Yakushima Series

Day 1: Unsuccessful

Well, unsuccessful if you judge success by getting data anywhere remotely related to what you set out to do. Today was the first 'official' day of my research on "Parasite ecology, health maintenance and diet in Macaca fuscata yakui". Kana and I spent the last 2 days heading into the forest casually to a) get a sense of things, b) find the group and ID some individuals, c) figure out some of these plants we're dealing with, d) GPS map the mirrors and some key points to be aware of, and e) simply enjoy the place! But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning...

On Thursday, October the 4th of the year 2007, we departed our home in quaint Inuyama for Nagata, a small fishing village on the West side of Yakushima, or Yaku island for those less linguistically inclined. The island is about a 2-hour hydrofoil ride south of Kagoshima city, which lies at the southern tip of Kyushu, Japan's southernmost of the 4 main islands. On a side note, the sushi at the 'kaitenzsushiya-san' in Dolphin Port is Fantastic! Don't forget to go there whenever you get a chance. Unfortunately, that was the last of our 'fine dining' for a while - though kaiten-zushi is generally the 'fast food' version of the iconic Japanese cuisine. From here on in (until December at least) it's Calorie Mate and rice balls, which, by the way, make fine forest fodder in the field.

After a whirlwind walk through Miyanoura, the main port town of Yakushima and the closest we can now get to civilization, during which we managed to pick-up Kana's forest permit and a few groceries, we boarded the bus and rode it to the end - literally - of the line. Nagata greeted us in the form of a friendly, to say the least, hotel manager named Yuko-san, who took us to our new house - a rental, managed by her under the auspices of the hotel and a smashing deal if I might add - and gave us the grand tour. Satisfied that we were settled, or busy enough not to waste another minute, she made her way back to Tsuwanoya - the name of the hotel under her care.

At first glance, the place was magnificent. A house! Did I mention this was my field site and as such I am used to bucket showers, ants in my oatmeal, and pumping anytime I wanted a drink of water? With 2 considerably sized rooms, a separate bathroom and toilet, somewhat of a kitchen and tonnes of storage, we were laughing. Then we were screaming, or, well, Kana was anyway. Two roaches in the sink! So, the place is a little buggy, pun intended, but as long as Kana feels like she's 'camping', we'll be okay. Though, this is kind of our home, so that will wear off soon, if it hasn't already. If she ain't tough already, she's gonna earn her mettle. Wait until a centipede, or 'mukade' in the local tongue, wanders through the living room! Hey, and we have tv with 2 Bilingual Satellite channels. I've been watching the baseball playoffs in English - which means more to me than you might think, given the difficulty with which seemingly simple things seem to come.

To round out our new situation, we've been zipping around on a couple of 50cc scooters or mopeds or whichever they are. One is mine, which I bought for more than I would have expected to pay but at the same time a pretty good deal, and the other belongs to Alex, the parasitologist I'm working with at PRI - the Primate Research Institute - and right here in Yakushima. Alex studies the same group of monkeys as I, named Umi group. Umi is the Japanese term for 'sea', so the group is aptly named as it ranges near the ocean. Kana and I went down there today. When we couldn't find Umi group, we decided to head for their namesake.

So, that about brings me full circle, back to the day that could have been. I was pretty excited to get started: collect some number 1 and number 2 from the monkeys, take some good notes, follow individuals successfully, identify all the males and females, eat some Calorie Mate. Well, Except for the Calorie Mate bit, none of these happened today. Why? Because we couldn't find Umi group at all. I shouldn't say 'at all'. We came across single or pairs of monkeys that may have been from umi group, and followed some of them for a while, but it was all so inconclusive. I wanted more. So, we trekked on, and eventually found a group in the place where Umi group SHOULD have been. "Great" thought we! "Umi"!

It wasn't until about 2:00 in the afternoon that we realized who we had wasn't Umi, but more likely a group by the moniker of 'Puchi', or 'Petite'. The realization came quite dramatically. As we were struggling to decipher which male in Umi group was supposed to be missing a pointer finger on his right hand, with his middle finger stuck out - the aptly named 'Middle finger' of Umi proper seemed to fit the bill, but for some other, glaring differences in his appearance evident in Laurent's fine photographs (Thank You Laurent) - another male sauntered along. Actually, his 'saunter' was more like that of the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Giant from 'Ghostbusters'. He jumped up on Mirror 54 - the 'Seibu-rindo', which is a mountain road that gives the area its name, is dotted by mirrors for traffic to gauge when it is and when it is not okay to proceed - and turned it into a rag doll as he performed his masculine display. Anyway, after he sauntered - for real this time - out into the road it became obvious that this male was not Umi-O, Umi's alpha male and bona fide top dog. Since Umi-O would not tolerate that type of behaviour from his subordinates, A=B=C and we were on our way yet again.

So, we left the forest at around 4:00 pm empty-handed and hoping for a better showing tomorrow. But, the day was not a total write-off. Here are just a couple of the key findings of the research duo Andrew and Kana for Day 1:

1) Male Japanese macaques eat their semen! Yes it's true. Read it again. Kana saw the behaviour yesterday after a consortship resulted in a copulation. I had asked her if he ejaculated - because that's how we scientists speak - and she replied "tabetteiru!" which means "Oh my god I can't believe it BUT he's eating his ejaculate!" - we also speak this way. Anyway, today, when I thought I was following Umi's 'Middle Finger', I saw him sit on a rock, masturbate, ejaculate onto his leg and proceed to ingest the ejaculate via the hand-to-mouth motion. Case closed. Next:

2) Japanese macaques are romantic! Set aside the above for just a moment if you will. At about 8:00 this morning, after about a half-hour walk, we came across a consortship - a 'couple' for you laypeople - that started with breakfast in the trees followed by sex on the beach and some intimate spooning atop a rock overlooking the crashing waves. The male - in retrospect probably the very one named 'Afro', a peripheral male in Umi group - even found the time to defend his date's honour after she was embarassed that we had seen her in the act of fornication. He raised his eyebrows at us in protest! That's like biting your thumb at someone in Shakespeare. In the famous words of a great footballer-turned-rock legend: "forever young" my friends, "forever young"!

Cheers,
A