The Monkeys Fling Poo

The number one reason I wanted to come to Costa Rica was to see monkeys in the wild. The first day everyone found out that the only Spanish I learned in preparing for this trip was "Donde esta los monos?" (Where are the monkeys?). At our first location in Monteverde we saw white-faced monkeys in the trees before we even had lunch. Even the cafeteria workers somehow found out I was the monkey fan and pulled me aside to show me more white-faced in the trees behind the building. After a few days of staying at our station in Carara National Park it seemed like every study team had seen monkeys in the jungle but ours. I went out with part of the biogeography team yesterday afternoon out of boredom and the desire to see some jungle creatures. We got far enough into the jungle to see a full and digesting bird-eating snake but the ominous thunder forced us out before our equipment got soaked by a tropical downpour (nothing like the rain in Bellingham). I've taken two showers in the rain so far but that's another story. We were no more that 30 feet from the trail exit when Sam called out "hey spider monkeys!" I was ecstatic! There were 4 or 5 skinny-limbed brown monkeys swinging from the trees right above our heads; it was like something off Planet Earth but it was real and right there! I started taking pictures and quickly learned that the flash couldn't reach them so I took a couple of videos of them stretching from tree to tree. I started to follow them down another path when I heard Louis behind me call out "AHH they pooped on me!!" and he came running and gagging with poop on the shoulder of his shirt and on the screen of the YUMA satellite monitor he was trying to take pictures with. "Ohh it smells so bad!" he screamed between gags. He then ran off down the trail to our station for a shower and Sam followed him back to make sure he was ok. I continued to follow the spider monkeys a few more feet down the path until a large stick fell through the trees and vines at an alarming rate, nearly hit my head as I screamed and landed right in front of me. The monkeys were throwing things at me! I decided that those two clues meant they did not want to be followed and I headed back to the station. I guess the moral of this story is that you may want to approach wild animals in the rainforest but they don't always want you around and they will let you know it.

Andrea Magnuson