOMETIMES, so I could try to call one of the fishing boats to come get me, though they don’t speak English and my Japanese is, well, limited. Alternatively the site manager at the station should be in communication by radio. I’m planning to stay here until Andrew returns, so my next human contact is estimated to be Sunday, July 5^th,(6ish days).

You aren't actually alone until you are by yourself with no Internet, which is something I haven’t been in quite a long time. What a great and interesting experience this will be.

And finally, some monkey pictures :)