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?