A Day in the Life of a Baboon Researcher

The view from the mountain forest, Tokai, where I work overlooking the valley by the Atlantic coast where I live. Paradise. 

African sunrise

I wake up well before dawn and get dressed in the dim light of my one-bedroom flat. Lately, I’ve been wearing three layers of pants and four or five shirts to shelter me from the cold and rain. I pack my lunch and collect my binoculars, notebooks, data sheets, and rain poncho in my field backpack before being picked up and driven to the Tokai forest a few miles distance towards the mountains. When myself and my fellow researchers (Catharine, Ilana, and Lucy) arrive at the lower pine plantations of Tokai, the sunrise is just beginning and streams of golden sunlight pierce the gray clouds. We begin to hike the twisted paths up the gradual montane slopes to find our baboon troops. Most days of the week we spend with MT1, the large troop of 70 individuals. Once or twice a week we locate and study the smaller JT1 troop. Fortunately, the baboons have been sleeping in tall eucalyptus or pine trees on the lowest level of the mountain and we don’t have to walk far before we hear their grunts, hollers, and wahoos from the branches above our heads. Baboons are not the quietest of animals, to say the least. We record what time we contact the troop and begin to take roll call, identifying all adult females and males that we see throughout the day.

Then comes the fun part. Sample collection. The baboons sleep in the tallest forest trees, precariously balanced on slender branches near the tree trunks. During the short days of winter, they descend to the ground a little after 9:00 AM, giving us ample time to stand below them for our precious samples. It’s dangerous business placing yourself right beneath a cluster of baboons. You never know what will spontaneously fall from above… Our goal is to collect two sample types for DNA, parasite, and hormone analysis: fecal and urine. All of us come to the field equipped with baggies and metal poles that look oddly like butterfly nets. We spread out underneath the sleeping trees and crane our necks to stare at the baboons above. You see, you must know and identify the exact individual that your sample comes from. Taking your eyes off the baboons for one moment results in uncertainty. Then we wait and wait until we hear drops falling on the ground from the branches overhead. At that moment, we run with our “butterfly net” poles extended in hopes to catch the golden droplets on plastic bags. We use syringes to transfer the gathered drops into small test tubes. Fecal samples are, mercifully, just collected off the ground once deposited. We place our labeled collections in our bags for processing later in the day.

The view from the top of the baboons' range on the mountain

This is Bonnie, she is distinguished by her curved tail

Once the entire baboon troop descends to the ground, we begin specific data collection. There are some precise behaviors or interactions that we record whenever they are seen throughout the day, such as human proximity, fence transgressions (if a baboon jumps over an electric fence), consortships, demographics, etc. We also collect focal follow and scan sample data. I’ve already learned how to distinguish each male and female in the group by their characteristic ears and tails; now I am learning how to administer focal follows on specific individuals. This means I get to spend my entire day following the outlandish baboon boys. The night before, we generate a randomized follow list that determines the order in 

Grooming is an important part of baboon society

which we conduct focal follows on each male. Sometimes, it takes quite a bit of active searching throughout the troop to find the correct male. They rarely seem to be in the right place at the right time. Once we have our male, we begin a focal follow. This means that we collect data based upon a set ethogram (a catalog of behaviors that must be recorded) for 15 minutes straight on that one baboon. We study and record his every movement, from self-scratches and yawns to grooming and mating behaviors. We record the minute and second every behavior happens as well as details about each behavior (like who is grooming who, who approaches who, etc.). We collect data on behavior, the environment, human-wildlife interactions, weather, and male-female consortships. In addition, we gather data on the nearest male and female baboon within 20 meters to our focal male every minute on the minute. If the baboon runs off down the road or jumps over streams or climbs over fences, we must follow him (I may or may not have fallen waist-deep in a river yesterday because of this). If he disappears from our view, we stop our stopwatches and have 15 minutes to find him again before we must discard our data completely and start over. 

The designated ethogram of behaviors I must record is three pages long, and each behavior has a two-letter abbreviation to maximize efficiency. It is a significant amount to remember all the details and all the individual baboons that interact with your focal. You never get bored, I suppose. In between our focal follows, we take scan sample of all the males. This requires that we actively find all the males that we can within a 10-minute time interval and record briefly what behaviors they are engaging in. It takes practically the entire day to do focal follows on all 7 males as well as scan sample data. Currently, Lucy and I are studying the same focal follows to ensure that we are gathering data in the same way, an important part of inter-observer reliability. Soon, I will be collecting focal follows entirely on my own.

New infant baboon born two days ago

We are allowed a short lunch break during our extensive day, although we must stagger our lunches so that one person is with the troop at all times. It can be difficult to re-locate the meandering baboons if you leave them alone for too long. Some days, we have found all our males down at the picnic grounds sneakily trying to snatch food from people braaiing (South African BBQing) while the rest of the troop is up foraging in the pastures. Typically, we eat our lunches at a little place called Lister’s Tea Room that sits right at the base of the mountain where all the trails fan out from the parking lot. It’s a good excuse to get some hot tea and warm up by the fire, as well.

One person is designated each day to go back early to the research house (where Ilana, Lucy, and the project manager Crista live) to process the samples collected. It takes 3-4 hours to completely process all our fecal samples, and the protocol involves enthralling details that I will refrain from publicizing. Let’s just say that we must wear masks and gloves and by the end, my clothes are infused with baboon poo-fragrance. Exciting business.

Elephant's Eye Mountain. 

We stay out late with the troop, right up until the sun vanishes behind Elephant’s Eye Mountain and the clouds emanate copper and gold hues. The baboons settle down towards the end of the day, and spend time grooming and playing with each other before heading up into their sleeping trees. 

Back at home, I make myself dinner in my microwave (mostly experimentation….) and sit down with a hot cup of Rooibos tea to enter data. Some times, I will go over to my roommates’ house for dinner or a braai or to the project house to watch a movie. Fortunately, I have found that I spend little time just sitting home alone. After a long day on my feet, I am usually exhausted and in bed by 10:00 PM. 

The view overlooking the Constantiaburg Hills

There has yet to be a boring and uneventful day in this country.

Chacma Baboon Behavior

I figured not everyone knows all the intricacies of primate and baboon behavior, so this blog post highlights the animals I have dedicated my summer to study. I spend almost every day with chacma baboons (Papio ursinus), a species that occurs in the countries of Southern Africa below The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. They are part of the old world monkey family (Cercopithecidae), which includes monkeys that are found across Europe, Africa, and SE Asia. Specifically, I research Cape Chacma Baboon populations (Papio ursinus ursinus) that exist on the Cape Peninsula at the tip of South Africa.

Baboons, by definition, are a type of generalist organism. This means that they have omnivorous diets and can survive off of a wide array of foods. In addition, although chacma baboons are typically found in wooded highlands, grassland steppes, and savanna habitats, they are capable of thriving in many different environments. Baboons are also highly and explicitly social. They live in large multi-male and multi-female troops (one of the troops I study is about 70 individuals). This creates a problem from a management standpoint because large groups of baboons can readily and successfully invade anthropogenic environments, initiating strong human-wildlife conflict. To make matters worse, baboons possess a high level of intelligence as primates. They can problem solve quickly in order to raid and exploit human resources. Baboon troops can communicate with each other through oral language, visual gestures, and tactile signals. Baboons have also been found to be capable of orthographic processing skills, which account for the ability to read. All of this together heightens the probability of human-wildlife conflict. But that is an entirely different (and very controversial) story for another time.

            Chacma baboons are one of the largest of all monkeys, with males weighing around 46-99 pounds and females weighing 26-55 pounds. They are sexually dimorphic, meaning that male and female adults differ in their morphology and appearance. Adult males are larger in size and have long, obvious canine teeth that they like to reveal on practically every occasion. Males also have slight manes of fluffy fur framing their faces. Females are much more petite and exhibit large sexual swellings that wax and wane throughout the month. I’m beginning to determine whether a baboon is male or female just by looking at their faces. Adult and juvenile chacma baboons have a gray-brown fur color, while infants are covered in fine black fur. The cape chacma baboons have dark black feet and heavier bodies than some of the other members of the species.

 

Probably what intrigues me most about these monkeys is their sociality. Chacma baboons have intricate and complex social organizations that include dominance hierarchies, friendships and coalitions, adoption of orphaned infants, alloparenting, collective foraging, and infanticide. After watching them for hours on end, it is hard not to become engrossed in the every day drama of baboon life.

Of central importance to the baboons is dominance. Female baboons remain with their natal troops and inherit their social ranks maternally. Offspring of female baboons are automatically ranked the same as their mother and kinship ties are ultimately very strong. Sometimes, if one baboon juvenile torments another juvenile, the entirety of both lineages of the two offspring will become involved and the skirmish escalates to a mass chaos event of baboon screaming and chasing. Female kinship forms the core of baboon society. Male baboons, conversely, disperse into new troops before reaching adulthood and compete for dominance rank. Males will aggressively interact with other males to establish dominance. For males especially, there is a direct correlation between their ability to compete with other males and their reproductive success. Males therefore have intense competitions over sexually receptive females. Many times, males will form friendships with female baboons in the hope that they will have a higher likelihood of mating with her. Males will groom, share food, and spend increased affiliative time with female “friends.” Females in turn, prefer their male “friends” as mates. One thing in particular I am studying is male consortships of females. Consortships occur when a male attempts to gain exclusive access to one female. Females may consort with multiple males before ovulation, allowing them some mate choice. Although, from what I have observed, many females will mate with one male after another all day long (there are a couple particularly promiscuous females we have identified). Mating is female initiated.

Hamlet likes to play with the infant Bonapart

Female baboons primarily care for their offspring. High ranking females may be less restrictive with their infants than lower ranking females, allowing the babies to run off and play more often. Other females within the troop may alloparent (parenting behavior from individuals other than the mother or father) infants, holding and grooming them. Chacma baboons have also been found to show adoption of orphaned infants. Another female will take the baby in, protect it from harassment, and care for it like a mother. There appears to be little paternal care with chacma baboons, although I have seen the dominant male in one of our troops playing with a young infant baboon who is presumably his child several times.

Our baboon troops range in the lower levels of the Tokai Forest on Elephant’s Eye Mountain. Their range extends into human properties, horse stables, and picnic areas at the base of the mountains. Personally, I prefer when they are in the forest and shrublands on the mountain slopes, but part of my study involves baboon management and hence their behaviors in human environments are quite significant. The baboons tend to sleep in the Monterey Pine trees during the night, and then descend from the branches to the ground to forage for the remainder of the day. We follow the troop until sunset, just before they scale the tree trunks for the evening. I must say that baboons are incredibly fascinating to watch. Their social systems and behaviors never cease to amaze me.

Sources:

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Papio_ursinus/

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/16022/0

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/murder-in-the-troop/inside-chacma-baboon-society/2051/

The City at the Tip of Africa

The Cape Town Waterfront with Table Mountain in the background

The past couple days have been a whirlwind of activities. I have been exploring my new city and getting to know my co-workers and roommates! 

 Friday, June 14, we took a Metrorail downtown to explore. It was only about a 15 minute walk to the Steenberg Metrorail Station from our houses where we took a metrorail trail directly into downtown Cape Town. The metrorail followed the tracks through about 20 stops as it led north into the downtown area of the city. The landscape we passed was uninspiring… mostly gated and faced off one-story houses or factories or fields. It wasn’t until we were directly in the city center that the buildings enclosed together in between narrow busy streets.

When we exited our train, we emerged into the main Cape Town station. People crisscrossed paths every which way. This was the first time I had been downtown or seen Cape Town up close. It is very westernized and, to me, is reminiscent of a smaller San Francisco. The city lies right up against the waterfront of the Southern Atlantic Ocean and sprawls out onto the hills right up to the majestic flat-topped Table Mountain, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It truly is the very tip of Africa and I found it absolutely enchanting.

Outside the station, we appeared into the midst of the skyscrapers and taller buildings of the city. Fortunately, there was very clearly marked signage detailing the directions of the central attractions of the city. We followed signs towards the V&A Waterfront, a section of the city right up against the harbor that has been erected on a foundation that was constructed above the ocean. We reached the waterfront where boats were docked in the harbor and workers were repairing large ships. We continued onto Victoria Wharf, a charming area with food and craft markets, restaurants, bars, hotels, a ferris wheel, an aquarium, a couple museums, and wide walking paths. You could look back on the city and see the top of Table Mountain and the peak of Lion’s Head creating a magnificent backdrop to the bright city. We then walked back to the bustling Long Street lined with shops and restaurants and parks and elaborate buildings. At moments, I felt like I was in Europe.

Robben Island

On June 15, we spent the entire day in the city again. We took the metrorail downtown again for a 11 AM tour of Robben Island. We boarded a ferry from the waterfront to the island across Table Bay.  At one point on the boat ride I’m almost positive I saw a humpback whale! The ride was only about 30 minutes before we researched the shores of the small island and docked along a concrete path where masses of cormorants were nesting and some seals sunning. The island was completely flat and covered in dry shrubs, much like the Galapagos.

            We were ushered towards a row of buses where we loaded on to be taken on a driving town of the island. A South African man with a thankfully understandable accent took a microphone at the front and began to give us history of Robben Island as we started to drive. The Island was initially used as an area to quarantine contaminated people, especially those with leprosy. We passed ancient graveyards filled with buried lepers. Then, the island transitioned into a prison for many years where prisoners were made to work hard laborious days. Nelson Mandela spent 18 years in this prison as did many of the current political leaders of South Africa. Many of the dissenters of apartheid were imprisoned in this place, as well. It was in use up until 1996 when it was declared a UN World Heritage Site.

The Prison

View of Table Mountain from the Island

Ilana, Lucy, Grace

The bus drove slowly through the roads past abandoned buildings and quarries where prisoners were forced to work. We saw the town and prison buildings before being dropped off at the high security prison area where a former prisoner took us on a brief tour. Utterly strange to have someone who was once captive here to be acting as a tour guide… He had been convicted for intimidation and denial of apartheid policies. He told us about the identification cards that all races except white people had to carry with them at all times (the slang for these booklets was “Stupid Books”). He told us about how the guards gave food rations out differently to prisoners based upon their race, some got more some got less. Then, he walked us through the prison cells, pointing out Mandela’s cell explicitly.

Once the tour was finished, we walked back toward the ferry dock. We passed a penguin colony sign along the way and glimpsed one African penguin squatting amongst the shrubs. Apparently, this is one of the largest nesting areas for the species. The ferry ride back felt like a roller coaster, for the wave swells had increased in amplitude.

Nelson Mandela's Cell

It was past 2 PM when we arrived back at the wharf and we walked to Nobel Square and the markets. Nobel Square is so named for the first four Nobel Laureates of South Africa: Desmond Tutu, Nkosi Albert Luthuli, FW de Klerk, and Nelson Mandela. Larger than life statues of those four individuals stand upon a raised platform in a row. Nearby, is an enclosed food market with rows of exhilarating food stations. Everything looked delectable and enticing. There were brightly decorated pastries, fish, foreign food, African food… 

The Nobel Laureates

Around 4 PM we decided to go to the Two Ocean Aquarium on the waterfront. The aquarium was excellent and primarily featured organisms and sea life from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans that border the Cape Peninsula. There were seals, penguins, ragged-tooth sharks, frogs, kelp forests, loggerhead turtles, touch tanks, and all types of fish. Many of the things I never knew even existed. It was such an exhilarating experience and we stayed until the aquarium closed its doors.

Ilana and a Spider Crab

By that time, it was past sunset. We decided to stay on the waterfront for a lovely dinner at a place nearby the tall ferris wheel called Ferryman’s Tavern. We sat at a wooden outdoor table beneath heaters. There were large screen TV’s above our head playing the rugby games, which we have quickly learned is the biggest sport here in South Africa. A live band was playing on a stage nearby. It was lovely spending time enjoying the company of my fellow field assistants in my new city.

When I got home that evening, my housemate Krysten was having a get together with some of her friends and invited me over. We sat around on the couches playing games, eating cake, and laughing. Such an adventure this place is turning out to be!

First Impressions

• I’m quite in love with the baboons. They each have distinct personalities and quirks. I’ve already been noticing which individuals hang out together and what some of their characteristic behaviors are.
• All our baboons are given names. I have to explicitly know and be able to identify all of the sub-adults and adults in two troops (MT1 and JT1). Group MT1 has 7 sub-adult and adult males and 22 females and what seems like a billion mischievous juveniles. JT1 has 2 males and 7 females. Previous researchers bequeathed each baboon with specific names that range anywhere from Pitt (a young male named after Brad Pitt because of his blonder hair), to Whitey, to African names like Kwame. It’s clearly a very official process.

We want to name this bald baby baboon Dobby

• The JT1 troop was named after Justin Timberlake because they broke away from the main troop and formed their own…
• 5 of our adult females in the MT1 group are pregnant! This means that I will be here for at least a couple births. I'll be sure to post photos... infant baboons are absolutely precious.

Researching in the middle of the troop

• I have almost an entire notebook full of baboon ear and tail sketches. It’s still quite hard to tell them all apart.
• When we are doing our research, the baboons sometimes get very close to us. Some of the little juveniles become quite curious and will walk right up to you. Of course, we have to be very careful as we don’t want them to be in direct contact with us.
• The baboons sleep in the pine trees. Early in the morning, we try to collect urine and fecal samples before they descend to the ground. This makes for an interesting start to the day as you are trying to hold a stick with a bag on the end to catch pee and avoid a “golden shower”…
• I can recognize a surprising amount of plants and vegetation here… the pines, the sorrels, the grasses, the eucalyptus trees, the oaks trees. Who knew how valuable my field botany class would be a continent away!
• There are African monitors for each baboon troop to help decrease human wildlife conflict events and baboon raiding. The monitors hang around the sides of the baboon troops and follow them. They use paintball guns (shot at the ground) to prevent the baboons from moving into unwanted areas. The management techniques here are somewhat controversial to say the least

• South Africans have some intriguing slang phrases. For instance, they use the word “shame” all the time as a substitute for “that’s too bad” or “I’m sorry.” They also have a system of words that relate to time: saying “now now” means this instant, “now” means soon, and “just now” means maybe soon or maybe in a few days or maybe never. I get the feeling these phrases are going to rub off on me.

The infants are irresistible

• Some of the Africans speak in such strong accents to me, that I have no idea if they are speaking English or some other random language
• Cape Town is quite a Westernized city (no, it’s not like Eastern African countries and as long as you are aware, it is relatively safe)
• I get woken up every morning by squawking ibises that have exceedingly annoying calls that can penetrate for miles

The loud Ibis

• I love my three co-workers, Lucy, Ilana, and Catherine. Right now the four of us are being trained by Simone (she’s from Malta) and Caitlin who will both be leaving in the next few days. After that, we are on our own in the field. Lucy and I are working together for Larissa studying male behavior, while Ilana and Catherine are working for Steffen studying females. The great thing is that Ilana and Lucy live the street over from me.
• It’s winter time here in the Southern Hemisphere and it’s bee quite terribly cold and sporadically rainy. Also, there is no such thing as central heating.
• A popular drink here is a tea called Rooibos. I'm already slightly addicted.
• There are hysterical little guinea fowl that run around on the grasses at the lower area of our baboons’ range. They look like they might be kind of tasty.

Guinea fowl!

• The area I work in is actually part of Table Mountain National Park. There are lots of horseback riders, bikers, and hikers that come to venture onto the trails where our baboons meander. I’ve seen our baboons try to vandalize their abandoned cars and bikes, though.

• I live 3-4 miles outside of the forest in a quite little neighborhood called Kirstenhof
• Our main area for shopping is called the Blue Route Mall. It’s a very pristine indoor mall with everything you could think of from electronics to groceries to clothing.
• Cape Town is a strange mixture of Africa, Europe, and America. Sometimes I feel like I am in Southern California or England.
• The mountains are beautiful here. They surround the whole city. They are bare at the top and have steep, jagged cliffs cascading down into the valley. When the golden morning sun shines on them, they radiate a spectrum of brilliant colors.
• Everyone’s home is gated and walled with barbed or electric wire.
• There are penguins in the Cape Peninsula. I am determined to see them as soon as possible.

Can I see your baby, please?