Stories from the Field: Julia and the Colobus

Introduction

Hello primate friends. I’m Julia and I’m one of ERuDeF International’s Board of Directors members. I’m an evolutionary anthropologist/ primatologist / behavioral ecologist / conservation enthusiast. I am currently gambling my life on a PhD and making my way through the great, big, scary world of academia.

evenings spent reading after long days in the field

During my Master’s field season in Ghana, West Africa, I kept an online blog to document my field season. I wrote about my adventures and misadventures at Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary (BFMS) Ghana, and mostly about the colobus monkeys who became my temporary nonhuman primate family and best friends for several months. In case you don’t know what primatologists do in the field (doesn’t everyone know the ins-and-outs of collecting poop samples and conducting focals? Huh… Just kidding) here is a basic explanation. Primatologists in the field collect behavioral data by observing primates with binoculars and methodically writing down everything the monkeys do. Sometimes, we also noninvasively collect monkey “left-overs” like feces or urine. Primatology is really great (at least I’m passionate about it) because it helps us understand how our early ancestors may have behaved and how humans may have evolved. Through a better understanding of nonhuman primates, we may be able to answer some of the questions associated with why we do what we do!

Julia collecting fecal samples

Katie the research assistant in the kitchen

Julia with her Ghanaian field assistant Robert

During my field season at BFMS, Katie (the world’s greatest research assistant) and I observed several ursine colobus monkey groups approximately 10 hours each day. My Master’s project was about allomothering behavior (a.k.a. infant handling), which is when individuals other than the baby’s mother hold the infant. I know what you HAVE to be thinking: “Holy cow! You got to watch cute baby monkeys being adorable up in the trees all day?”, and the answer is YES. It was pretty much my dream come true and I loooved it (most of the time). In addition to The Ursine Colobus Monkey Saga that Katie and I were privy to (*note reference to the greatest pre-television soap opera novel – The Forsyte Saga), we also got to experience some of the Ghanaian way of life while living near the village of Boabeng. I’ll be honest. Over several months, Katie and I went through a lot of crazy stuff. From malaria to infanticide to deforestation to baby monkey births and baby monkey falls on our heads, to dreams about eating yummy fast food and nightmares about eating more yams, to green mamba snakes nesting in our room … we experienced it!

the guesthouse where Julia and Katie lived

in the village of Boabeng. The colobus moneys in the background are practicing geophagy - the art of eating clay.

So keep tuning in periodically so you don’t miss the exciting posts from my field season. Watching monkeys is indeed like watching soaps on television; once you tune in, you can’t possibly look away. Serious scientists don’t anthropomorphize their study subjects but I can’t help that here! I hope you enjoy reading.