Ryleigh Repass

Field Study Spring 2014

Working With Wildlife

I spent four months working at a rehabilitation center for black howler monkeys in
Argentina. During this time, I worked hands on with the animals in caring for them and
aiding in their survival. Although this is mainly a rehabilitation center for black howler
monkeys, we also took care of capuchin monkeys, pumas, goats, llamas, pigs, dogs,
cats, donkeys, horses, turtles, and roosters. In other words, we had our hands full. Day
to day, the small number of volunteers would wake up to the sound of the monkeys
performing their normal morning howl. We would start our day around 7 am and end by
10pm. Some of the daily morning activities included removing the sick monkeys from
the indoor hospital and bringing them to outdoor cages, cleaning the poop, pee, and
food from the various cages, cutting fruits and vegetables for the monkeys, and feeding
the 60+ dogs individually.
The significant part of my work rested in my learning about wildlife management
and the issues that surround it. In the four months I spent working, many problems
became apparent. First of all, money was the biggest and most pertinent issue. Every
day was a struggle to provide enough food for all the animals. We were given a small
percentage of money from different organizations including Projects Abroad and
received a small amount from the Argentinian government for taking care of the dogs.
Otherwise, the land and the rehabilitation center were privately owned and did not
receive federal funding. In order to make enough money on a day to day basis, we
provided tours to tourists from all over Argentina. Although, I soon found out that this
was not a reliable source of income. On some days we would have hundreds of tourists

but on others we would not even have a single one. It was due to this unreliability that
we were forced to change the diet of the monkeys almost daily.
When we had sufficient funds the monkeys received fruits and vegetables.
Namely carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, zapatillos (small pumpkins),
apples, oranges, and bananas. We also provided them with cooked rice, polenta, pasta,
and loafs of bread. For the most part, all monkeys received the same share of food
except for the sick ones. The sick monkeys were given a special milk blend and had to
have their food cut up into very thin bits. Furthermore, I partook in observing certain
monkeys that were acting differently and helping with medication for the sick monkeys.
Often times, proper medication was difficult to come by so we had to separate out the
sick ones and keep a close eye on them. Sick monkeys often acted sluggish, had pale
faces, and did not eat. I was never told of a diagnosis if there was one.
Another major part of my work was providing feedback on the groups of
monkeys. For example, we attempted to create groups of monkeys that would be able
to survive in the wild. We did so by familiarizing the monkeys with each other in a semi
large cage for upwards of a month. The monkeys that had a strong alpha male and
alpha female were most likely to stick together in the wild so this is what we looked for.
Once we had a strong group consisting of three or more monkeys, we captured them
individually and brought them to a relatively small cage out in their soon to be territory.
The idea was that this new group of monkeys would become accustom to their area and
fight for it against any intruders. As black howler monkeys are especially aggressive
towards intruders and extremely territorial, we hoped they would be able to defend their
territory and group against groups nearby.

However, fighting is an extremely costly action. Therefore, black howler monkeys

do not begin with physical aggression when attacking or defending a territory but resort
to howling. Dawn Kitchen (2003) performed a series of experiments while observing
free-ranging black howler monkeys in hopes of better understanding their howling. He
found three factors that affected whether or not howlers would approach the attackers
and howl back: presence of vulnerable offspring, relative number of males in the
opposing group, and cooperation of subordinate male companions. In other words,
howler monkeys use howls to determine the cost of fighting and whether or not it is
beneficial to their group or not.
With this knowledge, we released the monkeys from their cage and observed
them for several months. We tracked them throughout the day and night and took note
of their behavior. Specifically, we paid attention to their movements within the territory,
observation of territories close by, and howling behavior. Sometimes, the groups would
fail to protect their territory and in this case, were recaptured and brought back to the
main camp where we would try again to form a strong group. A successful release was
when after months of observation, the monkeys had a strong claim on their territory and
were a cohesive group. Unfortunately, during my time spent there, no groups were
successfully released and often times we had to break up fights.
Overall, the largest and most obvious issue was a lack of money. The owner Alexandra Juarez - struggled every day with this. Unfortunately, due to lack of being
able to pay employees, we were constantly over worked and were relied on heavily to
make the place run. A day off was a luxoury only allowed when we had sufficient
volunteers and not a lot of work to do. The reserve that I lived at only sometimes had

running water or electricity (often times the monkeys would destroy the pipes) and had
absolutely no internet or cell service. The nearest town was a thirty minute taxi ride
away where there were usually one to two cafes open that had wifi. In general, wifi was
limited and unreliable. Research was difficult to do while in Argentina so I completed
most of it once I returned to the states. However, the experience that I got from being on
a reserve for four months is more than I could ever learn from paper. Being hands on
with the difficulties of running a rehabilitation center allowed me to feel the stress of
having 100+ monkeys rely on me for their survival. Dealing with the stress and doing my
best to provide for these animals was absolutely the most important thing I learned
while on the reserve.

References:
Kitchen, D. M. (2004). Alpha male black howler monkey responses to loud calls: effect
of
numeric odds, male companion behaviour and reproductive investment. Animal
Behaviour, 67(1), 125-139.