5/15/01
Hello everybody,
I wanted to send a quick creature update from the rainforest front.
Yesterday I ventured into the forest for a short walk down a densely wooded trail. I don’t walk in the forest that often because the mosquitoes leave bites the size of quarters, and my fear of poisonous snakes keeps me tiptoeing down trails. The last time I walked down a trail by myself, I was nervously inching along, when a lizard bolted out of the brush, hopped over the trail in front of me, and scurried off into the woods. I screeched, jumped backwards, looked down at the trail and then saw a coiled up deadly Pit Viper at me feet. I quietly backed away from the Pit Viper with my heart racing in my chest and decided I wouldn’t walk in the forest for a while.
However, yesterday I gave it another shot. This time, as I tiptoed down the trail I saw a large branch around fifty feet from me dip down to the ground and bounce back up. It was a Howler monkey in the tree in front of me. Howler monkeys are only about a foot and a half long, but they make a sound like a Pit-bull being burned at the stake, and they can be heard from far away.
After seeing the Howler, I crept further up the trail to get closer to it. For fun I started trying to imitate the Howler call. All of a sudden I heard howls coming from all around me. I stopped, sat on the ground, and looked up above me into the trees. I was in the middle of a troupe of Howlers. I spotted one above me and then another jumping from a neighboring tree moving towards the tree above me. The big Howlers were growling and screeching as they gathered in the tree above me. Then, I heard a puppy-like whine and saw a baby Howler following its mom through the trees. The troupe became quiet and I looked up to see six Howler monkeys looking down at me. I stood looking up at them in silence as the forest grew dim. Glancing up at them I made the simple connection…no forest, no monkeys, and the forest continues to shrink around them.
This was the closest thing to a Jane Goodall, National Geographic moment that I may ever have. Take care all, Laura
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