Day 10 – Getting up close and personal with the Tourist Group
After a bit of a rest the previous day I was ready and willing to get loads more film of the Macaques. Sandra and her team were going to be working with the tourist group. We had a quick drive along to see if we could spot the green group, but unlike the rest of the week the macaques were not immediately visible. In order to not waste the good morning light I decided to film the tourist group. The macaques are noticeably bigger than the green group due to their plentiful diet of bread, peanuts fruit and whatever else the tourists feed them, alongside whatever else they forage, there is also much more rubbish at the tourist site, and lots more people. This would cause a problem with continuity when filming. Luckily the macaques are very used to humans so they let you get much closer than the green group. to get round the continuity problems I decided to try to film details such as hands during grooming, infants being carried, and teeth chattering. This worked very well, and throughout the day I got some lovely closeup shots.
My new assistant!
I also got to see one of Sandra’s experiments in action. It is two perspex boxes joined together on a frame with a sliding sledge upon which food is placed. A rope protrudes from the front of each box so that the monkeys can pull the sledge forwards to get to the food. In order for it to work two monkeys must pull both ropes simultaneously. It’s a test for cooperation between the macaques. It was fascinating watching the monkeys doing the experiment successfully, even if it may have been by fluke! After a few hours the macaques strength had got the better of the experiment, and they had broken the spar that connects the sledges with their determined pulling on the rope.
Sandra's experiment
After lunch I set a few timelapses of clouds going and sat back as they completed with nice results. The cloud was moving nicely across the sky. By this time my hayfever was getting the better of me, so I went back to film the macaques a bit more. I stumbled upon a woodpecker’s nest inside a dead tree trunk. the young were making a racket, chirping for food. I waited for a while and eventually got some footage of the adult arriving at the nest and feeding the chicks. Soon after this I got a call on the walkie talkie saying it was the weekend!
Timelapse of trees and clouds.
We headed back to the apartment. I backed up the cards, then we went out for a sandwich as a group of 4. I was amazed by the sheer number of people out on the street. the women were sitting on one set of benches, with the males sitting round the corner as well as loads of people milling around the shoe sellers on the pavements. We sat in one of the small parks along the main street to eat our dinner – I got hit by a football! The spicy sausage sandwich with chips was really tasty, however the 5DH cone of fresh donuts stole the award for delicious cheap food!
We all headed back to the apartments and arranged our plans for the following day.
Nan says she would have fallen out of the hammock (assuming she had got in) when the macaques came past in the morning
I struggled to get out! I spent another night in the forest this week too. No monkeys this time, but the stars were amazing. It’s so nice to be out here just doing this. I’ll update the blog again over the next few days hopefully with more tales of what’s been going on.