What makes this baboon different from any other baboon? That’s a question I find myself asking basically constantly while out in the field. To make sure I get photographs of as many individuals as possible, I have to look for specific animals I haven’t captured yet. To do that, I have to have some idea …
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The Great Migration
Last week, I went with Chelsea to Maasai Mara National Reserve, located to the north of Amboseli along the Tanzanian border. We camp we stayed in is home to Michigan State’s Mara Hyena Project. Like with the baboons, the hyena team hires recent college graduates as research assistants. While we went to see more of …
Pet primates, stray dogs and animal hills I’ll die on
Today’s morning in the field was an exciting one, but also pretty terrible. Instead of spending time taking photogrammetry pictures, I spent my day encountering problems I had only considered distantly and never expected to see first-hand. Since I can’t go out and change them right now, I might as well write about them. When …
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Meet the Baboons! Part 1
There are six social groups of baboons observed by the ABRP. To make it easier on myself to learn how to identify each individual and to make it easier for the animals to recognize me, I have spent the first half of my time here with three groups and will switch over to the other …
“There’s a body under that tree”
When I see an animal hurt or dying, I am very much a 22-year-old girl, a 22-year-old-girl who looks away when the predator finally catches up to the prey on Planet Earth. After the animal is dead, however, my scientific side comes out. My tent in camp is right next to the temporary graveyard and …
The Daily Grind
Every day, the full time research team drives out to observe 2 or 3 of the 6 study groups in the population. While there are at least 10 groups of baboons in and around the Amboseli basin, these 6 groups have been studied since they formed. That means the animals are habituated to the presence …
You’re Doing What Now?
For the first five months of my post-Duke life, I am in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, working as a field research assistant for the Amboseli Baboon Research Project. What does that mean? Basically, field research assistants are scientific mercenaries, people hired to do the on-the-ground work that their higher-ups can’t do. In my case, I …
Anna in Amboseli 