ANDRZEJ KRAUZE
On the Kenyan savannah, with Mt. Kilimanjaro’s fragmented glaciers visible in the distance, baboons climb down from a scattered grove of trees to begin their day. Since the wee hours of the morning, a small team of field researchers has been waiting. Nearly every day for the past 40 years, scientists have shadowed these animals, scrutinizing not only their movements, but their eating habits, grooming behaviors, genital swellings, births, deaths, and sexual encounters.
Observers are given extensive training in keeping consistent and thorough records without disturbing the baboons (if you smile, don’t show your teeth; don’t wear red; don’t eat in front of them). “One of the things we’re very, very good at,” says Duke University’s Jenny Tung, who is an associate director of the ...
