My Ocelot Adventure

The Guanacaste Tree.
The ocelot was found in the center of this tree.
Picture taken from high in the canopy in another tree.

Blurry photo of ocelot taken with point and shoot through binoculars.

It's about time I talk about one of the coolest adventures I have had while following monkeys. A few weeks ago I was on an evening run and ran into a group of monkeys I had been searching for. Given that there was not much daylight left, I had to note where the monkeys were and get up early the next morning to return to that spot hoping they hadn't moved far (they sleep through the night). Of course, that night I went to bed late and then my body decided to wake up at 3AM and run some statistical analyses on my data...why? Couldn't tell you. However, come just before sunrise I returned to that spot and found that group of monkeys at a fig tree nearby. Running on little sleep, I was hoping the monkeys would treat me relatively nicely and stay at the fig for a while so I could drink my morning coffee in peace, but alas, they are monkeys and decided to move on. At first we were moving at a constant and slow pace, then all of a sudden the monkeys took off running at high speed and alarming at the top of their lungs. This is not all that unusual when they see something that might be a threat to them and, specifically, their infants -a nice size meal for a boa or a cat. We stopped running when we reached a massive Guanacaste tree. Usually these bouts of agression result in the presence of a snake, so I proceeded to approach the very large Guanacaste tree trunk to situate myself underneath its branches and entangled vines where snakes tend to hang out. I was not finding anything through my binoculars, but I did start to notice that the monkeys were not looking in the branches or the vines, they were racing up and down the widely splayed-out Guanacaste branches alarming at something in the center of the tree. Whatever was at the center seemed mobile, more mobile than a snake would be, because the monkeys would quickly run away away after approaching it threatening it over their shoulders on their way to a safe distance. I realized in this moment that I should probably walk a sizeable distance away from the tree trunk as well. I tried looking down into the center of the tree from a pile of dirt that gave me a bit of elevation, but the creature was proving to be quite well hidden in a nice basin formed by the tree trunk. Luckily, there was a fantastic tree to climb right next to me with twisty branches -perfect to hang on to while I pulled myself upwards. I tried viewing the creature at each branch I reached, but I could not make out what it was until I reached the top of the forest canopy -that is how perfect this tree-trunk basin was as a hiding place from terrestrial animals. To my delight, sitting there calmly was a beautiful ocelot! At first it did not know I was there and seemed to just want the monkeys to go away so it could get back to sleep. The monkeys would usually be upset at me if I was in a tree while they were around, but they proceeded to "head-flag" me -a behaviour used to team-up with another monkey when a predator or a misbehaving monkey is pissing them off. Although the monkeys were treating me like one of them, as soon as I blew a mosquito away with one breath (because one hand was holding on for dear life to the tree I was in and the other was holding onto my point and shoot as I was taking a video of the ocelot) the ocelot made a quick turn with his head to see where such a strange noise came from. Our eyes met -his take up half his face. He seemed curious and weary at first, here was a very large monkey that did not look quite like the others. Keep in mind that the monkeys were still alarming at the cat, vocalizations that carry several hundreds of meters, yet the ocelot's hearing was sensitive enough to notice a strange and very faint sound among the surrounding loud noises and pin point my exact location high up in a tree. Eventually the ocelot started grooming itself, as if nothing was happening. Meanwhile, I'm hoped-up on sleep-deprived and predator-induced adrenaline, shaking from that and from whole-body muscle contraction as I maintained a one-handed and branch straddling grip to avoid a 25-30 meter encounter with the terra ferma from which I had just climbed with all of my gear and in no time at all. Needless-to-say, I was incredulously happy! I could not stop smiling! I am not a big-cat person and certainly do not go out looking for them (I actually prefer to see a coyote...did you know that they have piercing blue eyes here in Santa Rosa? They touch my soul...), but I had only ever seen an ocelot one other time and it was with several other people in 2009. We had been called out via radio to see the ocelot because the monkeys found it and it was in a good viewing spot. This time, I was alone with the monkeys and had no one to call! I stayed with the ocelot long enough (about an hour) to see the monkeys eventually leave it alone, so for a little while it was just me and the ocelot! This was truly a unique and liberating experience. I don't know if I'll ever spend that much time alone with a wild, solitary cat again in my lifetime. I am pretty darn lucky. My luck is emphasized even more by the fact that the monkeys had taken me to an area of their home range I had never visited before and we were quite far away from the administrative area (compared to where this group usually hangs out).

If you look closely at the "V" in the large tree trunks, you can see the back of the ocelot's head. Their ears have large white bands on the back of them -a unique characteristic to the ocelot.

It eventually started to rain suddenly and fairly hard, which added an element of wildness to the whole experience, but the ocelot did not like that as I'm sure the basin in which he sat was quickly filling up with water. He got up and sat on the edge of the basin, then disappeared. He returned briefly, then disappeared again and that was it. I was astonished at how quickly he could escape my sight and yet, he waited an hour to do so. His stealthiness was humbling, another aspect of the experience that proved how incredibly lucky I was.

I took as many photos and videos as I could with my point and shoot (and sometimes through my binoculars), but none of them really turned out all that well. This is in part because of the limitations of a point and shoot camera, especially when taking pictures from above in a tree, and in part because the combination of my adrenaline-fuelled sweat and the environmental humidity fogged the lens fairly heavily. I have attached the best ones and the ones that were not too big here.

All of that and I was home by 10:20AM. That was the best morning coffee I had ever had.

Back to the Dry Season

On a more interesting note: the seasons have changed again here in Santa Rosa. As you can see as Pickles munches down on a Stemmedania obovate fruit the sun beams down on flowers around her and blue bird sky reaches out in the distance.

Traveling Through 3 Ecosystems in 12 Days

I left my forest of solitude for 12 days to attend a couple of meetings and hang out with friends I haven't seen in almost a year, but only for about a day (or an hour) each. In this 12 day period I went from mould-your-hanging-clothes humid weather with temperatures rarely dropping below 30 degrees Celsius to desert-like dryness and temperatures reaching 20 degrees below zero…yes, this is a 50 degree difference from what I am used to. I traveled through the tail end of Hurricane Sandy and full force through a snow storm in Edmonton, with the ladder delaying my flight to Victoria (how ironic!). I saw a couple of seals and a river otter playing in the ocean by the beach on "the island" where fall colours fell off trees. I flew back to the ice box that same night to dance like a maniac to Delhi 2 Dublin and party until the next morning -less than 24 hours before I hopped on a flight back to Costa Rica. Needless to say, I was a little tired, unsure of the time zone, temperature or what day it was upon my return. But there is no doubt I am (especially my water-deprived skin) happy to be back in this noisy, but vehicle- and city light -less jungle. Unfortunately, I am here only for another month, then I do not know when I will be back. Could be a few years. I have never known a place so well, it will be extremely difficult to leave. Having made contact with the "real world" if only briefly, but recently, reminded me that very few people will understand the loss and pain I will undertake come my departure. I will do my best to soak up every last minute...while I try to write a thesis at the same time.