Went out to observe wooly monkeys with Tony, Mauricio, Peter.\u00c2\u00a0 Attempted to track groups G and Y.\u00c2\u00a0 They used radio collar receiver, but had confusing time because, as near as I could tell, the two collars from the two groups kept showing up together.\u00c2\u00a0 The receiver is very basic.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a directional antenna, a channel selector, a frequency fine tuning knob, and a gain knob.\u00c2\u00a0 The collars send out an analog ping.\u00c2\u00a0 The stronger the signal, the louder the ping.\u00c2\u00a0 There was some confusion over whether the fine tuning knob tunes from the center of the channel frequency or the end.\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out it’s the center, with a 5 Hz adjustment to either side.\u00c2\u00a0 Also, the gain knob appears to filter out noise too, but that’s not entirely clear either.\u00c2\u00a0 This might be a place we can make a difference, either in building a new receiver, or better yet, finding one with a serial interface that could be attached to the Palm PDAs they use for taking notes. Tony mentioned it’d be nice to have the PDAs automatically location stamp each note with a GPS coordinate too.\u00c2\u00a0 That seems possible.\u00c2\u00a0 Might even be a pre-existing product to do it.<\/p>\n
A note on serial links between devices:\u00c2\u00a0 Consider Bluetooth or XBee. Wires between the things would be problematic, and the note taking PDA has to be in hand and in and out of pocket.<\/p>\n
Consider alternatives to Palm as well?\u00c2\u00a0 I need to see how they’re using them in more detail.<\/p>\n
Communication between team members: quite often in the field, a team of two or more will split up to track different members of a monkey group.\u00c2\u00a0 They use hoots and whistles to find each other.\u00c2\u00a0 They have occasionally used walkie talkies, but they don’t carry too far in the forest.<\/p>\n
GPS Failure<\/strong><\/p>\n The GPS micro-mini<\/a> is not giving us any useful results.\u00c2\u00a0 I have it attached to a Logomatic v2 datalogger<\/a>, and the logger is working great. The GPS is functioning normally, but not getting a lock.\u00c2\u00a0 On both trips out today, it’s never gotten a lock enough to get a position fix, even though it reports seeing 12 satellites.\u00c2\u00a0 It manages to get the time pretty consistently, indicating that it’s reliably getting at least one satellite’s signal, just not several. I wonder, would it be possible to make a version of the mini with an external antenna connection? Since the regular Garmin receivers that the team wears on their packs works well, it seems a small patch antenna might do the trick.<\/p>\n Went out in the afternoon with Tony and Margaret. That trip kicked my butt.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not even one to go hiking outside NYC on the weekend — what made me think a ten-day hiking and research trip in the Amazon was a good idea???\u00c2\u00a0 I was just not able to keep up, came home soaked in sweat and mud.\u00c2\u00a0 Fortunately, they were very patient with me.\u00c2\u00a0 Afterward, I took a cold shower, which may have been the best shower I have ever had.\u00c2\u00a0 Then I took a nap.\u00c2\u00a0 Naps is nice.<\/p>\n Monkey Pee, Monkey Poo<\/strong><\/p>\n Okay, so ornithologists get excited about seeing different species. Fair enough. Primatologists get excited about pee and poop. Much of what we did today was to walk around looking for poop samples.\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out Tony has an ear for it: “Falling poop makes its own unique sound” he said. Unfortunately I didn’t get to hear that sound today, but several monkeys dropped the rind of the fruit they were eating on me.<\/p>\n As for pee, I was curious how you get a urine sample from a wild monkey.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean, you can’t just ask them to pee in a cup. The answer: you need to have a thing for golden monkey showers.\u00c2\u00a0 You wait for them to pee, then syringe it off the leaves you can reach. They pee from 30 meters or so up, and it all rains down on you as you observe them.\u00c2\u00a0 Thankfully I was a meter or two out of the path, so no golden monkey showers for me.<\/p>\n There are countless toxins in the forest, and I am doing a pretty good job of encountering most of them.\u00c2\u00a0 Today: ant bite, which stings for a few minutes then is gone.\u00c2\u00a0 “Bitch moss,” which if it falls on you or you touch it, stings and itches like hell.\u00c2\u00a0 Tony and I both encountered that today, and his sting went away, but mine is still with me.\u00c2\u00a0 He thinks it’s also ant bites. Whatever it is, not fun.\u00c2\u00a0 “Bitch palms,” or spiny palms, trees that are just the right diameter for grabbing, and covered with spines that hurt like a bitch. Goes away after a few minutes, though.\u00c2\u00a0 I anticipate meeting more lovely toxins, but I sure hope not.\u00c2\u00a0 The stinging on my forearms and forehead is not fun.\u00c2\u00a0 Wear a hat and long sleeves, really. And did I mention the diahhrea?\u00c2\u00a0 Yeah, that too.<\/p>\n Oh yeah, the monkeys!\u00c2\u00a0 We saw lots of woolies today and followed them.\u00c2\u00a0 Also saw two cebuses, heard a bunch of howlers (really scary to hear the first time), and a bunch of spider monkeys as well.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s worth the hurdles to watch them in the wild.\u00c2\u00a0 We watched them eat, play, put on a show to try to scare us away, saw a couple monkey arguments, saw mothers carrying their young on their backs, and so much more. It’s not possible to describe how amazing it is, but I could watch them all day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 10 Jan 2009 Went out to observe wooly monkeys with Tony, Mauricio, Peter.\u00c2\u00a0 Attempted to track groups G and Y.\u00c2\u00a0 They used radio collar receiver,…<\/p>\n