Though it’s a bit belated, I wanted to introduce myself here on the Conservation Field Diaries. After graduating college this past June, I was awarded a U.S. Student Fulbright grant for a proposal to advance chimpanzee health-monitoring measures. I’ll be doing a number of things here at Gombe but my primary project studies the interaction of health and stress in wild chimpanzees. Specifically, I’ll be collecting fecal samples to extracting hormone measures.

I started working with Drs. Dominic Travis and Elizabeth Lonsdorf on chimpanzee health research at Gombe Stream National Park while attending the University of Chicago for my undergraduate degree in biology. After all this time, it’s wonderful to finally to get to know the chimpanzees I’ve written up in the records I translated!

Although I’ve been here a few months now, I’m still working on being able to identify each individual. Those with more distinctive personalities are definitely easier for me. For instance, I can identify Frodo—who has decided I’m small enough to beat up easily—immediately and try to keep an eye on him at all times.

It’s still strange thinking that this will be my home until October. Thankfully I know just enough Swahili to be able to communicate well with the park staff, especially my field assistant, Amri. It also helps that Amri and I share a good sense of humor when we run into problems. The days are long and the work hard, but in my mind, there’s no better job than one that requires running around on the mountain rift. Since I was off for the month of February, I can’t wait until next week when I can get back into forest!

Emma Lantz