Hiking Failure
A ll Agustín Fuentes wanted to do was study maroon leaf monkeys. He wanted to discover something new about this rare species of monkey. First, though, he had to find one. He searched the jungles of Borneo, finding bones but no living monkeys. Nonetheless, he kept trying. One day, while
hiking, he saw a flash of movement. Finally, he thought, I’ve found a live monkey! He leſt the trail to search the jungle. More than an hour later, he hadn’t found any monkeys. Worse, it was getting dark, and he was lost. Fuentes worried about Borneo’s nocturnal
predators. In the dark, he wouldn’t be able to see poisonous snakes or stalking leopards. He had to get back to camp—and fast. Otherwise, this expedition could become his last failure. Hearing rustling in the bushes, Fuentes turned and saw a big animal. It took his hand and led him back to his camp.
He’d been rescued by an orangutan. It had
once been kept as a pet. Now living in the wild, the orangutan wasn’t afraid of people. His rescue by an orangutan thrilled Fuentes.
It also caused him to change the focus of his research. Instead of trying to learn about an endangered species before it goes extinct, he now wanted to learn how some animals adapt to live and thrive around humans. Fuentes now studies macaques. He’s learned
that these primates have adapted to life near people. For example, in Bali, people have built temples where macaques live. He’s observed the macaques leaving the temples and going into rice paddies to hunt for crabs and frogs. Fuentes credits his scientific research to
failure. “Te whole point of doing science is failure,” Fuentes says. “Tat’s how we gain knowledge.” So the next time you fail at something, ask what you can learn from it.
Agustín Fuentes sits with a macaque. Another kind of macaque sends a warning.
MARCH 2015 15
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