Update from Monkey Girl

So, two days ago, we had a really exhausting day.  The monkeys were scrambling up and down steep slopes constantly, changing directions almost constantly. 

It's 5:30, wind-down time where the monkeys forage around their sleepsite for that night until they curl up in a tree and actually go to sleep around 6.  We had just finished chasing them through hell and back and were happy to sit and watch them eat cicadas.  But then, predator alarms.  A bunch of them. Or at least what sounded like them.  All the monkeys started running down the goddamn slope again.  You have got to be kidding me!  I had no idea what the hell spooked them, but I wanted to kill whatever it was.  So here we go, stumbling down through vine tangles again.  But, suddenly, they all stop.  Odd. What the fuck are these monkeys up to? I hear some very strange noises.  Squeals sort of.  Then I see tons of pizotes (coati in english) scrambling around in the tree the monkeys are in.  As I have told you before, pizotes are adorable giant raccoon sort of things that are actually quite stupid (it is not uncommon for the monkeys pull their tails and bully them).  So, at first, I think that they just stopped to harass them.  Then it dawned on me:  pizotes give birth in April.  I have been told that this is an interesting and awful time of year.  And, sure enough, all the adult monkeys in the group take turns jumping into the pizote nest, grabbing an adorable little squirmy brown pizote baby and running away with it, as a female pizote frantically tries to chase the baby-toting monkey but cannot keep up.  Pizotes live in big groups of females while males live in solitude.  So there are just a bunch of female pizotes, running as fast as their chubby bodies and little legs will allow, watching their babies get eaten ALIVE.  Only the adult capuchins take a baby.  Juveniles and infant capuchins watch in amazement and confusion and their elders torture these little critters. I watched the alpha female first.  She bit off a tiny hand and foot of the baby first.  It screamed constantly. Them she starts nibbling the face. More squirming and screaming. Then she bites the back of its head.  Still not dead.  Oh my god!  While interesting to see my usually fruit and insect eating monkeys eating meat, it's also jarring, like watching some brutal war scene of a small village being raided by heartless murderers who force parents to watch the slow and painful deaths of their children.  I started to feel nauseous.  Female pizotes, still scrambling but totally helpless (they can't even open their mouths wide enough to bite a monkey), screaming while they watch their babies get torn apart.  I turn my attention to an adult male, enjoying his own pizote baby.  Little intestines spilling out, its face eaten off, leg missing, and I could even see part of its spinal cord.  STILL writhing and squealing! Even the monkey seemed amazed that it was still alive, furrowing his brow in confusion, examining his meal a little closer.  All the squirming was disturbing his meal, a problem solved proactively by pounding the baby on the branch he was sitting on.  I could hear the little skull cracking.  A female pizote approaches him from behind, yelping and running at him. He moves quickly to the branch above where she can't disturb his dinner.

This madness went on for about 15-20 minutes. The alpha female dropped her meal at some point, and a female pizote rushed over and picked it up in her mouth and delivered the already dead baby back the her nest.  I recorded everything I saw on my Dictaphone, as the project is interested in how they go about eating/killing the pizote babies. Everyone was jealous that I saw this happen, as no one else has witnessed a pizote nest raid yet this season. I am glad I was able to see this, but I'm afraid the episode was a tad disturbing; my funny little monkeys with pizote baby blood smeared all over their faces.