Monero Time

Getting up at 4 a.m. does ensure some beautiful views! Tenorio Volcano seen from Celeste group's home range at sunrise. Photo: K. Perry.

Moneros follow the monkeys from dawn until dusk, because that’s when the monkeys are awake.  Capuchins don’t have fixed homes that they return to every night—there are hundreds of different monkey “sleep trees” throughout the forest, and the capuchins will choose whichever one is closest to them when night falls.  This means that the only way to keep track of the monkeys from day to day is to stay with them until they turn in for the night—and rejoin them before they wake the next morning.  It also means that a day in the life of a monero is quite grueling—waking an hour or two before dawn, charging after monkeys for thirteen hours, arriving home to eat dinner around 7 or 8 pm, and turning in by 9.  To make this schedule bearable, moneros have a three day rotation: each person is in the field for two days, and stays home on the third.  Those who are at home edit their data, manage the household chores, and cook dinner for the people in the field.  At the end of every month, moneros also take a well-earned five day vacation, after which they have to find the monkeys again.