It’s Every Monkey for Themselves

07 March 2007

Vanessa Woods

Taking off to mend a broken heart, Vanessa Woods left safe, suburban Canberra and headed for the remote, wild and distinctly unsafe jungles of Costa Rica. She was stung so often by killer bees she developed a lethal allergy, and the monkeys she was to study were evasive, mean and aggressive. The only difference between them and her housemates was that at least she could tell her housemates apart.

In this talk, science writer Vanessa Woods will explain how to survive a year in the jungle: a world of love, loss, bitter rivalry and vicious battles – and that’s just the monkeys.

Broad Topics: Arts and Social Sciences

Sub-topics: Behavioural & Cognitive Sciences, Biological Sciences, Botany & Zoology, Environment, Society & Culture

Areas: ANU College of Science

Woods is a writer, researcher, and freelance journalist. She has written three books and is the Australian/ New Zealand feature writer for the Discovery Channel. She has made documentaries about wildlife in Antarctica, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya for Disney Channel and 'Totally Wild'. In 2003, Vanessa graduated from the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at ANU and won the Australasian Science Award for journalism. Woods currently works in Africa, studying our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos. It’s Every Monkey for Themselves is her first travel memoir, about chasing wild capuchin monkeys through the jungles of Costa Rica.