Tufted Capuchins

This week my monkey spotting has been pretty successful, I've seen them 4 times in the last 4 days which apparently is pretty good going. The tufted capuchin (Cebus libidinosus paraguayanus) project that I am involved with is still in the process of habituating the monkeys to human presence so that they can be observed more easily and for longer. At the moment they make alarm calls as soon as they spot us (which usually happens before we spot them)  and then move off or 'melt' into the forest, often into patches where there are no trails so extending and maintaining the trail networks has been is a big part of the project. Every time we spot them we use the GPS to note down the coordinates then mark them on the map of the forest courtesy of monkey intern Georgia. Like most wildlife the best time to find them is dawn and dusk. I've been getting up just before 6, taking the puppy for a walk and watching the sunrise then heading into the forest for about 6:30. Usually they are seen alone or in pairs, the largest group sighting was 9 individuals and today I saw 8 although there could have been more - they dispersed pretty quickly. When in these large groups the dominant male usually draws your attention by jumping into the tree above your  head to allow the other members of the troop to get away. This is a picture of the dominant male mid-flight as he attempted to distract me from the others. It worked.

The trails in the South side of the forest are becoming really overgrown and since last weeks storms a lot of trees have fallen down onto them. I had to machete through 4 trees and make new trails around 2 in the last few days. Unfortunately for me one of these had a wasp nest in it and before I new it I had 2 wasps fly at me like miniature darts and sting me in the neck. Georgia has had  4 wasp attacks in the last 4 days so I'm feeling pretty lucky overall.

The reserve owner has a small ranch for tourists to take horse rides through some of the trails. So far I haven't seen anyone riding any horses, they all see to be free range and go where they want. This morning a mare and foal where grazing just outside the house. Most the horses are pretty wild but as I came out of the forest a few days back a stallion came over to see If my rucksack was edible. His herd followed closely behind him inquisitively.

Here is the common potoo (Nyctibius griseus) that we spotted on our night walk last week.

In other news - the camera traps are being placed in the Cerrado in hope that we catch some images of the maned wolves. We now have two Dutch girls who arrived on Wednesday to do a study on opposum and the Hilux broke down in the river just outside the house. Apparently it's not so hardy after all.

Yesterday it got to 34 degrees and the heat was stifling, today it's supposed to reach 37! So I'm off for a swim in the lake.