We
lost two females from two different groups this month. I have no idea what
happened, they just disappeared. Our study revolves around the adult females,
including these two, Derby and Lily. Years of data have been collected on them
and now they are gone without any explanations. But that is typical when you
study free-living animals and you can’t interview your research subjects, no
one can tell us the last time Lily was in the group, or what happened just
before Derby disappeared. And anyone who has studied primates knows that you
become attached to them, no matter what you do. I know it probably doesn’t make
that much of a difference to Dude, Derby’s youngest son, that she is no longer
in the group, maybe he will be groomed less for now but eventually he will get
too big and have to leave the group anyway. It does make me a little sad to
think that he just lost his mom though (but I am quite attached to the little
guy, he is just so cute).
I
have my suspicions about what happened to Lily, but Derby I have no idea. It is
not unusual for her to disappear for days at a time. For those of you who know
Ripley (the capuchin), she reminds me a little of her, she is very strange,
very wary of people, but she has the best kids. Derby had a new infant this
year and back in June she disappeared for about a week. When she reappeared the
infant was gone and she wasn’t using one of her legs. No one has any idea what
happened to her then. So now she is gone again, and she has been missing since
September 24th. I can accept that these monkeys are inevitably going
to die, and if it was due to predation, an illness or injury that is what is
supposed to happen, but it is the not knowing that gets to me!
I
suspect that Lily was poached. She was in the G-south group that is constantly
harassed by poachers. She was last seen on the 20th of September. I
was out with the group the day after that and ran into a young boy carrying a
machete and hiding something round and soft looking up his shirt. As soon as he
saw me, he turned and disappeared into the forest.
This
is so much harder to accept and incredibly frustrating! In a way it feels like
it is my fault, I should have been there to protect them, but I know it’s not,
I can’t be there all the time. I have talked to the forester about poaching in
the area, the assistants have talked to the forester, and the managers before
me have talked to the forester but nothing has been done. All they need to do
is send a guard out there every now and then; if people start to see them out
there maybe they will move on. But that isn’t really a solution either, because
the hunters will just move on to other monkey groups and hunt them. So many of
the tree poachers and hunters I run into out there are young children who are
taught to do this by their older siblings or parents. They too will teach their
children to cut down trees and hunt monkeys and it will keep going on until
there is nothing left. KEEP, the environmental ed program, is doing what they
can to educate young people about the forest and I think they are doing some
great things but I am afraid I am not very hopeful for the future.
This
group now has officially split into two, sometimes three parties and I think a
big part of the reason is pressure from being hunted. Part of the group has
sought out new territory. Now, this new male, Sawa, has displaced Milo, who has
been in charge since earlier this year. Milo disappeared, no one ever saw a
fight, we just found the group one day and Sawa was in charge. Those three same
females plus two more went missing as well. Last week they were found even
farther away and Milo was with them. The area they are now in is even closer to
the village where all the hunters come from and yesterday four men and two dogs
were seen in the vicinity. I am very worried.
That’s
enough depressing news for now.
The
monkeys around the village are as naughty as ever. Quack, a juvenile male,
reached into my backpack the other day and stole a bag of cookies. Funny thing
is, he didn’t even get to enjoy them, they were stolen from him by Durham, and
then stolen from him by Purple, the largest of the juvenile males.
There
is really nothing fruiting in the forest at the moment and the monkeys have all
been eating leaves and fighting over a few fruiting figs. In the middle of the
forest station there is a tree nursery and people collect seeds from all over
the forest and lay them out to dry in large troughs. These troughs have lids
and any holes are plugged with rocks and pieces of wood, but they are not
monkey proof. The other day the group was in the nursery and they removed these
rocks and pieces of wood, and Quack found a loose screw on the lid and
completely removed it. They sat there and devoured the collected seeds.
My
friend Prisca convinced me again that I needed to have my hair braided and
found someone to come to the house and do it on my off day. Three painful hours
later my entire head was covered with braids. All the Kenyan women in the
village told me I looked very smart, I wasn’t so sure about it until I went
into town on the following off day and everyone at the market gave me
discounts. I only kept the braids in for about a week and it took just as long
to take them out as it did to have it done. They are already planning for me to
have it done again and although the discounts at the market are nice I think I
might skip out on it.
There
won’t be an update from me for next month as I will be on safari with my mom,
Mo, and Jackie! I am really looking forward to seeing some more of Kenya.
