My first trip to Kenya: The people

As at Filoha, the crew gets you through. Here are some introductions to the folks of the Uaso Ngiro (pronounced waso niro) Baboon Project (UNBP):

Dr. Joan Silk - my post-doc advisor - sitting with baboons at one of the baboon sleeping sites.

Dr. Shirley Strum with baboons from the population she has been studying since 1972. To learn more about UNBP and the great community work she's been doing, visit www.baboonsrus.com. 

Here I am with one of our future study subjects, sporting an Ann Arbor t-shirt no less! 

(Thanks Auntie Mary and Uncle Joe!!)

In order to get all of this great data on so many animals, Shirley has a great bunch of local research assistants and baboon trackers. I managed to get pictures of some of them: 

James studies the largest group descended from Shirley's original study group: The Pumphouse Gang. 

As we are planning to study the Pumphouse Gang, we were constantly asking James questions about the troop, the individuals, and the action we witnessed. Luckily, James knows everything about these guys and was very patient in putting up with our constant inquiries. Looks like we'll get along great! 

Raphael, actually James' little brother, is a second assistant/tracker for Pumphouse. 

Francis is the man in charge of the troop called Namu. He took us out on our first day and also showed great patience while Joan and I got the lay of the land and the animals. 

 Butu also works on Namu. He's a little quiet, unless he's trying to teach me Swahili...hopefully those lessons will pay off on a longer stint, as it stands I can't remember anything!  

Here, Boursin is explaining some history to Joan on his study troop: Ngela. 

Ngoya here is a new tracker for Ngela, so far he's doing great! 

Sintaroi has recently been transferred to working on Sisel, the largest group at 114 animals. 

Edward is another newbie. He is joining Sintaroi working on Sisel. 

 With all these folks working on the baboons, we have enough coverage of their whereabouts that we won't lose them very often. But not everything is so easy. Communication with the outside world has to happen away from camp. Here's how we do it:

After working with the baboons, Joan is using a CDMA/3G USB modem where we can get cell signal. 

 Sometimes while we're out I can even get 3G on my cell and use it to read and write emails. 

 On this particularly exciting day we had great cell signal and Joan was able to call her daughter, Ruby, in California while out with the baboons. 

 Of course baboons are not the only animals around when we want to make phone calls in the shade. Shirley was surrounded by shoats (sheep/goats) within minutes of starting this call!