This field school will give participants the opportunity to experience the diverse habitats of Kenya, and to gain understanding about biodiversity by using primate field studies as the entry point. Participants will be exposed to specific conservation problems and emerging innovative solutions that are contextually and culturally different than any they will find elsewhere.

The curriculum will comprise lectures, readings, and discussions on important concepts in primatology and conservation biology. We will review important notions in primate behavioral ecology, and learn about primate behavior and ecological data collection. The core of the field school will be training and practice of field methods. Participants will learn how to census primates, study social behavior and habitat use, practice animal identification, time budget analysis via scan and focal animal sampling, and how to measure habitat use. In order to expose the participants to methods used to study primates found in different habitat types, the field school will be conducted two ecologically different sites. A forest ecosystem in the Tana River Primate National Reserve (TRPNR) at the coast, and Kakamega Forest National Reserve in western Kenya.

TRPNR is a forest reserve established in 1976 measuring 167 km 2 in area. It is the only reserve in the world dedicated solely to conservation of primates. There are eight non-human primate species in the reserve; the Tana River red colobus, crested mangabey and sykes monkey, baboons and vervet monkeys, and three prosimians, the lesser, greater and Garnet’s galagos. Both the red colobus and crested mangabey are endemic to the area and are ranked among the world's top 25 most endangered primate species. The forests contain high diversity of other species of rare animals and plants, and are designated as a global biodiversity hotspot. Three indigenous groups of people live within the vicinity of the reserve.

Kakamega Forest, in western Kenya, is the largest surviving stand of rainforest in Kenya. The park supports over 350 species of trees and five observable primate species. The majestic black and white colobus monkeys are abundant and often associate with blue monkeys. The forest is also home to endangered DeBrazza monkeys as well as red-tail monkeys and olive baboons. For bird and butterfly enthusiasts, this is the place of choice. Being such a food rich reserve habitat, the park supports over 300 bird species and over 400 species of butterflies (about 45% of all recorded butterflies in Kenya); birdlife includes the endangered Turner's eremomela, Charpins flycatcher and the voice mimicking African grey parrot. Forest bucks, duikers and dik diks are also found in this enormously bio-diverse rain forest. Large age-old trees are in plenty as a result of early efforts in conservation.

The Field school Directors:

Dr. Jack Harris is a professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University. He has over thirty years experience working and doing field research in Kenya. As one of the foremost paleoanthropologist in the world (and as the director of the Koobi Fora Field School) Dr. Harris brings a unique prespective to the field school. Every year Dr. Harris brings students to the Segara Ranch in Lakipia for wildlife ecology studies and he is looking forward to this field study session with its focus on primates. Jack Harris is the author of numerous monographs and articles in the field of Human origins and has been featured on several television documentaries.

Dr. Leah Domb is Science Master at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. She holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology from Harvard University, where her academic studies focused on the behavioral biology of wild primates. She carried out the research component of her Ph.D. thesis on olive baboons at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, and the results of her research were published in the leading scientific journal Nature. She conducted additional studies on rhesus macaques, chimpanzees and bonobos, and she has been a scientific advisor on location for wildlife documentary film crews working with lowland gorillas, baboons, lion, cheetah and wildebeest. She has won teaching awards at Harvard University and The Lawrenceville School, and currently takes a group of students each Spring to Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to investigate wildlife behavior, ecology and conservation.