Studying Panama's Geoffroy’s Tamarin with Conservación Panama

My name is Rachael Pruitt and I am a third year student at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but I am originally from Dayton, Ohio. I am an environmental studies major with a concentration in wildlife and conservation biology.

  I am currently studying abroad with School for International Training: Panama, a program with a focus on tropical ecology, marine ecosystems and biodiversity conservation.  Through this program we have been learning about field methods for environmental research. At the culmination of the program, each student conducts an independent project of their choosing. I am interested in the impacts of habitat fragmentation and development on wildlife populations, so I decided to pursue a project that encompasses these issues by observing the populations of Mono Tití, a small squirrel like monkey, in Parque Natural Metropolitano. I have always loved monkeys and decided there is no better time to study them then while I am here in Panama.

I am currently studying the behavior and activity of Geoffroy’s Tamarin, or Mono Tití, in Parque Natural Metropolitano, Panama City, Panamá. Parque Natural Metropolitano is a secondary dry topical forest located in the middle of Panama City, and represents a great place to study the impacts of urbanization on species. I am monitoring the habitat use of these monkeys within the park to compare it with habitat use in a non-urban habitat. Through studying their behaviors, including what they are eating, the most common areas they are found within the park, and where they travel to in order to forage during the day, I am working to understand forest resource use of this species. I hope to better understand what this species requires to thrive in an urbanized habitat like the park. With increasing urbanization there is a greater threat to animals living in both fragmented and urbanized environments. I am very interested in the interface of humans and wildlife, including the impact that human development has on animal behavior.  For this study, I go to the park daily and walk randomly selected trails looking for Mono Tití by listening for their calls and looking for movement. When I find a group, I record the number in the group, what they are activity and their approximate location within the canopy. I follow the group as much as possible, attempting to figure out where they go and what forest resources they are using, specifically food resources. I am also collecting population data, including the number of individuals in each group. Once I collect all the data I will analyze it to see if any trends exist in the behaviors that I observed.  

A fellow student, Kelly Russo, who is also conducting a project on the use of underpasses in Parque Metropolitano, and I are attempting to raise some money for the park as a way to give back to this incredible place that allowed us to conduct research and so graciously welcomed us. A link to our GoFundMe account can be found here:  https://www.gofundme.com/h7zghahs