These lions in Serengeti National Park were one of the highlights from zoo researcher Anna Czupryna's field season in the Serengeti.

Samples sorted, equipment stowed away, bags packed and I’m suddenly finding myself back in Chicago after almost five months in Tanzania. Watching the snow falling as I eat Chicago deep dish pizza, I can hardly believe that just a few weeks ago I was in the rural villages west of Serengeti National Park.

The Sumuni Family at Nangale Village vaccination day

This field season was once again successful and filled with all sorts of adventures: scaling kopjes for the perfect camera trap location, vaccinating hundreds of dogs, visiting schools, tracking lions in the Serengeti and having my favorite coffee cup stolen by a baboon with a clearly serious caffeine addiction.

The coffee culprit: baboon sneaking a peek in through my window to see what else he could steal…

We marked and identified 259 new puppies and dogs for our domestic dog study, which means we currently have 769 live marked dogs we will be following in 2013! All made possible by an amazing hardworking field team—thank you all!

The Iyogelo Village Team. From left: Njana, Anna, Masalu, Chunde.

Now back in Chicago, I’m looking forward to my next challenge: entering and analyzing all these data to better understand the population dynamics of these dogs. Aaaaand, of course, catching up on some of the population dynamics of my family, friends and favorite TV shows☺.

Anna Czupryna

Research Coordinator Anna Czupryna studies domestic dog population dynamics near Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. Her work is one part of a zoo-led vaccination campaign that protects the region’s people, pets and predators.