Why habituate?

When you set out to study primates in the wild there are a lot of things to consider. What are you looking to find out? What species will best answer your question? What habitat do your primates live in? Is that country even safe to travel to? As you narrow down these choices you are narrowing down your choice of field site. Are you going to an established field where the primates are already habituated to the presence of people or are you going to establish a site and habituate a new population?

Habituation? What is that? Habituation is an on-going process whereby study animals lose their fear of humans through frequent neutral exposure to researchers. The loss of fear eventually leads to the study subject ignoring the observers. Behavioural studies of non-habituated primates yield very little results, since it is often not possible to observer natural behaviours, as they tend to flee as quickly as possible or only threaten observers.

How long this process takes is dependant on both the species of primate you are dealing with and the situation at your site. Bushbabies (Galago spp.) can be habituated in an hour, chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) in 2-5 months and lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) can take anything from 5-15 years (Williamson & Fiestner, 2011). When I arrived at Laguna Blanca the capuchin monkeys were completely unhabituated and the older monkeys had almost definitely been hunted during their lifetimes. I knew it was not going to be easy, I didn’t know just how hard it would be!

Photo Credit: Anna O'Riodan

Finding the capuchins was challenge number one. There are several different ways to search for your primates. You can sit and wait in an area that you know they will pass through; you can walk around their home range looking for them or provision animals at selected locations (although this has its own risks and should be done with care). The forest fragment in Laguna Blanca has a trail system that allows us access through the dense, spiky vegetation. Capuchins are not the quietest of creatures. They are very destructive foragers and can be heard at quite a distance crashing around in the trees. The noise of the capuchins moving in the trees was my auditory cue, alerting me to their presence long before I saw them. Once I had located the capuchins it was always tempting to hide from them and watch their fascinating behaviour but to achieve habituation you have to be seen, even when you know it means they will probably run away. 

The trail system of Laguna Blanca Atlantic Forest.

Subadult capuchin foraging in a Ka'i KaGua tree

During my first few months, when I did manage to find them, they always fled. It was frustrating to say the least. As time passed, I began spending longer and longer with them. The adults would threaten me and break branches and try and drop them on me while the juveniles played chicken to see who could get closest to me. Now it is nearly 4 years later. O Group is much more habituated to my presence than F Group and slowly getting to know their personalities has been so rewarding. I still get threatened every now and again and, when they get really mad, sticks thrown at me. However, now they tolerate my presence and let me have glimpses into their lives. It has been a long road to get to this point but when I see the monkeys feeding or grooming one another it feels like a privilege and I am amazed at how lucky I am to get to spend so much time with these fascinating creatures.  

My boy Damien. He will always be my favourite.