What is a focal follow? (aka. what I do all day)

Field Assistants Sheila and Sylvia in T-West North group

My study is observational, not experimental. Observations and experiments go hand-in-hand, but are different: experimenters manipulate conditions and observers do not (e.g. day length in colony room vs. day length according to natural season). In both types of studies, the researcher measures one or more conditions (e.g. day length) and response variables of interest (e.g. song frequency of birds). You may sometimes hear of "natural experiments" - these are times when mama nature herself (aka God +/- chance) is the manipulator, creating different conditions across which researchers measure and compare a response. For example, to see the effect of military service on income, a researcher could compare the income of veterans vs. non-veterans, given a random draft. Most observational studies take advantage of these natural experimental conditions, and so do I. Take away: I observe the monkeys' behavior with little to no involvement in it.

In 1974, a smart woman named Jeanne Altmann did everyone in the emerging field of behavioral ecology a big favor - she wrote "Observational Study of Behavior: Sampling Methods." In doing so she succinctly described the various ways that people can (and perhaps should) sample spontaneously occurring behavior. One of these ways, now ubiquitously common, is called the "focal follow." And in the focal follow you can employ a variety of recording techniques…

Frisbee, Sheila, and our digital data sheets

Focal follows are what we do for most of the day here. We follow a "focal" animal (i.e. one of our subjects) for 20 minutes, during which we record all of its social interactions. If I'm following Bike, for example, then I might write line by line in our code "bike receives approach from frisbee"…"bike receives groom present from frisbee, bike accepts and grooms frisbee". Then every minute on the minute, alerted by our repeating timers, we record what Bike is doing (e.g. feeding, resting, moving, grooming) and who is nearby. If Bike moves out of sight for more than 10 minutes in a row… we wail, shake an angry fist to the sky, and abort the follow. If we follow Bike for the full 20 minutes… then we cheer, bust a Saturday-night-fever, and move on to find another focal.

We try to do the same number of follows for each subject each month and conduct those follows evenly throughout the day…

Game-face time: the forest
observers and monkeys traverse

About 80% of the time the monkeys are high up in the trees (30-50m), so you need your game face (focus hard and write quickly) to avoid shaking that angry fist to the sky. When monkeys decide to move, they move! This poses a problem for us lumbering terrestrial bipeds. The treetops and underbrush are paved rode for the monkeys' lithe little bodies and nimble hands and feet, but they're less accommodating for us.

Nevertheless, there is that lovely 15% of the time when the monkeys come low, and the 5% when the follow is an absolute and glorious cakewalk. See above a photo of Sheila's cakewalk with Frisbee and a view of our tablet interface.

I'll save the fun details of how we collect hormone samples (pee and poop!) for another time. 

I hope you've enjoyed a glimpse into the world of focal follows! For more details, please just ask ;).

Lots of love,

Nicole

The Adventures of August

Cheers to the end of my project's first quarter! Only three more to go. No doubt this year in Kenya will go by fast. I can see from social media that your summers, too, have flown by and everyone is gearing up for fall. Here we're having an unexpected resurgence of monsoon-like rain, with regular downpours every afternoon from 3pm onwards. It's good news for our water tanks, but I'm looking forward to the dry season's long afternoon's and dry seats on the ground. We're also experiencing a mysterious blackout on cell phone service in the area. So, apologies for the silence! 

The Groom and Bride: Patrick and Casty

At the end of August, I had the honor of going to my first Kenyan wedding! The wedding couple, Patrick and Casty, go to the church I attend in the nearby town of Shinyalu. The wedding itself was held in the not-so-nearby city of Gilgil (an 8 hour bus ride there, detours and getting lost included -- a 10 hour matatu ride back, matatu-madness included). I was completely honored to be one of the wedding's official photographers! I did this along with my friend Lauren, a colleague on the project. To wedding photographer friends - I totally understand that your job is not easy! I was a fly on the wall searching for good lighting while the bride got ready with her maids. I was also challenged to capture the moment amidst trying to enjoy the singing, dancing, and praying - of which there was a lot! It was an incredibly good time.

Wedding party and guests in Gilgil (can you spot me?)

Lake Naivasha and
Hellsgate's Gorges

I swung down to visit Lake Naivasha for a night after the wedding and took a shot at biking through Hellsgate National Park. Hellsgate is so charmingly named because it gets quite hot midday. I found that out while biking and a nice man with a car was kind enough to taxi me back to my homestay (only a 30 min ride, marriage proposal included). In Hellsgate, I met some animal friends, both old (baboons) and new (warthogs!).

Cute and cuddlies of Hellsgate Nat'l Park

Celebrating birthdays on a rainy afternoon.

As for the real reason I'm here, my team at camp is really finding its rhythm in data collection. I am so proud of these women, their daily drive, and their genuine curiosity about animal behavior. More than scientists, we're growing as a team and as individuals. No one is perfect on any team, and lately we've been dealing with ways to hold each other accountable. Accountability and integrity are always difficult to maintain, but in this culture, "ratting" on a community member (i.e. reporting any misconduct whatsoever) is an especially nasty practice. I'm not sure why, but perhaps it's because communities here are so tight-knit and long-standing, because witchcraft is a prevalent method of revenge, or some combination of reasons. In any case, workers like to make their own schedules here, co-workers hate to be the narc, and bosses (like all humans) can only be in one place at a time. In my team, we haven't suffered from this problem extensively, but I've done my best to nip all signs of dishonest or uncooperative behavior in the bud. Not easy, but every morning we take turns praying for health, communication, cooperation, encouragement, and integrity. And God answers our prayers.

Just this Friday, we celebrated the birthdays of two of our teammates, Sylvia and Sheila. Being singled out of the crowd and celebrated is not as common here as it is in Western cultures, and the gifts and recognition make for a very special occasion. Sheila proclaimed she would be celebrating like this with her family in the future. Good times.

More about these ninjas and the work they do to come!

Lots of love,

Nicole

PS. If you're curious about where I was ... ;)