I’ve had many experiences with wildlife in my daily life, whether it was fearless squirrels on the quad or the birds that decided to move into my house one year. But the most special experience with wildlife I had was in Costa Rica, where I studied capuchin monkeys at La Suerte Biological Field Station. Although the monkeys were habituated, meaning researchers had gotten them used to seeing people, they were still wild. Like most people, I had only ever seen animals like these in pictures, videos, and zoos. It was interesting to see their real lives in action. For example, we read a lot about the monkeys’ activity budget before going there, but it didn’t really sink in until I spent five hours of my morning chasing them though the forest as they foraged. For us, these animals were new and exciting, but many local people thought of them more as a nuisance – like squirrels are to us. This reminded me of a time when I hosted an Israeli exchange student who kept taking pictures of squirrels, as she had never seen any before. This got me thinking about why we should protect wildlife close to home. What may seem commonplace to us is something exciting for someone else, and all wildlife fits into the ecosystem of the earth.