Wageningen Week 5 Sam

Things here in Wageningen have been going very well. After finishing with the second week of the Animal Behaviour and Environment course, I have discovered a lot over the two week span. We presented the research material that we had been preparing over a week period of time in front of the class and then there was a short discussion immediately following. I really tried to speak slowly through my presentation, however it still was not slow enough, so that is something I will need to work harder on for the next time around with our final presentation. The critique mainly came from the professor and teacher of the course, concerning topics that we had been unable to find exact research on at that point. After a week of research, we learned that there was an infant Barbary macaque that the zoo requested we specifically observe. Therefore, we unfortunately discovered there was not much background research information available on the young concerning this exact species of monkey. Yet, in meetings the following day with our group (which consists of about 5 other pairs of students), our supervisor, the teacher and professor, we talked through any misunderstandings that arose the day before within our presentation. After only receiving positive feedback to this point, we finally received critique on this Wednesday, which is what we had been looking for, yet not to come the day before we began observing. We worked with the professor and teacher separately, only to discover they each had suggestions of different sampling methods, therefore we ultimately attempted to compromise between the two. We made everything work and it was one of the first days that we had to stay a bit longer than we usually have needed to, to make appropriate changes.

An advantage that we have noticed we have over the other students in the class, is that English is our first language, we think in English, we speak it, we write it. We have found that many students need much more time to write out the reports and presentations, as they have told us they sit there and talk about how to write it correctly in English. They speak much slower and use simple language, understandably so. We discovered exactly what they meant when we had to complete peer reviews of their background research introductions. The English in the paper I was reviewing was very poor and Allison and I barely knew where to begin, because we were unsure of how far we were supposed to critique. We were told to watch for sentence structure, not just content and becoming so brain washed and trained over the years caused this review to be much harder for us than intended.

However, our observations at the zoo have been great! We finally met the zoo keeper for our monkeys on Thursday morning before we began observing and she helped us to identify almost all 10 monkeys of the troop. We can finally pair names with key features and people probably think that we are crazy as they walk by and hear us speaking to the monkeys using their names. We are primarily interested in the infant who was born on May 16 and who she (we think it's a girl, as does the zoo) spends the most time with. So far we have found that there are 2 older males in the troop that spend a decent amount of time with her, her young mother spends the most and then there was quite a bit of drama in the troop Thursday when the youngest, very interested female of the troop stole the infant for over an hour. This was very nerve racking for us because she is very inexperienced, she has never had a young of her own and she was running around the habitat carrying our screaming subject by the neck. This went on for the longest time, zoo keepers kept coming by debating whether to get their manager, however there was not much to be done, as the zoo barely ever handles these monkeys. The head keeper came by later after the mom had her baby back finally and to our surprise we learned that this very female, named Kim, was the monkey who killed the infant that was born earlier this year, because she took it from the mother for too long. So now, you can only imagine how nervous we get any time Kim gets near our baby, as we feel the pressure is slightly resting on our shoulders for this infant to survive at least while it's under our watch. The funny part about it all however, is that from the start, Kim was our favorite monkey. She is the most energetic monkey in the troop because she is so young and she is definitely an instigator. Therefore, she's absolutely hilarious to watch, except when she goes after our baby. She is always near the mom and baby, or male + baby, trying to help groom or cuddle, which we thought was beyond adorable until she made her get-away when one of the males let the baby wander within a foot of him during their lunch. Friday's observation was much calmer, we were more familiar with the personality of each monkey and Kim fortunately did not get her little hands on the baby. We will observe at the zoo for 3 more days and then come back and analyze all of the data we have collected. Our sampling methods mainly focus on the specific behaviors of the infant, recording which adult she is with during each sample we take. We take proximity samples to see who is near her the most and then finally, a time budget scan of the entire troop throughout the day so we can ultimately give the zoo an idea of how they spend their time each day.

It has been a pleasure to observe at Ouwehand Zoo, the staff is great and I have really enjoyed watching these monkeys. I am excited for 3 more days with them and I have a feeling I will miss it as the end is approaching so quickly. Other than class work, we relxed in Wageningen for the weekend, gave our wallets a break and I enjoyed the town market on Saturday. However, we finally booked our trip to Berlin which I am quite excited for! I will likely post more pictures on photobucket of our darling baby and the other monkeys later on this evening. For now, I hope all is well with everyone back in the states and whoever is traveling anywhere and everywhere! We are jealous of the hot weather we keep hearing about, it has been overcast with bouts of rain for most of this week and we are missing 'summer weather.' However, I know I will regret saying that if it does get warm eventually with the lack of air conditioning! So far, so good!