Want to know what the Monkeys Monitoring Project is about?

During the month of November, the staff and some volunteers started the monkey surveys which involve a beautiful 2 hour walk around the reserve, through jungle and river, with some amazing views of both ocean and mountain. There are both Capuchin and Howler monkeys in the reserve, the aim of the survey is to see how many there are, where they’re going, what they’re eating and what they’re doing.

Helen, from UK, is a volunteer that is currently participating on this. She shared her experience with us: “We go out on monkey surveys three times a week. While the route is the same every time we start in different places at random, we also go on different days at different times so we can get a more accurate picture of their routines and behaviour. This week we’re going out first thing on Tuesday, late morning on Thursday and Friday afternoon”.

Helen explained that sometimes they are unlucky when it came to monkeys but instead they can see a lot of other wildlife! But, a few days ago, in the second part of the trail they spotted monkeys. They stopped and watched them for 5 minutes recording the date, time, species, number of adults and babies, behaviour and gps co-ordinates. They counted 14 capuchin monkeys, including 5 babies, looking for and eating food. Were spotted in the banana trees but they were eating some other fruits too. Further along the trail they saw another 4 – perhaps the scouts of the same group still looking for food.

For the next patrols they are hoping to spot some Howlers, which are definitely heard around… and some more capuchins!!

Want to know more about Helen’s and other volunteers experience? Just click here!