pose, Phil explained, was to make an inventory of the 

 species, discover their habitats, and then try to unfold 

 the mysteries of their being before they, too, like the 

 monkeys, disappeared with the vanishing forest. At 

 the same time, Phil was committed to training and 

 teaching mammalogy to young qualified Brazilians so 

 that they might carry on the work of conservation and 

 management guided by an intimate knowledge of the 

 animals themselves. 



Trapping 



Learning about small nocturnal mammals in the wild 

 begins with live-trapping them in their home range. 

 The productive part of the workday, therefore, starts 

 with setting traps, an occupation that engages the en- 

 tire afternoon. Our 200 live and 100 snap traps were set 

 in lots of 10, usually 20 to 40 in any one trapline. At 

 first, the four of us worked together until we learned 

 Phil's trapping and baiting methods. The first lines 



Trapped four-eye brown opossum (Metachirus nudicaudatus). 



were set nearest headquarters in wooded hillsides, for- 

 est edges, and in and along swiftly flowing rock-strewn 

 streams. From there we worked out individually or in 

 pairs to more distant sites as far as we could until night- 

 fall. As a rule, traps were picked up after three days and 

 reset elsewhere both within and beyond the confines of 

 the Centre. 



Setting out to trap small forest mammals. 



17 



