This forest is never quiet. Imagine an deep grunting coming from high in the canopy, in long pulses – this is the sound of howler monkeys. I made a recording today which you can listen to here. It is a very ominous sound if you don’t know what kind of creature is making it.

Howler monkeys are entirely vegetarian, and spend most of their time foraging high in the trees. Here is one about to pull a fruit off of a branch with its mouth.

A downside to working around monkeys is their behavior. One animal found our base camp in the forest and threw us a present of sorts, seen below.

Fortunately howler monkey excrement doesn’t smell so bad, because of its all-plant composition. This was a nice surprise for the morning!