Mondays...

can be an unpleasant way to spend 1/7th of your life. It turns out that this is more true for some than for others. A good friend of mine named JP had an exceptionally crappy time this last Monday when it was discovered that he had  not one, but two Botfly larvae in his head.

Botflies are these really big flies that plant their eggs onto mosquitoes and then the mosquitoes, quite unpleasantly but unknowingly, plant these eggs inside of you (see secondary host). If you recognize the bump that starts to form after one of these transactions, removing them is no worse than popping a zit. Unfortunately for JP, this was not the case.

About five weeks ago JP was complaining that he had a bump on his head from a presumed scratch or spider bite, and in following with John Lennon's lyrical advice, he 'Let it Be'. Little did he know that his head would become an incubation site turned prime real estate for the Botfly offspring. The most unlucky part of it all is that getting stung by a mosquito with Botfly eggs is not at all common for the area that we are in, so much so that the local forest guards have only ever seen one person become an unsuspecting maternity ward for the Botfly.

This past Monday, JP had an impromptu surgical extraction performed by our primatologist Becca. I was fortunately unfortunate enough to position myself behind the camera for this procedure and now have this video to share with you.

I must warn you, it is grim, it is gruesome, and it might make you a little sick. Editing this clip was slightly repulsive, but I did it for you guys... because I care... and because I like the thought of making you squirm from thousands of kilometers away.

[Not Safe for Work or Life]

And if you want to see a photo of the larvae that was extracted/shot out of his head...

Those are teeth. An impeccable resemblance to a Jabba the Hutt/Dracula hybrid 

The astrological 'sciences' deem Mondays as horrible because the rotational speed of Neptune in line with the moons of Saturn then create a beam of annoyance and frustration right at the earth and has therefore proved that Mondays are not distasteful just because they are placed directly after an enjoyable weekend.

I on the other hand... (have five fingers)

did have the best monkey day so far on that very same Monday. I ended up trekking through the forest and found the group of eight individuals. I moved very slowly and began to spark their curiosity as they kept perching from branches and looking at me for almost an hour. When they would watch me from a little farther away I would hide myself and they would move closer to get a better look.

Now knowing what area they were in, I went out that night and located their sleeping tree quite quickly. They weren't pleased to see me, so I only stayed a little while. I was however fortunate enough to get this footage.

Check out some other Adventures in Research at my friend Yev's Blog:

http://yevc.blogspot.ca/