#fieldworkfail

Nothing like a warm beer at the end of the day...

Since the hashtag #fieldworkfail seems to be circulating Facebook and twitter now, I figured I'd make a post in it's honor.  

1.)  It is amazing how little water we actually need to shower! I can do it with about a liter now. However, water is precious so any opportunity to use freshwater from the island is great, and this has been quite limited with the intensely sunny days. There were supposed to be thunderstorms all day and I was looking forward to a bit of rain. I made it all day with only hearing distant thunder once, and there was no rain until my nightly attempt to get internet access on the beach.  When I made it back to the hut it really started raining hard, so I saw it as an opportunity for a good shower.  I stripped down and ran out to a clearning equipped with a soapy sponge.  I got all sudsy, and then the rain stopped.  I stood there wet and soapy, until I was dry and soapy, waiting for the rain that never started up again.  I ended up finishing the shower with my water back at the hut.  

#fieldworkfail

2).  The SIXTH typhoon during my field season is now on the radar.  

#fieldworkfail

And finally, the one I am most embarrassed about…

3).  In my previous post you may have read that the window locks on the hut aren't very secure and a monkey broke into the hut when I was on the mainland.  I had been careful sense then to make sure the windows were locked the best they can, until one night I forgot to lock a window before my return back to the mainland.  I realized the mistake later that night, and could only hope I would return the next morning before the monkeys got there.  That morning when I reached the hut the window had been pushed open, but there were no monkeys around and seemingly no destruction. Relieved, I shut up the windows and went out for data collection.  A few hours later I returned to the hut and noticed monkey feces on the floor, but the windows were still shut.  Had I really not noticed the feces in the morning?  It did look fresh…but maybe it was just that humid?  I quickly realized that there is no way I had just not noticed the poo that morning, which could only mean one thing…there was a monkey still in the hut.  

But where?  I searched everywhere (the hut is not that big), but there was no monkey.  Then it dawned on me…the monkey could be hiding under the floor (there is a space under the hut accessible only from inside the hut).  I used a light to search the area and couldn't see anything, but I knew it had to be there.  I opened the hut door and waited.  Within a minute a subadult male darted from under the floor out into the forrest.  

I accidentally locked a monkey in the hut.  

#fieldworkfail

I scrubbed the crap out of the floor (literally), and after this experience I took it upon myself to build extra window locks.  I duct taped the screens on the window, and broke sticks the length of a window pane to stick alongside the bottom edge of the window, so it couldn't be slid open without the removal of the stick from inside.  So far this has proved monkey proof.

Beginning the final stretch

It’s the final stretch!!!

Kinu joined us in the shade.

You got a little something on your lip there, dude.

As typhoon #5 approaches I’m keeping myself on the island to wait out the waves.  They typhoon will be a bit south of me, so hopefully all I get are some waves and rain, and I’ll still be able to collect data.  I’m being very careful with resources this time because A) I’m not sure how long I’ll be here and B) It may be my last chunk of time on the island so I gotta be efficient.  The concerns are the 2 things I have run out of previously: electricity and water.  I’ve stocked up on both, am hoping or sun for solar power, and am writing on pen and paper to save electricity.

Hopefully this is enough water...

Some upgrades to the hut.

The last few days I took advantage of the calm waters and slept at the field station, boating back and forth each day.  This was actually per suggestion of the boat drivers, as they were concerned about me staying alone when so many tourists were coming to the island (by boat, paddleboard, jet ski, etc), and they offered a discount.  It was nice while it lasted. 

Monkey footprints.

Monkey hand. 

Toga and baby.

Asa and baby.

Yamu & Co. 

Babies are exhausting.

I had some great days following the monkeys to the other side of the island where they eat shellfish off the rocky shoreline.  It is probably my favorite place to collect data, despite there being very little shade – the monkeys are active which yields good data, it is easy for me to follow them, and it is an awesome view!!

The forest isn’t hard when it’s flat and they aren’t arboreal, which is pretty much never :P

Siso, snoozing before another foraging bout.

Can you spot the monkey in the tree?

Forest terrain.

Sleep site

sleepytime

This stay on Koshima I’ve been sleeping in the tent since it hasn’t been raining, but I’ve been questioning this decision so I made a list of advantages of each.

Hut:

-       Quiet – you don’t realize how much noise walls block until you are sleeping without them.  High winds are especially loud. 

-       Greater sense of security.  Security from what, I’m not quite sure.

-       Easy to get out of to pee in the middle of the night

-       No extra travel at bed time, and since all of my gear is stored here, so I can’t forget to bring something with me

-       The floor is level*

Tent

-       Does not contain trash with rotten food or fecal samples

-       I don’t breathe moldy air in the tent

-       More natural lighting

-       Monkey-proof

-       No cockroaches

I’m still not sure which is superior…maybe by the end I’ll have a preference.  I think noise is the biggest disadvantage of the tent so I’m giving it a few days to see if I become habituated.

*When we first pitched the tent we picked a place that had a slight incline so water wouldn’t puddle under it.  It was actually quite a process – we used machetes and shovels to hack down some shrubbery in a place that was not too steep and in an area partially guarded from wind.  At one point I was even designing a moat for water flow either around or underneath the tent, which would have been completely unnecessary had I followed through.  Since it is no longer raining the incline isn’t as relevant, but I realized the flatter areas don’t have as good wind blockage, which is still relevant.  Also, last time I went to a store I purchased some non-slip sticky pad things to stick under the sleep pad – whoever designed tent bottoms, sleeping pads, and sleeping bags all out of slick materials clearly wasn’t thinking about people sliding down their tent when they sleep. I think the sticky pads help a bit, though having part of the sleep pad lined with rubber would be ideal.

Listening for monkeys

30 July

When I was doing research in Gibraltar, we had the often difficult task of distinguishing monkeys from rocks (and other objects that look like monkeys) during our group-wide scans.  Here, I don’t play the monkey-or-rock game quite as much, but sometimes I have a difficult time telling whether or not a noise came from a monkey, which is relevant when I’m trying to track them down in the forest.  

Here is a non-exhaustive list of things that sound like monkeys:

• Cicadas:  though you might not expect this, certain cicada chirps sound like a screaming juvenile monkey.  Cicadas tend to call for longer, and have a bit more periodicity.
• Frogs (at least I think they are frog noises): this is a new one…didn’t hear these last time.  Certain frog croaks sound like a monkey call.
• Birds:  this is a list in and of itself.  Many different bird species and calls, ranging in similarity to a monkey scream to an infant’s coo.
• Wind: rustling leaves or branches or a monkey in a tree?
• Crab: rustling in the forest, everywhere.
• Human children.

I’m planning to head back to the mainland station tomorrow evening to stay the night and return the next morning.  My limiting reagent this time is water, which I find quite ironic, since last time I could never actually get dry.  Because it is so hot I’m going through twice as much water as before.  

Side note: I met another tourist family today who were from Tokyo.  They had their daughters take their picture with me as well – I am becoming a Koshima attraction.  :P

Today was productive.  I was with the monkeys most of the day until I lost them around cliffs.  I tried to see if I could meet them on the other side of the island, but that was unsuccessful.  First I went a way that was not the trail I needed, and ended up sliding down a short portion of the hill on my but (only half on purpose), which somehow filled my pants with leaves and was not the most pleasant.  Eventually I headed back to the beach, which was full of monkeys -_- 

Also, I just gained wind (ha, get it?) that there is FIFTH typhoon forming in the seas.  I’m not sure yet what this means for my project, but it’s probably not good.  

My feelings about typhoon #5.

Knowing that I am going back tomorrow night I realized I could use up the battery on my computer.  So…I watched an episode of the Wild Thornberries, for inspiration.  

Also, dinner at sunset.

Summertime

29 July

Today was very hot again, 90s, high humidity.  It’s not so bad in the shade when the wind is blowing! The monkeys seemed to be feeling the heat as well – they spent most of the day at the beach.  This made for easy data collection, but bad data.  Ideally, I focal follow monkeys when they are moving around, so I can record patterns of activity.  If they don’t move, that doesn’t give me much to analyze later! 

Which of these monkeys would you rather be?

This is a good look-out point to scan rocks on the other side of the island, occupied here by Kaba the alpha male.

A postdoc who works at Koshima has been coming to the island the last few days so it’s been nice to have a bit of company during the day!  Also, since it is now summer season there have been a lot of tourists coming to the island – small family groups who come and take pictures and leave.  Funny to see how it went to so much traffic from absolutely no access. 

This evening when I was standing knee deep in the water at the beach, holding up my pocket wifi trying to get a signal (I’m sure I look like someone on one of those phone commercials), I saw some people paddleboarding to the island.  The irony, that people can now easily paddleboard to Koshima…

They made their way to the beach – a man and his two daughters – one who was sitting on his paddleboard and one who was floating on a small surfboard tied to the paddleboard.  I think we were both surprised to see each other.  They spoke some English and asked if I was waiting for a boat.  I explained, to their fascination that I was not, that I was camping on the island.  I told them I was there for the summer to study monkeys.  They were from Toi, a nearby town that has a population of wild horses.  They had only been to the beach before, not further up the island.  One of the daughters pointed up towards the outhouse and asked what it was.  I told them it was a toilet and they were quite interested.  They asked if they could go look so I gave them a tour of my luxurious accommodations.  They said I was a “strong woman.”  He took a few pictures of his daughters with me, and suggested that maybe sometime before I leave they come back and bring chicken.  I hope this happens, because that sounds fantastic. 

Paddleboard

Though I could complain about many things regarding the typhoon delays (like, you know, it severely compromising my research project timeline), the one thing that is most saliently unfortunate at the moment is having to get into Koshima shape twice.  By the end of the first week I was exhausted, but I felt like I was getting into pretty good shape and handling the forest terrain quite well.  I tried to go for a beach jog every day to keep it up, but it’s still a heck of a lot harder than if I had only taken a couple days off as planned, not a couple weeks.  The type of workout necessary to stay in Koshima shape is not one that one does for leisure. 

Also, I had to relearn that 99.9% of the time I hear something in the forest or in the dark, it’s a crab. 

Post-typhoon Inventory

28 July 2015

Not so helpful...

I finally made it back to the island!!!!

It took a couple hours to transport all my gear and set up camp again. Things were in better shape than they could have been.

It is not raining, sunny actually, and ridiculously hot. 90s, high humidity...its definitely going to take a few days to get used to that.

Look at that beautiful CALM water though!!

The tent is still standing! No damage, just like I left it.

A monkey had broken into the hut. My plate was shattered, kettle on the ground, a few other items spewed on the floor, food box knocked on its side, but still shut (!!!). There was a piece of monkey s*** on the floor. The wire screen had been pulled back from the outside of the window, and the glass pane had been slid to the side (opposite the way I usually open it, so I know I hadn’t just left it open. The windows had been shut and locked (the best they are capable of…they don’t hold too well). Tricky monkey! I wonder who it was...

This frequent view from the back window gives me a hunch...

My sleeping bag and pillow have a lot less mold on them than they could. I mean, it would be nice if my bedding had no mold on it, but a little is much better than a lot.

Most of my food looks alright. My sweet potatoes had turned into plants, I now know that cucumbers can turn canary yellow, and I accidently left some leftover rice in there that didn’t age well…whoops! 

There were 3 new births (Asa, Kibana, Mikan). The monkeys were being provisioned so I was able to get a number of fecal samples.  It was my first time collecting fecal samples…for those of you who know about my extremely strong aversion to feces, its quite comical. I once vomited when a friend’s dog pooped in the house. I also vomited last summer when my colleague used the 'poven' to dehydrate all her fecal samples. (You know how if you bake cookies the house smells like cookies? Yea...) I start to gag just thinking about feces for too long. Writing these sentences makes me uncomfortable so I’m going to stop, but limiting sensory modalities as little as possible when handling feces helps a bit - hold your breath and look the other way!

The heat and move were exhausting and I’ve been fighting off a sinus/cold/allergy thing so I called it an early night. Hope I can get back on a light/dark sleep cycle again quickly!

Rocks to haul gear over. 

Monkeys, eagerly waiting provisioning after a hiatus. 

Dead stingray on the beach.