Q: Have you always been interested in animals?

'Yes I’ve always been animal-mad. When I was 10 I was convinced I wanted to be a marine biologist and work with whales and dolphins. But then when I was 15 I did some voluntary work at a local zoo and got to work with the monkeys, and I just fell in love with them!' 

 

Q: So what exactly does an anthropologist do?

'Basically an anthropologist is someone who studies humans and their closest relatives monkeys and apes – which together we call the 'primates'. This can range from studying ancient human populations and how humans evolved, through to how modern day humans live and interact. Anthropologists also focus on the study of primates and how they live and behave.This is where the work with monkeys that I do comes in – as a biological anthropologist I study not only the primates themselves but also study how humans and animals live alongside one another.'

 

Q: So what does your work actually consist of?

'I am a university lecturer, so during term time I am kept very busy teaching students who want to become anthropogists themselves, as well as writing up the data from my most recent field trips. But then in the long summer holidays I have the chance to travel back to Indonesia and continue my research into the monkeys - the Buton macaques - which I have been studying there for the past 14 years. I have now made 12 field trips to study the Buton macaque, varying from 6 weeks to 9 months at a time.'

 

Q: How did you come to choose this species of monkey to study?

'I’m interested in all primates – they are so like us in so many ways. But the Buton macaques in particular are fascinating as they’re only found on 2 tiny islands - called Muna and Buton. They also look

quite different to other monkeys – they have dark fur, black skin and tiny tails. I’d never heard of the Buton macaque until I went out to Indonesia as a volunteer on a conservation project in the summer of my first year at University. While I was there I saw the monkeys in the forest and realised that there was almost no scientific research on them, none were held in zoos anywhere, and no one knew anything about them so I decided to come back the following year and do my thesis on them - and then I just carried on from there….'

 

Q: What do you actually do when you go to Indonesia?

'My project focuses on ensuring the monkeys can live alongside the local humans peacefully.  So this means I need to investigate not just the behaviour of the monkeys themselves but also the way the local people interract with them. I spend my days following monkeys in the forest and farms recording what the monkeys do, where they go and what they eat. I also interview local people to see how they view the monkeys and how the monkeys impact on their lives. As well as all this I run education projects in the local schools to teach the children all about the monkeys and rainforests and why it’s so important to look after them.'

 

Q: Can you desctibe a typical day in the field?

'On a typical day I get up at about 4:30am and get dressed and have some breakfast (usually fried rice or porridge). Then we head out with our guides to the last place we saw the monkeys the day before (their sleeping tree). We then follow them for as long as possible during the day – recording their movements and their behaviour, as well as what they eat. We do this until they go back to their sleeping tree in the late afternoon (or until we lose them!) and then we head back to the camp for supper.'

 

Q: What is it like to sleep in the rainforest?

'It’s absolutely amazing! You go to sleep in a hammock completely surrounded by the noises of the forest. Forests are quite noisy at night and I love all the sounds you can hear - the sounds of the trees rustling and creaking, the insects calling and tarsiers and other creatures calling to each other. The best bit is waking up in the morning with the sun streaming in through the canopy of the trees. It’s breathtaking. Being so immersed in the forest can be a little scary at first – but once you get used to the noises it’s fantastic.' 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: What’s the oddest thing that’s happened to you in the forest?

'I’ve had lots of interesting and sometimes scary experiences in the forest but I think the one that stands out the most was very early on

in the project. My guide and I found a troop of monkeys near the

road and went in to the forest to follow them. As we got closer the adult male started making threats towards us and was getting quite agitated. While we were focused on him we didn’t spot the rest of the troop forming a circle around us. Luckily we spotted it in time

and ran back out to the road where we thought they wouldn’t

follow. The adult male chased us though and ran alongside us

in the forest as we ran up the road, and threw stuff at us! He 

obviously didn’t want us around!'

 

Q: What are the biggest threats to these monkeys?

'The monkeys are part of the very delicate ecosystem of the forest - which humans have also been a part of - but there is now intense pressure to cut down the trees for their timber, as well as clearing the forest for farming and mining – for oil and nickel.' 

 

Q: In a perfect world what would your monkeys' world look like

     in 20 to 30 years' time?

'Ideally the forest would stay exactly how it is now. It would not be any smaller, there would be no more trails and roads cut into the forest to extract the trees, and the monkeys would be able to live

safely inside the forest. Meanwhile humans farming on the edge of

the forest wouldn’t cut any deeper into it to create more farmland,

and they would tolerate the monkeys' presence near their farms.'

 

Q: What other animals would you love to work with?

'Gosh – I love all wildlife so it would be so hard to choose. On the islands where I work now I’d also like to work on the cuscus - a marsupial rather like a sloth. But there are so many other monkeys

in other parts of the world I would love to work with  – especially some of the lesser known ones in parts of Vietnam and Cambodia

(the langurs, for example). And I’m not just interested in mammals,

I’d be thrilled to work with birds or reptiles – especially tortoises! Equally I would love to work on animals closer to home – I have a particular fondness for urban foxes so they’re definitely high up on

my list, as are badgers.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: Do you make any money?

'Well I make enough money to live. My work in the field is very expensive and I have to rely on fundraising or my own money to support it. Luckily my teaching work is paid and it’s enough to live by. If you want to be rich then working in conservation and

anthropology may not be the answer, but you can earn enough to

live well and it’s tremendously rewarding in so many other ways.'

 

Q: What do you do when you’re not working with animals?

'Away from my life as an anthropologist I am a qualified fitness instructor and I teach lots of fitness classes to adults. I am also a very keen baker, and I love  to create yummy dairy- and gluten-free cakes and bakes which I blog about on my baking blog.'

 

Q: How could I become an anthropologist?

'Anthropology is such a broad subject that there are lots of ways you can get to study it. When you get to A-level some schools have a specific anthropology option, but if your school doesn’t don’t worry, you can still do anthropology at university. Most uni’s don’t require specific subjects at A-level to study anthropology, but if you want to go on to studying monkeys then A-level biology is usually needed.

You could also do a biology degree, and then come in to it that way.

 

'The 'Discover Anthropology' website has got lots of useful information and contact addresses of other useful organisations. You can find it at www. discoveranthropology.org.uk.

 

'If you want to work in primate conservation it’s great to start volunteering at local zoos or conservation centres as soon as you

are old enough (even ones that don’t look after monkeys) to get

experience and learn more. Meanwhile, if you want to work with animals in any way in the future, just keep on reading, watching,

studying and finding out about them as much as you can now!'