christie

REALISING WHERE I BELONG Choosing the Lion-Tailed Macaque: a species that chooses you  Endangered. Elusive. Confident yet cautious. Dramatic, political, intelligent, emotional. When I started exploring thesis topics, everything kept pointing back to lion-tailed macaques — a species most people never get to see, but one that carries an entire rainforest on its back. I chose to study how human-modified spaces influence their foraging behaviour , especially in monsoon-soaked Kudremukh. And that was it. I had officially —  unintentionally —  confirmed my aspiration to be a primatologist. Why start this blog now? Because this journey wasn’t planned. It wasn’t a childhood dream. It wasn’t a straight line. It was a collection of moments: a documentary paused at the right second a macaque stealing someone’s dosa a survey that revealed the human side of wildlife conflict internships that felt too short forest days that felt too long but too meaningful and a troop of lion-tai...

THE STEPS I DIDN'T KNOW I WAS TAKING The first step into research: understanding humans and monkeys  My first actual research project was a perception survey on bonnet macaques in Bengaluru . It opened my eyes to a truth most people forget: Human–monkey conflict isn’t just about monkeys entering cities; it’s about how we perceive them, fear them, tolerate them, or admire them. That project showed me how layered primate conservation really is — you’re not studying only the animal, you’re studying the relationship between animal and human. And that complexity drew me in even more. The moment everything changed: discovering primate vocalisations During my internships and volunteer work, I started paying close attention to vocalisations . One alarm call could mean: an eagle overhead, a leopard nearby, a troop member wandering too far, or simply irritation with another macaque Primate communication wasn’t just sound — it was emotion, warning, negotiation, reassurance . And I knew...

THE EARLY SIGNS  How a city kid fell in love with Wildlife? more specifically primates? If you had told my younger self — a girl who grew up in busy urban neighbourhoods — that one day she’d be standing in the rain, tracking macaques through a foggy rainforest, she would have laughed. Because back then, my entire “wildlife experience” came from zoos, safaris, and documentaries . But maybe that’s where the real spark began — in those quiet moments when a documentary made me pause the video… just to watch a chimpanzee’s expression one more time. The similarity to us felt almost unsettling, and absolutely fascinating. The monkeys that walked into my classroom Even in the city, primates had a way of entering my life — quite literally. In school, bonnet macaques regularly visited our classrooms, casually opening lunch boxes with more skill than some of my classmates . Watching them learn by observing us wasn’t just funny; it was my first real glimpse into their intelligence, adaptab...