michael see, monkey do

At long last, Chris stumbled upon the group we were searching for at around 10 o'clock yesterday morning. There's about 20 individuals, including some really adorable infants. We spent the rest of the day following the group through the same area we had been searching for the previous two days. However, after following them for two days straight (we found them relatively easily this morning) we have a a pretty good idea of where to find them come Monday. We've only been in the field since Wednesday, but we're all pretty exhausted, so tomorrow will be a welcome day off.

Right now we're not collecting any data, as the group needs to be re-habituated. A group of masters students habituated this group last year, but the group (called the green group) hasn't been observed since March. This means we spend the day following them and pretending not to be interested. It's more challenging than I thought it would be, but tons of fun.


This is a Google Earth image of our field site (it's shaped like an oven mitt). It's much more hilly than it appears to be, and so far we've been able to stick to the northern half, but you never know...

In other news, we were invited to have dinner with the landlord (Ab-Jaheem) and his family. It was absolutely delicious, but it made me vow to learn more French. Of the four of us, I am the least competent with the language, and so just ended up smiling and saying "oui" and "oui, bien" whenever they asked me a question. Chris assures me that he started out the same way, and I'll soon pick it up. I think I'll spend a good part of tomorrow with Rosetta Stone.

Yum.