part I: the first 1.5 weeks of the course "fieldmethods in primatology"

One and a half weeks ago the couse started with all of us meeting eachother. That morning the weather in Asuncion was crazy and some streets were completely covered in water,so bad cars could not even cross. We managed one street but in  the second street a car in front of us went so deep into the water we decided not to try. So after a long detour we ended up were we wanted to be, a kind of cafe in Asuncion where she gave us an introduction to the course. We did it here instead of where she had planned (a hill with a nice view along our way). One reason was the weather and the other one was that the luggage of one girl did not arrive so we were waiting till 11 to go and see if it arrived at the airport.

So after the introduction and a detour via the airport we made our way to San Rafael National reserve. This is atlantic forest which use to cover the whole east of Paraguay and continue in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Nowadays only 2% is left in Paraguay due to intens farming. It is sad to realize this especially if you see all the species that live in here, some species can only survive in this type of forest.

The last few days have been a mix of presentations, going out into the forest and learning and practising the things we learned in the presentations.

We saw the capuchin monkeys Thursday morning fort he first time when they woke up (we were in the forest from 4.30) and Friday morning we saw lots more capuchins and the howler monkey family that lives in this part of the forest. Also very early in the morning. So cool but also so hard to do observations on as you are looking up and they are relatively far away. We have also seen an agouti , burrowing owls. And wednesday i was leading the group (one of the things we are being trained for) and I almost stepped on a  snake. It was only 50 cm away, facing me. Luckily we were wearing snakeguards and the snake was just as shocked as I was and turned really quickly and dissapeared into the bush. Apparantly it was one of the ratsnakes (black with yellow dots.) After that I saw snakes in every thing on the ground that were just pieces of wood😊 hahahahaha… making me jump every time.

We saw lots of tucans, different species, some quite close so beautyfull. We also saw an agouti, burrowing owls, tegu (big lizard), very big toads and lots of butterflies and insects.

Last Sunday morning we had a really good sighting of the monkeys, we got up at 5.00 and were in the forest by 5.30. When it became light we could hear the capuchins but only briefly saw them. Me and another girl started following the howlermonkeys and than suddenly i looked at a tree and said that is not a howler but a capuchin. And soon after we saw lots of capuchins; some of them staring or threatening us, there was a mum and baby running away from us, and we got to enjoy a play of 3 capuchins in the trees hanging by their tales. So cool we were with them for half an hour before they moved on. We decided to follow the howler family a bit more which is also amazing. This family exists of mum, dad, juvenile and subadult. When we joined back together, the other group also saw the capuchins and one female apparantly gave birth that day or the day before. So we were all really happy and went back for breakfast.

The last few days have been cold out here and we had crazy rains, it gets so crazy out here you cannot use the roads anymore as they turn into either a river or a slippery mudpool.

But on Monday it was finally dry enough to go to the waterfalls, which is 45 min drive from where we are on mudroads. Crazy path to the waterfall clinging onto roots for grip but worth it. I was the only one up for a swim so I went in and than another girl joined which was nice we had a lot of fun under the waterfall which was massaging our back.

The techniques we have learned so far:

• We had a darting competition this morning (we used the blowpipe as you can use this in capuchins, its a long pipe where you can put the dart in and than aim at the animal). We practised on a box from different distances and depending on where we hit it we got points. And guess what I won😊
• We practised with tracking the collar. The collar is like a neckless but then tighter, you put it around the neck of the animal, so you can trace it). First we would hide it for eachother and pratise with the tracker which was a lot of fun. But the next day Rebecca (our teacher) was pretending to be a monkey and dissapeared into the forest with the collar and we had to go find her with the tracker. This was really good fun and it took us 1.5 hours to find her.
•  We are working with the GPS, but still not understanding a lot. We will get some games with the GPS as well, so we can pratise.
•  We learned to lead the group and listen for the monkeys and see danger comming
• We have learned different observation techniques and putting field data into a spreadsheet
•  To walk quietly around the forest and listen
• We have journal club in which we get scientific articles to read and question them, in order to prepare us for writing papers (that mainly applies for PhD or master students)

So quite a bit learned already and looking forward to what is comming.