G2: A Family Living in a not-so-gorgeous Territory

Vanessito and Isabel in one of their favorite "caves" of chichapi and aguai, where they loved to eat the berry-like fruits of these plants.

Isabel coming down really close to check me out. My camera wasn't zoomed in at all for this picture. Probably the closest she ever came to me.

Sol enjoying a mandarin on my last day watching them. Meagan and I had wondered if they ate the citrus fruit, because we had never seen it until literally my last moments of watching G2.

Curious little Luna. Picture courtesy of Daniel Kr. Thanks!

I had the opportunity to watch G2 during my time in Santa Cruz and immediately fell in love with this group. My first day watching them, I was getting familiar with my new territory, part of which sits on the organic dump for the botanical garden in the front of the park. Needless to say it’s not the prettiest patch of forest. In G2’s territory, I quickly became familiar with climbing over piles of plant and tree clippings, cutting trails, and keeping an eye out for ticks. During my time with G2, I snagged a nest of ticks on 3 different occasions (literally a ball of ticks that brushes off a leaf and quickly spreads into hundreds of tiny-blood-sucking-specks climbing up your pant leg), and came home with at least a few hitchhikers on a regular basis. Needless to say I got very good at spotting tiny ticks among my many freckles and moles J Now, I don’t want to scare prospective volunteers: it wasn’t that bad, and the ticks in South America don’t carry lime disease… or at least that’s what I hear. Plus, you are rewarded with the opportunity to watch the beautiful, friendly, affectionate family of G2.

While looking for Vanessito and his new mate, Isabel, on my first day, I was only looking for two monkeys. However, after watching Vanessito and Isabel hanging out and tail twining for a bit, two young titi monkeys came to join them. I was thoroughly confused at the time, but after discussion with Kim, we came to the conclusion that Vanessito probably adopted these offspring when he joined up with Isabel. Over the next few months, the group was so fun to watch. Most of the time, they hung out in “twos” with Vanessito and Isabel staying close, followed by Sol and Luna. This led me to naming the offspring Sol and Luna, meaning “sun” and “moon” in Spanish. Not only are the sun and moon important to the native cultures of South America, but also wherever Sol went, Luna usually followed, just like the moonrise follows the sunset.

Vanessito, the male of the group, is the easiest to identify of the group. He is unmistakable, and in my opinion, the most handsome male in the park. His whole body is dark red, except for very white ears and a light tail base. His tail is also dark and has a distinct point at the end. He’s quite the lover and guarder, always staying close to Isabel and showering her and the offspring with affection quite often.

Isabel, the matriarch of the family, is a beautiful, confident, and sassy female. She’s quite red for a female, but appears more gray next to the dark and handsome Vanessito. She has pronounced black eyebrow markings, and her tail comes to a point at the end. She would readily join Vanessito to defend their territory and was not hesitant to approach other groups in “calling battles.” The funniest interactions between Isabel and Vanessito were when Vanessito would lie down next to her wanting to be groomed. She would look at him, decide that she’d rather be groomed instead, and lie down next to him asking for a groom. Vanessito would respond to her request, groom her, and then try again to be groomed. However, Isabel would usually get her way, being groomed several times in a row, rarely returning the favor.

Sol, the older of the two offspring is a female subadult. She is about the same size as Isabel, but more gray. Her most defining features are her big, downward-slanting, “sad-looking” eyes. Because of her age, she is quite independent but has not left her family group yet. However, after watching her behavior with Vanessito, it was clear that she is definitely reaching adulthood and will probably be leaving the group within the next year. Because Sol is reaching sexual maturity and Vanessito is most likely not her biological father, I saw some sexual tension between the two during this breeding season. On a few different occasions I observed Vanessito sniffing her genital region (an affiliative behavior). Gross, I know, especially because Sol is Vanessito’s step-daughter, but it was a very interesting dynamic to watch. Because of the attention that Vanessito was giving to Sol, she became a threat to Isabel, and I saw a few fights between mother and daughter. This makes me think that Sol will be kicked out of the group soon.

Luna is also a female, the youngest of the group, and was probably born in the fall of 2009, making her a juvenile. She is the grayest of the group, and her coat is a little more “spikey” than the others. She has a small, cute face with close-set-eyes and pronounced eyebrow markings like her mother, giving her the appearance that her eyes slant upwards slightly. She is very friendly and curious, coming very close to say “hi” to me sometimes.

In my final days of watching G2, I finally saw some mating between Vanessito and Isabel. This was so exciting after months of watching their family drama unfold. I can’t wait to hear of how their family unit develops this coming fall (baby season).

TitiTales: GE: living amongst people

GE lives in the Northern portion of Yvaga Guazu, amid the fruit trees, above the school children and, often, beyond the fences. Elena, Vicente, Pedro and Denito can be quite the entertaining four-some to watch and the territory in which they maintain can provide their observers with some unique dynamics. Although GE has a large territory within the park they often spent hours feeding or resting in trees beyond the eastern, northwestern and southwestern fence boundaries and vocalizations were not always a daily behavior. Hanging out beyond the fences resulted in quite a bit of out-of-view time, or missed fecal samples for me, but they seemed to have patterns in which you could predict where you might encounter them.  One very prevalent dynamic for any observer watching GE is the interaction with staff and the groups of school children while observing or looking for GE. This dynamic is great for interacting with Bolivians, practicing Spanish and sharing titi facts; however it is not so great for data collection. Often groups of school kids walked noisily past or roaring chainsaws muffled vocalizations. An observer of GE must be patient and willing to chat with school groups and park staff.  Although GE has a lot of exposure to human disturbances, their behaviors in response to human presence were not always of a fearful nature. Often GE would continue feeding, rest vigilantly or slowly move away, while other times the group would quite obviously change behaviors (e.g. terminate vocalization, flee) in response to the peopl

Pedro has become quite big, and still remains very gray leading me to wonder if he is not actually “Pedra”. Denito is also growing quickly and when GE and G1 have a vocalization bout, he is not afraid to help out by displaying pilo erection and back arching, very humorous to watch! Typically, however, Pedro and Denito play while Elena and Vicente take care of all vocalizing matters.

On one particularly windy day, before I had located the group, I heard a solo call coming from the far northwest edge of their territory.  Something did not sound quite right, the voice was scratchy and the notes were inconsistent- could this be a “strange monkey”? When I located the solo caller, I found little Denito sitting in the mid story calling in search of the group. Apparently, in the high winds, he had become separated from the group and was actively trying to relocate the family. Denito would call for a few minutes and then move quickly through the high canopy, stop, call again and repeat. After around 20 minutes Vicente approached while calling (Elena and Pedro soon to follow) and the group was reunited.  There were several days with high winds and strong gusts and it was not uncommon to watch as Denito lost contact with the group as he lingered at the feeding trees, but quickly re-established proximity. GE is an adorable family group, and after months of daily follows, one becomes quite invested in the group they are assigned. I look forward to hearing how the group dynamics of GE change through the seasons!

Vicente and Denito sitting tail-twined.

 

 

Vicente keeping a close eye me.

Elena

 

 

 

Perdo, always a bit curious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our newest titi family, G2

Video credit: Daniel Krumberg

Vanessito and juvenile, Luna

I would like to introduce everyone to our newest habituated family of titi monkeys, G2. We’ve actually know its patriarch, Vanessito, since he was a weanling.  He is one of the offspring of the neighboring G3 and now resides in the territory adjacent to his brother, Casanova. He is dramatic in color, with striking bright red/orange pelage and a pronounced black eye-stripe, and personality and was thus named after my long time project coordinator and dear friend, Vanessa Sandoval.  His partner/mate is new to our study animals and I’ve named her Isabel after Isabel Allende because of her fiery personality. Isabel is largely grey with a reddish orange crown and black eye mask. Perhaps her most unique feature, however, is her pale/fleshy colored perineal region. Normally it is black in titi monkeys. Dirty old lady?! To some, perhaps, but any distinguishing feature will do when trying to identify seemingly, at least initially, indistinguishable monkeys.

Tight coordination of daily activities (traveling, feeding, resting, vocalizing, etc.) is a hallmark feature of this genus. The more coordinated the pair the more successful at defending/maintaining a territory and perhaps even at rearing offspring. This takes practice though. New pairs are certainly not as good at it as established ones. The awkwardness and tension between Vanessito and Isabel was apparent this breeding season as they struggled to establish their pair bond and position in the wider community of titis. Vanessito appeared to be investing more in pair bond maintenance, more frequently grooming and appeasing the somewhat reluctant and jittery Isabel. This is expected though as it was the breeding season and Vanessito needed to demonstrate his willingness to invest in and commit to not only in his mate but the pair bond itself and potential offspring. If you’re a female titi or human for that matter, it pays to be choosy!

I spent most of my visit recording their loud calls (duets). Duets being widely defined as coordinated vocal interactions between a mated pair. Titi duets are rather complex and one would expect greater coordination with greater pair familiarity. During my stay, mid-February to mid-March (early breeding season), the pair called much less frequently than neighboring groups and tended to engage largely in type 2 duet bouts, a less threatening  and easier to produce signal (see above). I’ve yet to analyze the recordings, but my bet is they are less synchronized than those of established pairs, those together at least one reproductive season.

Vanessito took on not only a mate this year but also apparently adopted her subadult and juvenile offspring. This is awaiting genetic confirmation though. Kimber, my research assistant assigned to follow this group, named the sub-adult Sol (Spanish for sun) and juvenile Luna (Spanish for moon). Lovely names I think. She is now much more acquainted with this group than I am and I'm sure she’ll give us an update, with nice photos of both Sol and Luna, as soon as she returns from her travels. Kimber has only recently finished her work on the titi project and is now traveling Bolivia and Peru. Hope you're having a great time!

Isabel enjoying a mouth-full of palm fruit

Breeding Season 2011

Our 2011 breeding season kicked off in typical fashion with the welcoming of new field assistants and departing of old ones. A former field assistant asked on her Facebook status relatively recently whether or not goodbyes ever get easier. My response “NEVER!” While the norm for those of us involved in field work or travel generally, I’ve never found it easy. It's interesting how we bond with fellow field workers even after a short period of time; often developing a closer relationship than with those we’ve known for years. Perhaps attributed to the strangers in a strange land effect; sharing of odd discomforts (pinhead sized ticks in unwelcomed places, countless mosquito bites, tummy bugs, etc.)? Whatever the cause something funny, as unusual, happens to us in these circumstances.

This season we said goodbye to Sharon Schillewaert, a 6 month veteran of the project. I am grateful and we are all fortunate to have had her with us the first 10 days or so of the field season. She was invaluable in helping me train the new crew and also pitched in to help them navigate the metropolis of Santa Cruz. We wish her well on her new adventure, for she departed for Spain to work on a bird project just a week after leaving Bolivia. She certainly has a passion for field work. Many thanks! You’re certainly missed.

Sharon was replaced by 2 highly competent and motivated field biologists, Meagan (Meg) Selvig and Kimberly (Kimber) Banta. They are still in Bolivia and working hard on the project. In addition to the normal routine, they have taken aboard many extras like creating a titi monkey education sheet for the park guides at Yvaga Guazu, working on independent research project on titi sleeping sites, creating a botanical guide and surveying our new field site, Porongo (more on this in an upcoming blog).

Yuvinka Gareca, a well-respected Bolivian entomologist and dear friend, resumed her position as project manager. She is invaluable in helping and guiding me on the logistics of the project (e.g. permits, visas, transportation) and in organizing the “extras” (botanical training for the field assistants, Spanish lessons, etc.).  Thank you, Yuvy. It’s wonderful to have you back!

The field work, at least my stint of it, progressed slowly. Orientation to the 2 field sites went well but that was immediately followed by a cold, rainy spell which delayed training for nearly a week. Field work was once again delayed by Carnaval. Carnaval is the festival that takes place the eight days preceding Ash Wednesday. While generally a religious festival in the highlands it is a huge street party in Santa Cruz where the spraying of paint is one of the main features. For me the most exciting thing about Carnaval is the gathering of costumes. This year, in order to avoid the body painting, I opted to only participate in our Carnaval parrillada. While a lively and exciting event it does little to advance field work. Most normal operations shut down and transportation is difficult if not impossible to find (taxi drivers are drunk or hung over from the night before). We survived Carnaval, however, and the next few weeks proved fruitful. Meg and Kimber took up regular follows of their assigned titi groups, GE and G2, and I moved ahead with playback experiments.

Overall my visit was a success and my dedicated crew have stayed on to run things in my absence. Kimber and Meg's stay in Bolivia is sadly coming to an end soon. I'm sure they'll fill us in on monkey business before they leave though.

Here are some of the non-monkey highlights of my trip:

Our first day in the field

Sharon preparing for Carnaval

Post shopping celebration

Steffen and Yuvy enjoying our Carnaval Parrillada

Daniel at his best

Sushi preparation for Oscar night

Meet Our Monkeys: GS

This group of titi monkeys inhabits one part of Jardin Botanico. The second, somewhat bigger and less disturbed, study area of the project. 5 primate species range at this site: a group of capuchin monkeys, a group of howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya), night monkeys, marmosets and at least 8 (or more Kim??) titi monkey groups. GS is one of them. GS is special. I guess every observer would say that about his/her study subjects but it´s true for GS. Well, I will come back to that a little later. For now I would like to introduce them to you. When I started following them in September 2009 the group consisted of the breeding pair Hobs (the male) and Margo (the female) and their subadult son Evil Knievel. They didn´t behave like the other groups. I was told they usually hang out together but these guys did not really. I could either find the shy Margo alone or Hobs wandering around with Evil Knievel. One very special feature of Margo brought the name to the group GS, where S stands not for special but rather for short tail. This refers to Margo´s stump tail. Honestly we don´t have a clue how she lost it (supposedly capuchins!!??) but it´s gone. This should have several severe consequences for her daily life but she handles it quite well. She can jump as far and high as her male and does not show any shortcoming- well, maybe one. Unfortunately she is not able to enforce her pair-bond with Hobs using tailtwinning like it is costume in this species. But it makes group identification sooo much easier for us.

Margo- or short tail how she might be known to many

Hobs

Evil Knievel looking evil

Ok, but enough to that. In October everything changed. All groups in both study sites already had had their babies and I was sure my group would not have one this breeding season. But one day I saw something weird in the lap of Margo and it was a tiny naked tail. Charlie was born and from that day on mom and dad spent all their time together- more like the other groups. The first day Margo carried him around but already on the second day Hobs took over and turned out to be a great dad. He carried the tiny Charlie around his neck and gave him away only for nursing and cleaning purposes. Evil Knievel was also heavily interested in the new group member and like a typical big brother might do he started pulling Charlie´s tail on the day he was born.

Evil Knviel pulling Charlie's tail

Hobs carrying Charlie and Evil Knievel

There is one more event that made the group special for me. I was following them in the morning and everything seemed quite normal- just another day. I was with Hobs, Charlie and Evil Knievel when I saw Margo in about 10m. But oh...Margo was not alone, she had another male on top of her and they were mating!! And that in front of Hobs carrying their baby. Well, let´s talk about the definition of monogamy again. When Hobs started moving towards them Margo decided to better get rid of the “other” guy. They chased him and his group (there was another female and a subadult) through almost their whole territory and both groups vocalized like crazy for over 2 hours. After this exciting incident I saw this group several times in GS territory and was told from my successor Jack that their territory seemed to shrink over time due to the pressure of the neighboring groups.

Fur Rubbing in Callicebus: A Personal Account

It was a normal day in the field at Yvaga Guazu-well, mostly. It had rained the day before, so the mosquitoes were a little worse than normal. However, after visiting Jardin Botanico, I was not in a position to complain about mosquito densities. I was following G4 for the day which I had been doing for about a month and a half at that point, so I was finally in the swing of things (and by that, I mean I could finally locate them, identify individuals and record their behavior without losing them or falling on my face!). We were crossing the road from their main patch of forest over into the mango forest (a favorite snacking point at this time since the mangoes were starting to run out) when I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. Yuvinka had stopped on a plant, bitten off the end of a leaf, and started rubbing it on her chest and arms. Now, thanks to a class I had taken a few months prior to leaving for Bolivia, I was well versed in the behaviors of capuchin monkey-one of which sounded similar to what I was seeing here! I remembered references to them using plants and insects to repel mosquitoes. The behavior also serves a social function in capuchin monkeys, leading to frenzied rubbing events or orgies.  As I watched this behavior, I knew that I was witnessing fur rubbing!

Fur rubbing entails rubbing an object (plant, arthropods, scented materials) on the body. It can serve many functions including repelling insects and other pests, providing treatment for wounds and infections, increasing sexual attractiveness, signaling status, masking their scent and deterring predators. It has been seen in capuchins, owl monkeys, spider monkeys and lemurs, but had not been reported in titi monkeys Given that this was the rainy season and no one was wounded or mating (and the mosquitoes were heaviest), it seems that Yuvi was using the plant as a natural insecticide.

Not thinking of this event as anything that major (other than a cool behavior that I hadn’t seen before), my main concern was on how to record the behavior on my data sheet. It wasn’t eating, or resting really. She wasn’t interacting with any other monkeys. I was stumped, so I made a note of the time, location, monkey involved and continued to follow them for the day. Later that evening, I sent an e-mail to Kim asking where she would like me to record it or if she wanted me to make a new category. Kim, being much wiser in the ways of the titi, instantly recognized this behavior as something that no one had recorded from this species before! While we knew titis were clever, we had no idea up to this point that they could use plants as insecticides. With that realization, the hunt to figure out what was really going on began.

Over the course of the next month and a half, we learned a decent amount. I not only saw Yuvinka fur rub again, but I saw Casanova, Yuvinka’s mate, and Samba, her oldest offspring, join her in doing it! I was later able to video record Casanova using an entire branch of leaves and rubbing his chest with it  (see below). Having observed the behavior on several occasions, it was necessary to then identify the type of plant they were using. For this, we obtained the assistance of Juan Carlos Catari, a Bolivian biologist, who identified the species as Piper tuberculatum. Not only was this a closely related species to the plants used by capuchins, but chemical analysis suggests that is plant has insecticidal and anti-fungal properties!

This experience helps to bring to life many of the amazing life lessons you can learn being a field assistant for this project. First, titis will always surprise you. They do things you never expect, display intelligence beyond what many of us thought capable of their species, and are also very endearing. Second, these projects only work because you are part of a great team and support network. Without the help of Kim, Yuvinka, Vicente, and others in the house, this action would have just been a little side-note in my field journal and not turned into the adventure of discovery that really made my experience with G4. Finally, sometimes it pays to take a step back and take it all in. When running through the forest dodging roots and branches, we can often lose sight of the big picture. Take time to reflect on what you are doing, the opportunity you have, and the great support you have while there. Reflect on WHY you are there, what this information can do to further both our knowledge on these amazing monkeys but also on the impact that our species has on all of nature. At the end of the day, THAT is why many of you will come to the project and THAT is what you will take with you when you return home!

Wind of change

Hello everybody, my Name is Daniel, I study landscape ecology in Münster, Germany. The last 3 months I spent in Santa Cruz to collect data for my diploma thesis. Its about the vocalization of the Bolivian Grey Tit, but more about that below.
One of the most remarkable phase during the typical day of a titi usually starts between 6 and 9 in the morning.
The first family starts to sing a duett, so the adults and sometimes the older offspring start to vocalize together to point out which is their territory. And this gives the signal to all the other groups in Yvaga Guazu. Other groups start to vocalize and a small research site like Yvaga Guazu can become pretty loud.


G2 in action

Due the small and often overlapping territories in Yvaga Guazu different groups have different opinions about which part of the forrest belong to them, so the vocalization rate is much higher as in bigger research sites like for example the botanical garden in Santa Cruz with its round about 180ha.
My project lead me to Yvaga Guazu to find out how wind and the noise it produces influences the vocalization of the titis. Windy conditions influence the transmission of the monkeys calls, so it´s more difficult to transfer information to other families or to other members of their own group. So do the call louder? Do they call more often? Or do they modify their frequencies?
That´s what I tried to find out during the past three months when you could see me in field armed with micropohne and recorder.
Today I just finished my last day of field work and in a while the analyse will show how big the effects of the wind are.
So far I can say that it´s just awesome to hear the monkeys in the field. As the pictures show it´s not only about calling, it´s a pretty impressive performance.

GE making a statement