August 24, 2013
Things got serious once we got to Tana River. We had 6 days of observation time with our choice of 3 primate species found within the Tana River Primate Reserve: the Tana River red colobus, the Tana River mangabey or the Ibean yellow baboon. They were so different with regards to the kind of data that each is best suited for. Baboons are a great model for looking at reproductive behavior due to their prominent sexually dimorphic swellings. Mangabeys displayed curious foraging behavior and were a little more aggressive. I picked the Colobus monkeys, whom not many other students chose because they tended to spend most of the day hiding at the top of the forest canopy. I like yoga, so I figured I'd be up to the binocular backbends necessary to observe these guys for 3-4 hours at a time.
At night bush babies would fall from the trees onto our tents
Safari ants! Stepping in them will likely lead to having to strip naked in the middle of the forest
Nile crocodiles in the Tana river
Hippos, too!
Studying in the rain forest
We did a lot of this
This was where my project for the final paper went from mostly conceptual idealism to quickly deciding what was actually feasible. Still, I was determined to do something interesting that would tie together everything I had learned about primatology, ecology and wildlife conservation. I had just taken a class in GPS and map making, so I decided to map the home range of the group I was following in order to look at the incorporation of invasive tree species into the diet of this critically endangered species.
Our guide John helped me so much. I would have been lost without him!
Tana River red colobus
More Tana River red colobus
We met up with locals at a Tana bar to relax after all those brutal days following monkeys in the forest.
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