Research permission in Namibia is kindly provided by the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. In the UK, the Tsaobis Baboon Project is based at the Institute of Zoology, the research arm of ZSL.
Our research is undertaken with collaborators in various institutions, including the departments of Zoology and Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, the department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, the Institute for Integrative Biology at the University of Liverpool, the Institute for Evolutionary Science at the University of Montpellier, the Centre for Research in Evolutionary Anthropology at Roehampton University London, and the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University.
Project Background
The aim of the Tsaobis Baboon Project is to carry out fundamental research in behavioural ecology and population ecology using desert baboons as a model system. Our work also has a strong conservation science theme with its interest in the effects of complex social structure on population dynamics and extinction.
The Tsaobis Baboon Project is based at Tsaobis Nature Park on the edge of the Namib Desert in central Namibia. At present, we work with two troops of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus), each of about 60 individuals. Each baboon is individually recognisable, of known age, and of known relatedness to other individuals in the population.
Research on the Tsaobis baboons began in 1990, and has been ongoing on an annual basis since 2000. To date, over 50 scientific publications have been produced from our research, including several articles in the journals Nature, Current Biology, and Proceedings B. For a full bibliography, please see Publications.
Volunteer Information
Each year, we recruit volunteers to assist with fieldwork on the Tsaobis Baboon Project. There are five positions available on the 2019 field season, each of 3.5 months duration, running between mid-April and the end of July. All accommodation, subsistence, and travel costs in Namibia are covered by the project, and a contribution is also made towards the costs of the return flight.
If you would like more information, or to apply for one of these positions, further details are provided under Information for Volunteers.
The deadline for applications is 10am Monday 7 January 2019
