Birth Order Effect on Infant Survival of <emp>Papio cynocephalus Anubis</emp>

My project began on my flight from Long Island, New York to Northfield, Minnesota. I have always been a highly curious person, drawn to new knowledge and understanding of any topic. Yet, as I sat on that plane, beginning to read about the latest research in the behavioral biology of baboons, I did not realize Primatology would become a passion . . . At the Carleton College Summer Science Program I studied under Professor Annie Bosacker . . . Through Dr. Bosacker I was given access to an extensive data set, entitled GomDem04, collected for over forty years at Gombe National Park, Tanzania. This data set represented the demography of hundreds of wild olive baboons from various different troops that inhabit Gombe National Park. It provided essential information such as the name, birth date, number in birth order, sex, age at death, and mother’s name and age for each baboon. At first, the data sheet appeared to be an enormous, overwhelming mass of numbers and empirical information on thousands of baboons, without much study on their actual behavior. I could not see how I would be able to conduct a research project on behavioral biology through analyzing a set of numbers. Yet, through Dr. Bosacker’s vast knowledge of the topic and entertaining stories about her time at Gombe National Park, Tanzania, she brought the data to life…

• Biology