PRIMATE`S MEMOIR

A Primate's memoir by Robert Sapolsky

A Primate's memoir by Robert Sapolsky

Thesis Statement

Analyzing the dominance nature in wild species and their effects on low ranked groups

Introduction

Robert Maurice Sapolsky was born in 1957. He is one of the renowned American scientist and author. He is currently employed as a professor of Biological Sciences, and Neurology and Neurological sciences, at Stanford University. With respect to that, he is also a research associate at The National Museums of Kenya. The masterpiece by Sapolsky “A Primate`s Memoir” is the third book, which offers a different perspective on the stress related diseases in wild species. The first two books written by Sapolsky were, “Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers” and “The Trouble with Testosterone”, which were the major work in his younger age with more enthusiasm and adventurous nature. The book “A Primate`s memoir” is contagious with humor nature that flows through out, and takes the reader along with him to journey of Masai villages in Kenya to Sudan, and finally through Uganda and Somalia. In year 1978, when Sapolsky graduated from college left for Kenya in South western region to join baboon troops. The book focuses on the objective and enthusiasm of Sapolsky to study behavioral nature of wild species in terms of stress related diseases. For conducting the behavioral study, he was engaged into a tribe as a low ranking man. From there he initiated his long term project, where he observed the troops, spending more than four months of every year for getting the knowledge and ideas related to progression of baboon friendships, rivalries, and courtships. In this paper, I will discuss the complex social hierarchy differentiating between males, females, young, and old of the baboon troop observed by Sapolsky. The particular attention of paper will be on situations and activities leading to and obtaining or losing dominance such as nature, instinct, age, group transfer, alliances, or individual personalities and, also the mating strategies that are affected by rank and how troop transfer affects rank. The paper will also discuss the ways in which social hierarchy and dominance among baboons might compare to humans in general, with discussion based on the stress related diseases in wild species, and explanation of the way this study has or hasn't conformed to the steps of the scientific method.

Discussion

Robert Sapolsky went to Kenya in 1978 after his graduation in the field of Biology. He set off for a long term field work among baboons. The experience of Sapolsky wilderness consisted of short backpacking trips in the Catskill Mountains. Most of knowledge about African wildlife he learned from the specimens stuffed at Natural History museum. But his thirst for knowledge grew more, and he decided to make his way to the bush, an extensive savanna filled with wildebeest and zebras and marauding elephants “I couldn't believe my eyes,” Sapolsky remembers. “There was an animal behind every tree. I was inside the diorama”.

Baboons Hierarchy and Ranks

Baboons are the malicious, wild and short ...