Tracking Baboons’ Behavior Wins Student Young Naturalist Award

Friday, September 09 11:04 am

To prepare for his work at the zoo, Henry studied baboons at the Museum. Photo courtesy of Henry.

Henry always loved to observe. “Walking through parks,” he would later reflect, “I have watched squirrels, birds and other animals, always curious to know what their actions meant.”

So when given the chance to monitor the behavior of hamadryas baboons at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Zoo, 15-year-old Henry grabbed his journal and found a comfortable seat by their glass enclosure. He wanted to know how captive baboons differed from their relatives in the wild and which activities baboons performed most frequently in the zoo. Profiled in a recent New York Times article, Henry’s project, which he describes in the essay Hamadryas Baboons, Papio hamadryas: Captive vs. Wild, earned him a 2011 Young Naturalist Award.

To compare the two groups of baboons, Henry created a checklist of the behaviors described in anthropologist Larissa Swedell’s study of Ethiopian baboons. Henry recorded how often the captive baboons sat, groomed, ate, and walked. Since grooming allows baboons to bond—and return the favor—Henry hypothesized that the zoo animals would groom more than anything else.

According to Henry’s results, the two groups shared 85 percent of their behaviors. Though the captive baboons didn’t perform any new actions, they lacked certain aggressive and sexual behaviors seen in their Ethiopian counterparts. Henry also found that sitting—not grooming—was the most common activity of zoo baboons. The warm weather or the size of their enclosure may have inhibited their movement, he reasoned. Read more »

Seeking Kids with a Passion for Science

Friday, March 05 4:39 pm

Biology teacher Bobby Habig discusses primate behavior with Lang Scholars. © AMNH/R. Mickens

The Lang Science Program is recruiting about 20 current New York City 5th graders this spring for an intense extra-curricular involvement in science over seven years. The program begins in July with three weeks based at the Museum and continues during the school year with meetings on two Saturdays a month and then again for three weeks in summer, with the option of additional after-school classes and, eventually, career workshops. Subjects include major areas of Museum research, including invertebrate zoology, vertebrate zoology, genetics, evolution, geology, paleontology, physical anthropology, and astrophysics, some of which are tracked to temporary exhibitions at the Museum. The Lang Scholars meet and work with scientists behind the scenes, go on field trips, and design and carry out their own experiments.

Acceptance is merit-based, and scholarships are available based on need. Applicants are interviewed, as are their parents, and asked to submit both school transcripts and a “shoebox diorama” on a scientific theme. “We want kids who really have a passion for science, who can’t get enough of it,” says Bobby Habig, Lang Science Program coordinator and a full-time biology teacher in Middle School 12 in East Harlem.

Lang Scholars have been accepted to highly competitive New York City high schools, including Bronx Science and Stuyvesant High Schools. Those who successfully complete the program receive invaluable help in applying for college, including SAT preparation classes, and Lang alumni have gone on to colleges including Brown University, Cornell University, and Bard College. Lang Scholars have also won two Young Naturalist Awards, for studies of turtles basking in Central Park and earthworms in Prospect Park. Another Scholar, who studied parrots in Pelham Bay, was recognized as a finalist.

The Lang program began ten years ago with an initial $1 million grant from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and a subsequent grant of $250,000 with a view to increasing participation in science by minority children and those from lower-income families. Eugene M. Lang is a businessman-turned-philanthropist who gained national attention for his 1981 promise to 61 sixth graders in East Harlem to personally pay their college tuition if they stayed in school.

A version of this story appears in the March/April issue of Rotunda.

A Lang Scholar bones up on comparative anatomy. © AMNH/R. Mickens