Tuesday, September 8, 2009










Abuko national park! This semester I will be doing directed research under Professor Wolovich. She is researching Galago's or bush babies! There are also 3 other biology majors who are working on primate SMP's. I have been within 2 feet of a Callithrix monkey(pic 1), who thinks you will give it food. There are also colobus monkeys (pic 3). The galago's are nocturnal, so we do the research at night. (Mom, I wore a ton of bug spray and all my permethrin sprayed gear) To find them, we wore head lamps with spot lights. When their eyes are struck by light the shine back a bright red light. So we went through the forest looking for eye shine, and when we spotted on we have to snap for the others to come look. It was Elena, myself, and Molong who is the lead Gambian scientist in the park, in one group. Molong knows every single plant in that park, he knows the English name, Gambian name, and scientific name, as well as the medicinal uses! So after we spotted a galago we would try to watch it as long as possible, but it would scurry away within 20 seconds. We then trekked over to the tree it was on and Molong would have me write the long scientific name down. Then he name all the neighboring trees! This man is a genius! In an hours time we saw 7 galago's. It was over all a successful night!

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