Update on our Intrepid Trio of Monkeys

Hi everyone, this email is just in from Sylvain, from his last trip to Calabar! July, Nko and Bebi are still doing great 58 days post release - read on.

"They are remaining a tight group, and seem to have settled in the same area they started. The past few weeks they have not moved too much as there are plenty of fruits in the area they originally settled. For the past week they have explored further in the several point locations they visited previously, apparently searching for other trees or fruiting trees they haven;t visited much before. The location and type of fruiting trees is of course constantly changing, and one of species that was laden with fruits last month will soon have no fruits left, but there is still another species which bears a lot of fruits per tree. The days they don't eat much fruit they spend moving in the lower layers of the forest, as well as spending a good deal of time foraging on insects in forest gaps -very often places where a fallen tree has recently opened the forest.

The relative size of the home range has not increased since last time, except one day where they came ventured further to the west, but quickly returned at the end of the day to one of their usual sleeping site.

One new development is that all three have contracted an infection of a parasite called a 'tumbu fly' - this is when a very tiny fly larvae burrows into the skin and grows there into quite a large grub after a few weeks, and is then expelled -they can be quite painful, particularly if infected by many. They have been treated to prevent further infection and are doing well now.

We didn't see other monkeys in the vicinity of ours for a long while, but just last week, I observbed an adolescent male red-eared very close to the crown of the tree where our trio were. They didn't see him until he moved - then July simply loud called without moving, and the red-eared male fled making short calls. The next morning at 600 am, other red-eared guenons were very close to the group. July and Nko then chased them, July making threat booms and hack calls. It's on one of their regular resting places, with two closed fruiting trees. It is difficult to know however if the others fled due to the monas' territorial behaviour, or to the human presence, or both. For example when the young red-eared started to move away he saw me and Nko saw him more or less at the same time, and typical of the behaviour of formerly hunted species which are shy of humans. These interactions are anyway very interesting, and the evolution along the time of these interactions will be full of information."

cheers, Sylvain

This is interesting, as often mona, red eared and putty nosed guenons will form mixed feeding groups in the wild - will our monas do this in future or are they preventing interaction- or are the red eareds too afraid of our human observers to stick around? It is hard to say at the moment for sure, but time will tell! Stay tuned for further updates on our trio.

A routine emerges for our Trio of monkeys

Here is a second installment from Sylvain on our trio's adventures in the forest:

"Their days are divided in several parts with a time allocated to foraging and feeding activities between 6 and about 10 to 11 am. The two females, Nko (pictured below foraging on the forest floor) and Bebe spend this time foraging for arthropods on leaves and widely dispersed fruits from vines, climbers and small trees from the understorey, while the male remains in the high crown, which often is bearing a lot of high energy fruits. This strategic position in the top of the forest is likely vigilance and territorial behaviour, and seems to allow him to look at the surroundings for specific fruiting trees, and possibly for potential intruders or even predators. The latter part of the morning and the early afternoon are spent in all together in the lower layers. They are much closer together during this time, and spend a long time on social grooming and resting in sunny open places, especially by the July and Nko, while the youngest female, Bebe, continues to forage, mostly on insects close by. From 2 to 5 pm, the females start to move again in the lower canopy where there are many lianas, while July stands resting and looking around in higher positions. The females move slowly in this forest strata, their movements mostly determined by their foraging activity. A second resting and socializing session is often observed around 4 pm, and now Bebe is also included. The late evening is devoted to fast movements in the emergent trees of the forest by all 3 members of the group, accompanied by foraging and storage of fruits into the cheek pouches. They usually stop moving around 6 pm after the sun sets on upper larger branches of emergent trees.

These first weeks in their new place show an encouraging pattern of how the monas adjust to their new environmental and social pressures. They have already met other primates species (putty-nose (Cercopithecus nictitans) and red-eared (Cercopithecus erythrotis) guenons). This included mixed-species groups, putty-nose all-male groups and a solitary red-eared male. Theses interactions so far have been mainly territorial - loud hack calls and display by the males of each group once visual contact has been established. On only one occasion have they been observed interacting with other primates: a solitary male red-eared was observed very close to the monas, eating on fruits that they had foraged on earlier. July, the large male leader of our trio, was observed chasing this male from fruiting crown twice, until the latter flees out of sight.
And finally, last but not least an exciting observation-- mating between July and the youngest female, Bebi. We really look forward to knowing if this group is able to breed and then increase the group size, genetic pool and social links between the individuals.
To conclude, although all these described patterns are for the moment anecdotal and general observations, as it is to early to assess any kind of statistically significant trends and patterns, it presents a motivating and encouraging picture of the adaptation and/or acclimatization of the released group to their reintroduction in a natural habitat."