In the Midst of Extraordinary Wildlife
10 Nov. 2010 | NOAH SNYDER-MACKLER (New York Times)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noah Snyder-Mackler, a graduate student at the University of
Pennsylvania, is studying the evolution of social behavior in
the gelada, a primate found in Ethiopia. Scientist at Work will
check in from time to time with Mr. Snyder-Mackler, whose
expedition continues into December.
Saturday, Oct. 23
There are velociraptors outside my bedroom. Well, not really, but it
certainly sounds as if there are. Thick-billed ravens do an excellent
velociraptor impersonation about 5 a.m. Every day. I shouldn’t
complain. I get to work in one of the most beautiful locations in the
world with some of the coolest animals in the world. Being
surrounded by unique wildlife is the biggest perk of the job.
Charles Darwin once wrote that a mountain is an island on land.
The mountains of Ethiopia are no exception. Living in the Simien
Mountains is not like your stereotypical African safari. You won’t
find elephants, lions or giraffes here. Many of the animals here are
endemic to the highlands of Ethiopia and, as such, are unique. We
have grass-eating monkeys; bearded, bone-dropping vultures; cliff-
dwelling ungulates; and miniature red wolves.
My Ethiopian office is
one of the few places
in the world — all in
Ethiopia — where one
can find the gelada, the
lammergeyer, the walia
ibex and the Ethiopian
wolf. Each of these
species is listed as
either threatened or
endangered.
I have been fortunate — or rather lucky — enough to see one wolf,
some lammergeyers, a few dozen walia ibex and hundreds of
gelada. Naturally, my colleagues and I aren’t satisfied with seeing
just one species every day. We need variety. We need hobbies. So
we spend some of our free time looking for other animals. Looking
for and photographing animals during the day captures only half of
the wildlife in the habitat. We have seen some of the nocturnal
Simien animals (when you gotta go, you gotta go, even in the middle
of the night), but we are sure that we missed the majority of the
nocturnal animals.
Clay Wilton A striped polecat.Eila and Clay decided to double our
animal-spotting chances and had a motion-activated trail camera
sent out for our enjoyment. We sprung for the high-end model,
complete with an infrared light. Clay sets the camera out most nights
at different spots around our campsite. The next morning we all sit
around the computer itching to see what we caught the night before.
Sometimes it is extremely anticlimactic – a leaf blowing and tripping
the motion sensor. They can’t all be winners. But every once and a
while we catch a glimpse of a nocturnal animal. We have captured a
golden jackal, Abyssinian and common genets — extra-large,
spotted ferrets — and a fleeting glimpse of a striped polecat, Pepé
Le Pew’s African cousin.
Maybe that’s why I don’t mind having a velociraptor impersonator
as an alarm clock. I am surrounded by unique and beautiful wildlife
— my own private “Lost World.”
Wednesday, Oct. 27
I am a little afraid of heights. In fact, when I first arrived in the
Simien Mountains I promised myself that I wouldn’t get closer to
the edge of the cliffs than absolutely necessary. Not just because of
my fear of heights, but also because of my common sense. The
Simien Mountains were formed by volcanic activity compounded by
millenniums of erosion. The last word of that sentence is the most
important. Erosion. I can still see it in action today. Every few days
we find a new pile of rocks in the middle of the road. It’s a constant
reminder that these cliffs are precarious.
Unfortunately for us, when you research cliff-dwelling monkeys,
cliffs are in the job description. I would like to think of myself as
brave, maybe even a little reckless. But whatever I think of myself
pales in comparison to the gelada’s audacity, or insanity, depending
on which way you look at it. It is estimated that 0.2 percent of
geladas die as the result of falling off the cliffs. Though this has never
been observed, it isn’t hard to believe that at least some of the
monkeys don’t have the deftness to successfully navigate the ever-
crumbling escarpment.
The young monkeys are the daredevils. Just like human children,
they like to roughhouse with each other as much as possible.
Roughhousing can be unsafe on its own, but when coupled with
1,000-meter cliffs it becomes deathly dangerous. This is exactly
what juvenile geladas do. When their parents are waking up and
socializing in the early morning, the juveniles are tackling each other
and using each other as springboards all on the edge of the cliffs.
Not a morning goes by that I don’t see a group of juveniles hanging
one-armed from a tree hanging over the cliffs. Either their mothers
don’t love them that much, or they just don’t care — probably the
latter. I know my mom would have a heart attack if she saw me
doing the same. I guess it’s good that geladas have the highest
forefinger-thumb opposability and finger strength of any nonhuman
primate.
It’s not just the juveniles that “live on the edge.” All geladas do. The
cliffs are their only refuge from the (formerly abundant) predators of
the Simiens. As such, every night all of the geladas make their way
down the cliff face. They sleep on the cliffs, but this doesn’t paint an
accurate picture of the true nature of their beds. They sleep on the
edge of cliffs. Literally. When they huddle at night on the cliffs their
tails droop down the first 50 centimeters of a 100,000-centimeter
drop. If a gelada rolled in its sleep, it wouldn’t make it through the
night.
I roll around a lot in my sleep. I wouldn’t last one night as a gelada.
Courtesy
10 Nov. 2010 | NOAH SNYDER-MACKLER (New York Times)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noah Snyder-Mackler, a graduate student at the University of
Pennsylvania, is studying the evolution of social behavior in
the gelada, a primate found in Ethiopia. Scientist at Work will
check in from time to time with Mr. Snyder-Mackler, whose
expedition continues into December.
Saturday, Oct. 23
There are velociraptors outside my bedroom. Well, not really, but it
certainly sounds as if there are. Thick-billed ravens do an excellent
velociraptor impersonation about 5 a.m. Every day. I shouldn’t
complain. I get to work in one of the most beautiful locations in the
world with some of the coolest animals in the world. Being
surrounded by unique wildlife is the biggest perk of the job.
Charles Darwin once wrote that a mountain is an island on land.
The mountains of Ethiopia are no exception. Living in the Simien
Mountains is not like your stereotypical African safari. You won’t
find elephants, lions or giraffes here. Many of the animals here are
endemic to the highlands of Ethiopia and, as such, are unique. We
have grass-eating monkeys; bearded, bone-dropping vultures; cliff-
dwelling ungulates; and miniature red wolves.
My Ethiopian office is
one of the few places
in the world — all in
Ethiopia — where one
can find the gelada, the
lammergeyer, the walia
ibex and the Ethiopian
wolf. Each of these
species is listed as
either threatened or
endangered.
I have been fortunate — or rather lucky — enough to see one wolf,
some lammergeyers, a few dozen walia ibex and hundreds of
gelada. Naturally, my colleagues and I aren’t satisfied with seeing
just one species every day. We need variety. We need hobbies. So
we spend some of our free time looking for other animals. Looking
for and photographing animals during the day captures only half of
the wildlife in the habitat. We have seen some of the nocturnal
Simien animals (when you gotta go, you gotta go, even in the middle
of the night), but we are sure that we missed the majority of the
nocturnal animals.
Clay Wilton A striped polecat.Eila and Clay decided to double our
animal-spotting chances and had a motion-activated trail camera
sent out for our enjoyment. We sprung for the high-end model,
complete with an infrared light. Clay sets the camera out most nights
at different spots around our campsite. The next morning we all sit
around the computer itching to see what we caught the night before.
Sometimes it is extremely anticlimactic – a leaf blowing and tripping
the motion sensor. They can’t all be winners. But every once and a
while we catch a glimpse of a nocturnal animal. We have captured a
golden jackal, Abyssinian and common genets — extra-large,
spotted ferrets — and a fleeting glimpse of a striped polecat, Pepé
Le Pew’s African cousin.
Maybe that’s why I don’t mind having a velociraptor impersonator
as an alarm clock. I am surrounded by unique and beautiful wildlife
— my own private “Lost World.”
Wednesday, Oct. 27
I am a little afraid of heights. In fact, when I first arrived in the
Simien Mountains I promised myself that I wouldn’t get closer to
the edge of the cliffs than absolutely necessary. Not just because of
my fear of heights, but also because of my common sense. The
Simien Mountains were formed by volcanic activity compounded by
millenniums of erosion. The last word of that sentence is the most
important. Erosion. I can still see it in action today. Every few days
we find a new pile of rocks in the middle of the road. It’s a constant
reminder that these cliffs are precarious.
Unfortunately for us, when you research cliff-dwelling monkeys,
cliffs are in the job description. I would like to think of myself as
brave, maybe even a little reckless. But whatever I think of myself
pales in comparison to the gelada’s audacity, or insanity, depending
on which way you look at it. It is estimated that 0.2 percent of
geladas die as the result of falling off the cliffs. Though this has never
been observed, it isn’t hard to believe that at least some of the
monkeys don’t have the deftness to successfully navigate the ever-
crumbling escarpment.
The young monkeys are the daredevils. Just like human children,
they like to roughhouse with each other as much as possible.
Roughhousing can be unsafe on its own, but when coupled with
1,000-meter cliffs it becomes deathly dangerous. This is exactly
what juvenile geladas do. When their parents are waking up and
socializing in the early morning, the juveniles are tackling each other
and using each other as springboards all on the edge of the cliffs.
Not a morning goes by that I don’t see a group of juveniles hanging
one-armed from a tree hanging over the cliffs. Either their mothers
don’t love them that much, or they just don’t care — probably the
latter. I know my mom would have a heart attack if she saw me
doing the same. I guess it’s good that geladas have the highest
forefinger-thumb opposability and finger strength of any nonhuman
primate.
It’s not just the juveniles that “live on the edge.” All geladas do. The
cliffs are their only refuge from the (formerly abundant) predators of
the Simiens. As such, every night all of the geladas make their way
down the cliff face. They sleep on the cliffs, but this doesn’t paint an
accurate picture of the true nature of their beds. They sleep on the
edge of cliffs. Literally. When they huddle at night on the cliffs their
tails droop down the first 50 centimeters of a 100,000-centimeter
drop. If a gelada rolled in its sleep, it wouldn’t make it through the
night.
I roll around a lot in my sleep. I wouldn’t last one night as a gelada.
Courtesy
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| Noah Snyder-Mackler A juvenile gelada facing down a thick-billed raven. |
| Clay Wilton A genet caught in a camera trap. |