While the joys of fieldwork are many, sometimes field research involves a lot of time staring at immobile study subjects high in the trees. I study coppery titi monkeys (Plecturocebus cupreus), who spend much of their day in the canopy foraging or resting. While titis do move throughout the day, they spend multiple hours at a time grooming or resting in one location. As such, much of the day is spent staring at small bodies high overhead. During my recent field season at Estación Biológica Quebrada Blanco in Peru, we began calling the titis “tadpoles” because of how their round little bodies and long tails look when stationary in the canopy. This photo is a prime example of titi monkey “tadpole”.

[Photo and caption by Allison Lau]

[Edited by Maggie Creamer]