The Evacuation

Monday, 6 June

I woke up in the early morning to the thumping of Minku on the roof.  It was raining pretty steadily, which made me a bit concerned about actually making it back to the mainland today. As I lay in my sleeping bag debating whether or not I should get up yet (3-4 hours until company should arrive), I thought I heard a distance voice.  At first I thought I was just hearing things, but then I heard it again, sounds that were definitely man-made.

I checked my radio, unsure if it was coming from the radio or outside.

“Hello, is someone there?”  No response.

I stepped outside and heard it again – definitely human voices, and even a few English words.  In my groggy state I realized it must be for me, if there was English.  I rushed down to the beach and saw a fishing boat at the beach. 

Are they stuck?  Are there here to pick me up?  Is this an actual evacuation?  Why didn’t someone radio me? 

I tried the radio again to see if anyone back at the station knew what was going on, but no response.  It was almost 6:30am, so they were likely still asleep and knew nothing about this.

I waved at the boat driver, who waved back and gestured for me to come out there.  I raised up my hand, hoping he understood I meant to say “I’ll be right back!” and ran back to the cabin to quickly throw all my important stuff into a bag.  (My previous evacuation drill actually had me quite prepared, as I had already once decided what I should and shouldn’t bring back.

I had my large back-pack filled and two empty water jugs, and started towards the beach.  In a rush I tied my hiking shoes to my bag and wore my sandals, since I’d just be going to the beach and over a few rocks (it was high tide).  On my way down I passed the tent and solar panels, realizing I should probably not leave them out, but guessing I’d be back later in the day with Andrew et al.  Unless, they were picking me up so early because a storm was coming, in which case we couldn’t come back…but…the boat was waiting, the panels were waterproof, and I had previously placed rocks inside the corners of the tent to help keep in grounded.  And, i’d likely be back soonish.

I reached the beach and decided just to cut through the water to get closer to the boat to avoid climbing on rocks.  It seemed like a good idea since I was wearing sandals anyways, but it was not.  As I approached the rocks my sandal slipped partly off my foot right before I stepped onto what I assume was a barnacle-covered rock, which then sliced into my toe.  It didn’t feel like much and there wasn’t anything I could really do anyways, so I kept going.  Getting onto the rocks, I looked down and saw a small amount of blood, but it didn’t hurt (thanks, adrenaline).  I managed to haul my backpack and water containers onto the boat with no further injuries.  I thanked the boat driver, and he said some things to me in Japanese I didn’t understand, but I assume had to do with either how long he had been calling for me, or how quickly I had come. 

We made the 3 minute boat ride to the dock, where I thanked him again and jumped onto the mainland!  I noticed a pool of blood collecting in my sandal, but still not much pain.  Too bad I left my first aid kit on the island, assuming I wouldn’t need it on the short trip back!

I entered the field station a little before 7am, and everyone was still asleep.  I set my gear down at a table and unpacked some of my things.  It didn’t take any time at all to decide the first thing I should do was shower. 

I realized people would be confused if they awoke to find my things in my absence, especially the lantern whose flashing emergency lights would not turn off (thanks to the events of my previous evacuation drill), so I wrote a note on the dry erase board “The Ghost of Kelly has Returned.”

I turned on the water heater (or so I thought) and jumped in the shower, quickly realizing that the water heater was already on, and I actually turned it off.  But, I didn’t care, and the water was no colder than my stream showers the previous week.  Oh, the feeling of being clean! 

After my cold shower, everyone was still asleep, but soon the site manager arrived to the station, surprised by my presence.  I explained to him how I returned, at which point Andrew heard voices and entered saying something along the lines of “What the heck??” 

It became apparent to everyone that I was picked up early with the expectation that the weather would not be suitable to return anytime soon. 

“Surprise!” Andrew said, “There are three typhoons on the way.” 

“What exactly are the criteria for a storm to be considered a typhoon?” I asked, realizing I didn’t actually know what a typhoon was. 

“It’s basically a hurricane.”

“Ohh….”

The worst part of this was that this afternoon Andrew was planning to administer the second dose of anti-parasite medicine to the monkeys.  Without this, the parasite part of the study was out.  D:’

Fortunately, with a bit of negotiating they were able to arrange an hour-long trip back to the island, leaving in 10 minutes.

In a rush we prepared the medication (on apple slices this time).  We woke up Cecile and her friend Clemence with “Hey, your only time to go to the island during your visit is NOW!”  I wrapped my toe in kleenex and put on my boots, thinking, at least I now have an excuse to take a second (hot) shower. 

We arrived back at the island and the monkeys were nowhere in site.  After a while with enough noise from the boat's megaphone and site manager, the main group arrived.  The brief trip to the island was enough for me to confirm I have indeed learned the monkey identifications, for the medicine to be administered, and for me put away the solar panels and double-check I didn’t leave anything important (I did a surprisingly good job in the morning rush, though now I’m realizing at this point I should have retrieved the dang first aid kit!!).

*Photos by Clemence

Look at that dreamy look on that babies face!

Success!

Upon return I took a second (hot) shower, and changed into clean clothes.  Civilization began seeping back into me.  Electricity!  Internet!  People!

That night we went into town to get more supplies/food, and ate sushi. 

Most Glorious Meal Ever.

Last day alone (for now)

Today is my day of rest, or, as low key as a day off the grid can be. I slept in a bit, waking up to my monkey friend jumping around the hut again.

I was concerned my sleeping gear wouldn’t be super comfortable this summer, but it has seemed the most comfortable bed in the world. I had to make a decision purchasing a sleeping pad, where I wanted to be on the trade off between weight/size and comfort. I was spot on. Similarly, I was unsure how warm a sleeping bag to get...light travel one with little warmth, or a bit more hefty one to use camping back home as well (what I went with). Spot on again - being wet all day can make you cold! Shout out to REI employees, particularly a girl named Liz, and of course my mother, for helping me pick out my gear!

Sleeping setup in the hut!  The bug net has not failed me yet :)

I decided I should do something fun and different today, so I went down to the beach to collect shells and beach trash to make wind chime art things. This was fun and a bit tedious, but in a mental non physical way, turning net and rope into usable string, and tying in shell and glass. When I assumed a good chunk of the day had gone by, the noon music began playing  -_-

New home decor.

So, what has my wilderness diet been like? Tonight I’m making curry (prepackaged…I’m not that skilled!). Usually ill have some canned fruit, rice, and coffee or tea for breakfast, seasoned rice balls for lunch, and pasta for dinner, or ramen if I’m more lazy. For protein I’ve added in some tuna to the middle of the rice balls, or eaten peanuts before main dinner. I’ve also been drinking tomato and vegetable juice, sometimes spiked with sochu…

Tonight Andrew, one his is students, and her friend will be arriving at the station. I won’t see them until tomorrow morning, but I’m anticipating a walkie-talkie call sometime in the next few hours. Hopefully someone has a good story or joke.

Reflecting on a week on the island, what do I miss most? Fortunately I’m not feeling too desperate for anything, which is good as this I the first week of many.  Electricity and Internet would be nice, which are mainly just tied to communication with my family and friends. I miss baths, as I had become fond of the large Japanese tubs and the custom of a relaxing evening soak. I miss eating without cooking.

I don’t miss time/clocks/tight schedules, or wasting too much time on social media! 

My Shower.

Female from the second group…she's not so sure about me.

Juveniles playing on the beach.

Some views from around the island.

The Evacuation Drill

Saturday, 4 June

On the sixth day I was able to get up and out to the beach pretty early. The monkeys were there, and I got in two and a half focal follows. The half was because the group decided to move to the other side of the island by way of the rocky shoreline. I stupidly followed them a ways before realizing, again, that I should not follow monkeys on rocks. I made it to an inlet where I decided to abandon the follow and made my up to find a shrine! It was a nice surprise, and in hind site I should have spent a longer visit there for better luck later in the day…

I made it back to camp and realized that I was pretty tired, and that it was barely noon. Six nights on the island and seven days of hiking is quite exhausting! The previous day I found out Andrew and Co. wouldn't actually be making it to the island until Monday, but as always I could make it back to the station whenever. So, I figured since I needed a rest, I might as well recharge at the station, both myself and my electronics, as there was still no sun/solar.

I had been apprehensive about going back mainly because I didn't know exactly how I was going to manage that. I started sorting through my gear into a take and leave pile and eventually packed two bags plus two empty water jugs. Then I went to my phone, which was dead.

Crap!

I also realized it had started raining pretty hard, which was not good news for getting back. I resorted to the beeping charger, which miraculously stayed silent just long enough to get my phone turned on. While I was waiting for it to charge I noticed a glow coming from my backpack. I assumed it was some electronic, maybe a headlamp that accidentally got switched on, and reached in to find a zipper compartment full of liquid. I admit my first panic was that the wine was leaking. Upon realization and relief that this was not the case, and that it was just water from my camelback, a second wave of panic came, upon realization that my backpack full of electronics was full of water. Jumping to action, I yanked out the glowing lantern, whose response to getting wet is apparently to turn on and refuse to turn off, my go-pro case, and what I can now attest is a bona fide waterproof bag of all my other technology.

By the time I accepted this mess (because there is no drying things on Koshima), it was only light rain and it looked like some sun was peeking through the clouds. Hooray! Maybe this would still work.

I reloaded myself, the packing mule, and ambitiously tromped down to the beach, which looked a little wavier than earlier, but still not rough. Might be OK. Then came time to make a call. I first tried one of the fishermen over skype, but I couldn't get any Internet service. And, my phone was dying. In desperation I turned on my roaming data and made what I'm sure was a 20-dollar phone call, telling Andrew my phone was dying and asked if he could call a boat for me. Text or email back, I said, because my phone was dying but I could use the tablet. I continued hauling my bags over the slippery wet rocks to where I figured would be a good loading zone. Then I checked my phone, with less than stellar news.

‘The boats aren't out today, they asked if u can wait until Monday morning.’

Yea that's fine, I said, I'll just rest up here on the island.

And then my phone died. Again.

I tried using the tablet to communicate that I was doing well, just tired, and had made some progress learning monkeys and practicing data collection, but there were too many raindrops for the touch screen to work. I sheltered under a rock to type out a few messages, but when I went back to the middle of the beach there was no service at all.

I began hauling my now even wetter gear back to the cabin, to unpack, and try interneting again to no avail. I sat down to write out these recollections over a beer that I had been chilling inn a stream all morning. Then I spilled my beer, at which point all of this passed the threshold from horror to humor.

My bad fortune I received in Yokohama has been actualized.  “You departures will be bad.  Those you are waiting for will come late. There will be no happy moments.”

On the bright side, two male monkeys have been hanging out at the hut all day, and have been occasionally lipsmacking (a friendly monkey gesture) at me. One of them, male 102 'Minku', I've ran into a few times. I think he likes me.

Minku, at the beach.

Minku, on the hut.

Minku, my version of Castaway's 'Wilson'

Learning the monkeys

Thursday, 2 July

Today is the day I pretty much ran out of my electricity supply. Its strange thinking about electricity as something you have to store and that you can run out of. I have solar panels, but to use solar, you need the sun. It is still raining. Its like that scene in Forrest Gump:

“We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night…”

Fortunately I have spare batteries for my necessary equipment. Also, there is a battery/panel source that was already at the hut, which had appeared out of commission, but I noticed a light coming from it! This thing has been here for who knows how long, and may have been collecting solar for a while. Seemed to have a lot of potential. I sifted through the box of stuff stored nearby and found a light that plugs in and works! Then I found an inverter that plugs into the battery and has a power outlet. I put it together and plugged in my laptop and like magic it began charging! But, with conditions.

A minute later it began emitting a horrible shrill beeping that would not stop.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

I tried everything, adjusting all the cords, burying it under backpacks, and playing loud music. Nothing could cover the monstrosity.  If life alone without my computer could eventually drive me crazy, that beeping would do it much faster. So, I’ll have no laptop for a while.

On a different note, I was able to follow the monkeys most of the day! This morning they were sheltered from the rain in the rocks at the beach. They had foraging bouts in the forest a few times, one which led me on a surprise rock climbing adventure on the inland side of the island...not sure ill follow them there again…

Kuwa - still not sure how she managed this.

After today I'm feeling pretty confident with identifying the main group. The individuals older than 8 years old have dye marks, which are dyed spots on various parts of the face, to help with identification, and that correspond with a unique ID number for each animal.  This is especially useful not only for your own identification of individuals, but so you and other researchers can know you are talking about or studying the same monkey over the years.

Kizu, very grey.

Toga - very red face, infant.

Muku - nice complexion, has a flap of skin on nose.

Yamu, larger female with infant, has upper and lower lip dye.

Yasi - oldest female, former alpha, mother of current alpha.  Has an infant.

Kinu, "Owl Face"

Kuwa 

Sone has a very long face.

Kanna has a more square face, and an infant.

Usu has distinctive blonde sideburns and an infant.

Interestingly, I encountered the second group that is on the island on the beach this evening, when I made my nightly attempt to access Internet from the beach (tonight it was unsuccessful). I know it was the other group because I didn’t recognize any of the individuals, and they clearly didn’t recognize me. When I approached one of the females she screamed bloody murder.

Morale is still fairly high.  I could really use a massage, and some human interaction would be pleasant (2 more days). For now, this wine will do.

Tracking monkeys

Wednesday 1 July

The (first) day I couldn’t find the monkeys...

Last night it stormed.  I had gone to bed by 8pm, and the storm woke me around 9:30pm with rain pelting the tent, sounding quite similar to popping popcorn.  Then came the flashes of light and booming thunder, and then the downpour. I knew I’d probably be fine in the tent, but the wind concerned me a bit.  Occasionally the side of the tent would flap pretty hard, and I couldn’t tell if the pink noise I was hearing was wind or waves, but it sounded loud and close.  I comforted myself with the fact that I was probably up too high for waves to reach me, even with a really high tide.  I was fairly well protected from the wind by trees, so the only legitimate concern was probably falling branches. I was able to fall back asleep for bits of the night until morning. 

When I woke up it was still raining and continued to on and off all day, but the storm was over. I saw a few juvenile monkeys running around near camp, but the adults were nowhere in sight.  I went to the hut to prepare myself for the day, hoping the group would make their way down to the beach sometime soon.  This was not so.

I only saw a solitary male on the beach, so I decided to hit the forest and try to tack them down.  After visiting all the areas I had seem them before, I expanded my search a bit further around the island. Still no luck.

I got a bit closer in the afternoon:

1:45 – I heard monkeys

2:35 – I saw another solitary male, I think the same one from the beach that morning.

3:05 – I found a different, less habituated, solitary male, who displayed and threatened me.

There is also the possibility that a lot more monkeys saw me than I was able to spot…

I kept imaging how exciting and rewarding it would be when I finally stumbled upon the monkeys I was looking for, but in the end, I never found the main group.  However, I had one heck of a hike!  I got to see more of the island, and got to continue conditioning myself to scale up and down the ridges and valleys.  

Going in circles looking for monkeys.

I’m pretty much habituated to being rained on, and being constantly being wet.  And, because of all the rain, there was a pretty decent freshwater stream I got to shower in this evening, so I’m actually feeling quite clean!  So, I’m feeling pretty optimistic.

Tonight I’m sleeping in the hut, since it is supposed to rain again all night.

Settling in

Tuesday 30 June

Last night was my first night on the island. I heard a monkey fight around midnight, which was the first time I’ve ever woken up to that, though likely not the last.  At that point I got up to pee and let a fairly large spider into the tent.  Whoops!

Today was my first day navigating the island by myself.  So far, things have gone pretty smoothly!  Today was quite rainy, so there were periods of little monkey activity/visibility as they were huddled waiting the rain out. I am getting better with identifying them, but still have a ways to go.  In order to collect interaction data to you need to be able to identify a monkey at the drop of the hat. 

Sone grooming Kinu.

I’ll be collecting 2 types of data while I’m here.  The first is behavioral sequence data to use for fractal analysis, to get an idea of how complex the animal’s behavior is.  This is collected during a focal follow, which means you follow just one monkey for some amount of time.  I will be aiming to conduct 1 hour and 8 minute focal follows (seems like an odd amount of time, but it helps with the type of analysis we’ll be doing), where I record the sequence of behavioral states a monkey is in.  By behavioral state I mean I’m collecting behavior that lasts a bit of time (greater than 3 seconds), such as walking, resting, foraging, grooming, etc.  This is opposed to the second type of interaction data, which I will also be collecting to construct social networks, which comprises of usually quick interactions such as an act of aggression or a communication signal.

I attempted to do a practice focal follow today and I failed pretty hard.  Let me tell you, following monkeys in the forest in the rain is not easy!  I abandoned this attempt and decided to just practice following monkeys through the forest.  They are much easier to follow on the beach, but I’ll be following them in the forest as well, so I need to get up to monkey speed.

Also, I’ve had a fair amount of success feeding myself, which is an accomplishment because I hardly ever cook.  This morning I made rice for the first time, which was by no means perfect, but was cooked to an edible standard. I mixed in some seasoning and made rice balls for lunch.  This evening I made pasta, and cooked a potato for the first time.

The Kitchen.

Fine dining - last nights dinner.

Also noteworthy is that I lost both my pencil and a glove in the forest today, and miraculously was able to find both!  Hooray!

A little more info on living off the grid - I’ve been bathing in the ocean at night, which is quite soothing after a day of chasing monkeys in the mud.  The thing I am most concerned about is getting clothing to dry.  Because of the humidity and rain, nothing is drying and everything is getting wet!  Fortunately the temperature has been nice – not too hot or cold to make being wet all that bad. 

Living with monkeys.

The Tower of Power.

Kinoko.

Gibosi. 

Kibana (and baby bump!). 

Siso.

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 :)

Side, the alpha female.

Okara, the cutest monkey!

Kibana is pregnant. 

Kizu.

Asa, also pregnant.