Ninja training

As you may have heard, I spend most of my time these days training. "But what is training all about?" you ask. Well, I will tell you, young padawan, how one becomes my field assistant in a few short steps.

Step 1: Learn the trail system. This came pretty easily to my ninjas-in-training because they live near the forest and are already familiar with its layout. In any case, the home ranges of our study groups are not extensive and the man that built the trails in the late 1960's was a birder. Birders like their trails like the streets of Manhattan - long, straight, and grid-like (that's so they can set up wall-like mistnets to safely trap birds as they cross trails). Most of the trails we use today are these.

Step 2: Identify monkeys. 

...First an interlude of some blue monkey basics: the monkeys that we study live in groups where members hang out more or less exclusively with one another. Usually, the group has a single adult male, multiple adult females, and all the females' infant and juvenile offspring. Females stay in the same group for their entire lives (!) whereas males usually leave the group where they were born just before they become adults. These brave young men leave either to find another group and become its lone resident male or embark on life as a lone bachelor. FYI: my lab sister Dr. SuJen Roberts did her dissertation about how males fare in these different lifestyles...

For my project, we collect behavioral and hormonal data on the juveniles, but we have to know everyone with whom the juveniles interact. Everyone! Every individual receives a name when they turn one (unfortunately, many of the infants don't survive to this age) and we recognize each animal using its natural features (we don't mark or tag the monkeys). 

Sometimes the identity of the monkey is obvious, like Tango on our left: an adult female with a dramatically arched brow like a crescent moon. Some monkeys, however, are not so obvious and can pose some difficulty to learn. Take the three pictured at right from top to bottom: Tanner (Tango's adult daughter), Paris, and Mini. All are young adult females that differ by the shape of their ears, noses, nipples, and (sometimes) tails.

There are many monkeys to learn (129!) and they don't always cooperate by making themselves seen. The process to learn all the monkeys is full time and can take several months. "That is crazy!!" you exclaim… or… wait, no, those are my thoughts. In all, we have 

• 45 individuals (+8 unnamed infants) in the group G-North,
• 29 (+7 infants) in the group T-West North, and
• 55 (+10 infants) in  T-West South.

At this point, I know everyone... I sense them by their unique auras and they come flocking to me like Cinderella's bluebirds and mice.

Step 3: Learn the ethogram. Ethos is Greek for way or nature and -gram means form, often implying the written form of a thing. Together, they refer to the codes we use to turn fluid behavior into discrete recordable entities. 

Some codes are used to record a subject's "activity" or what they're generally up to, e.g. resting, feeding, sleeping. Other codes record "events" or things that happen, e.g. an approach, a bite, a growl. In all, we have 81 codes for activities, events, feeding items, contexts, and other categories of behavior. I wrote all these… *brushes dirt off shoulder*. Because most of the behavior that I'm interested in is social, we combine ethogram codes with ID codes, which all 129 study individuals have, to write down a story of what our subjects do and with whom they do it.

Step 4: Learn to use a tablet. For many people back home, this would be the easiest of any step. Here in Isecheno, learning to navigate an Excel-like application using a touch-screen and qwerty keyboard is a significant challenge. 

We started with typing on a computer keyboard, testing on speed and accuracy with codes several times a week (see Sylvia to the left).

Soon after, all graduated to testing on tablets. We're getting there. Indeed, the ninjas are developing the bond with their weapons. See Sylvia to the right!

Step 5: The final step!!! Learn to put all this together in what we call a "focal follow". I'll let that mighty suspense build and say more when answering "what is data collection?" Stay tuned for exclusives on that, the data ninjas themselves, and our plush jungle lifestyle.

Lots of love,

Nicole

Sema! I'm in a place called the Kakamega Forest in western Kenya. More specifically, I'm living in the Isecheno forest station, amidst the homes of several forest rangers. My and my team's homes (pictured left) are nestled towards the back of the station on the forest edge and we receive regular visits from the local fauna (i.e. lots of monkeys).

What? Why? When? I'm here for the next 11 months straight to collect data for my PhD dissertation - a drop in the time-bucket in the grand scheme of things but a hefty time to be away from friends, family (e.g. fast-growing niece and nephews), and Netflix. Thankfully, I have some of the best friends in the world and they sent me here with a stash of encouraging letters for every month that I'm away (!!).  

The academic area that I work in comes with several names: behavioral ecology, behavioral biology, primatology, evolutionary anthropology, evolutionary psychology, etc., etc. My dissertation is about the benefits of social relationships, particularly those that occur during development. My study species is ... the blue monkey! No, no, isolating myself in East Africa is not a part of my experiment and the monkeys are actually grey. I do try to stay integrated in the local community and the monkeys are, nevertheless, very cool! You can see my buddy "Bike" (a 6 year-old teenager) pictured here on the left.

I arrived here via JFK-Heathrow-Nairobi at the beginning of the month, getting time to visit good friends along the way in Nairobi (hoping to catch London friends on another trip). All my belongings arrived unscathed! This was a great relief. Equipment for myself and three research assistants and copious amounts of sample tubes made for lots of precious cargo.

The atmosphere at camp is friendly and laid back - we currently have a great team of ex-pat American grad students, undergraduates, and assistants here for the summer (left: out at dinner at a field assistant's home). Most will leave at the end of July, fellow PhD student Maressa will be here until October, and Lauren the field manager and myself will be here until next May. Our good vibes are a huge answer to prayer! Working and living alongside the same people with limited space and means to maintain hygiene (…for extended periods of time) can make for a delicate situation to say the least.

Month #1 has been all about getting things settled and moving. My main agenda for June and July has been to train my data ninjas (aka field assistants) to flex their data ninja skillz (aka to collect data). Since my arrival at camp on June 5th, the daily schedule from 7:30 - 5:00 Mon - Fri has revolved around said ninja training. More exciting posts to come on what that entails! You can see us pictured at right, practicing our form. 

Stay tuned for the latest stories from the forest, including but not limited to... a showcase of data ninja and monkey profiles, clever how-to's for limited means of hygiene, a tell-all exposé on 'what the heck is data collection?', and more about why relationships are good for you. Please comment with any suggestions and/or requests for posts! Keep in touch.

Lots of love,

Nicole