Lostcast: Broadcasting the Search for the Lost Saki Monkey

When Dr. Laura K. Marsh originally got the idea to take a houseboat through the Amazon watershed in search of the Vanzolini’s Bald-faced Saki Monkey, she had no doubt: she wanted to broadcast the entire adventure, whether the team found the monkey or not. This included inviting bioGraphic writer Christina Selby to join the four-month Houseboat Amazon expedition with full access to the story as it unfolded, and live social media updates from the field. It also required a boat full of various technology.

While the team did rediscover the Vanzolini’s Bald-faced Saki Monkey more than 80 years after it had been seen alive in this habitat, Marsh says she also discovered the rewards and challenges of broadcasting the search for a lost species in near real-time. We caught up with Marsh, who is the director of Global Conservation Institute, in this lostcast episode: