Discover Top Posts Tagged with #vervets

John Leigh-Pemberton (1911-1997). African Mammals, 1969.

#felines #big cats #cheetahs #primates #monkeys #vervets #John Leigh-Pemberton

Roseanna Pistolesi, 1990

Some cheeky vervets from the forest around the Nyamusingire crater lake, Uganda.

#vervets #uganda #africa #african wildlife #photography #primates #travel #adventure #beautiful life #female artist

Things I Learned as a Field Biologist #584

Going back to the field after a long hiatus can lead to moments of both visible excitement and stupefaction (with a slight register of anticipated grossness). Like my face, above. In South Africa. Where I will be once again in less than 48 hours! TO SEE ALL OF THE ANIMALS (but mostly the monkeys)!

Yes: after an absence of three long years, I leave for the field tomorrow!

This summer, I’m very excited to be returning to South Africa to work with vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus), using a number of methods to get at how they forage, what they eat, and ultimately how their bodies adapt to their nutritional environments in three places I’ve been before and loved working in: Soetdoring Nature Reserve, Gariep Dam, and Shamwari Game Reserve. Some of this work will involve live trapping and release, so to ensure to welfare and health of the monkeys I’ll be doing this work in collaboration with the wonderful Dr. Adrian Tordiffe of the University of Pretoria Faculty of Veterinary Sciences.

I’m also taking two of my BU undergrads with me for their very first field experience! Also making his South African and primatological fieldwork debut: my dad (in a supporting role: aka building monkey traps)! And, of course, my most wonderful postdoc, Maryjka Blaszczyk (this ain’t her first rodeo by a long shot).

AND THAT’S NOT ALL: I’ll also be teaching a group of students all about fieldwork and Primate Conservation Genetics in my field course with the prolific Dr. Trudy Turner of the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

As you can see, it will be a packed summer, so I’ll be checking in more regularly to share all the new excitement (and yes, most likely a fair share of humorous mishaps and parasites) that a new field season in South Africa will bring. I’ll also be posting on Twitter and Instagram (@fuzzyatelin, #BUvervets16, #BlueScrotumSummer).

But as I hope you already know: I always save the juicy stories for right here...

#fieldwork #vervet #vervets #primates #monkeys #biological anthropology #primatology #evolutionary anthropology