zombie [girl] zaaAaaaAwwmbie [girl..]

i'm fairly sure that a little part of my psyche died today. i woke up monkeys today after about 9 hours in the field yesterday and about 7 the day before. waking up monkeys entails rising at about ohh 3:30am and hiking at a fast pace to their sleeping tree. we found them drinking coffee and reading the new york times in a guanacaste tree at around 5:00am.

guanacaste is a neat troop because the juveniles have massive play bouts that are pretty entertaining to watch. here is a video i took of them playing near the ground.

Untitled from K. Suzie Fatkin on Vimeo.

action shot from playtime.


i am pretty sure that maxine hates me because yesterday she scared the wits out of me about 8 times. i would be trying to id another monkey, or watching a play session, or having sexy time with malfoy and all of a sudden i would look to my left and about an armlength away would be maxy, threatfacing me. it reminded me of a cheesy horror film where they show really close up shots of the disfigured killer (maybe with psycho music in the background?)... here's a picture i took of her threat facing with a subadult male.


she usually threat faces with the alpha male babaganouj (who transferred from Los Valles aka the food group.) when he came into the group he killed all of the infants (infanticide) so that the nursing females would go into estrus quicker and he could sire the new infants (hypothesis). he's a bruiser. i want to make a tshirt with a picture of him that reads "this is NOT what a feminist looks like." muah muuuaah.


yesterday was also the first time that i navigated the forest by myself. we all split up (and i didn't even have a gps) and walked trails separately to cover more ground. it was alone time that i desperately needed.. and i also got to enjoy the forest, hearing and seeing more than i can with another hiker. here are some picture s that i took during my hike.

this is monkey comb. according to the natural history of costa rican mammals, capuchins have been seen to rub themselves with monkey comb.


an acacia tree (which has ants that live in its thorns in a symbiotic relationship... and their bite hurts like crazy-- DOUBLE THREAT!!).


penguin bromeliads (Bromelia pinguin) have thorns all along their leaves and are all over! the capuchins like to eat their fruit.


this is what we would call a "trail." see the two flags? yeah i don't either.


and here is a portrait of me with the monkeys...


oh yeah! and i did a practice focal follow (where you follow an individual for 10 minutes and record everything they do) of maxine and she ate three baby birds. and they were still alive as she bit into their naked flesh flitting and flapping about. alright. i'll leave you with that image.

the "harry potter" troop

Today marks the second day searching for the Guanacaste group which happens to be named after harry potter characters. Some researcher apparently loved these books. We searched yesterday for about six hours and found them once they took off their invisibility cloaks (muahh muahh) around 9:30 am. Well that’s when Valerie found them. It took Tamara and I about an hour to locate the others through the rain due to the fact that we were at the other side of the park.

I must say that this group was worth the wait. Malfoy got me all hot and bothered, being one of the most handsome males I have ever seen. I guess I always go for the mischievous ones. Here is a picture of him from the Santa Rosa database that I study in order to better ID monkeys.



Mr. Muggles was damn cute as well. Dumbledore is an old wizard..


and Maxine is missing part of her nostril. She's what we would call an ugly monkey.

see it?? I hope so.

I also saw a slender hognosed pitviper, which are very venomous! it was beautiful!


phshwew... the guanacaste monkeys provided for a magical day (muakity muak muak-- if this turns out to be my group you better be ready for a lot of that).

IDing monkeys

well, my first field day has come and gone. valerie's easin' us into it, so we only spent about 5 hours out in the field. here is a before-the-field picture..



the day was spent first looking for monkeys, and second IDing them after we found them. IDing monkeys is important for data collection... you have to know who is doing what to whom... if you know what i mean... dos leches, blanquita, and kathy lee were all adult females that i could correctly identify... the juveniles and males were a bit harder to ID. you should SEE blanquita's cleavage though... MAN. hot.

below is valerie, my boss, and my fellow monkey researchers-- tamara, jeffrey, and dave!! we're excited.




there are two infants in the Los Valles group. Chai and Thyme. Thyme (Salsa's baby) is so small. They call her Salsa's rat baby shawl... pretty soon all of my conversations are going to be this monkey code, and i'll be talking on my dictaphone, and entering in data on my psion, and gpsing, and using my compass... christopher guest should get a hold of this action while it's hot.

below is the first monkey picture of the field! i think it is nutmeg? maybe? it could be mousse. i get them confused because they are both small immature males..


interwebbing in hammocks, drinking costa rican coffee, and having the forest as your backyard in a tough life.

baby you could be famous if you just get out of this town...

i wanna let y'all know that i've made it quite nice here in the guanacaste region of costa rica (which is the cowboy region by the way-- i thought that was very fitting considering my recent knack for western one liners)...

once we got through customs and such and made it to the park, we were greeted by a mother agouti and her four nursing babies. where were they when their brothers were suckling at their mother's teat? ughh.. at the next one over.

we're going out in the forest tomorrow to meet the Los Valles monkey troop, who have names such as nutella, dos leches, and chutney... i guess hiking 12 hours a day makes for a hungry researcher...

well that's all my weary bones have for you this evenin'.

the inbetween period.

i have never dealt with "inbetween periods" with much patience or grace. so please refrain from saying things like i am so sad you're leaving! or we have to hang out before you go! or i'm going to miss you sooOOoo much! or goodbye!. rather, you should say bon voyage! or get the hell out of athens! or lylas.. lOvE ya LoTs! or i never want to see you again! don't you think that would be more appropriate?

if you have not seen the white-faced capuchin (the monkey i will be studying) here is a picture that i took on my study abroad trip in the fall of 2006. i will be studying the sexual strategies of males... in two weeks. time BOMB. inagoodway?

i got a laptop. with a webcam. so we can squipe all night long... oh yeah.

i am currently reading the fountainhead. it is one of the first books i have been able to read in a while. and i am listening to mook and dreaming of paul dano.