Finding Baboons

So how does one find baboons? If you have a lot of stamina, you do dawn to dusk follows. Since you "put them to bed" the night before, you know right where they are the following morning. You can do this type of field work for a finite amount of time - then you become totally exhausted. Baboons may make a lot of racket during the night, especially on a full moon, but they rarely move once night has fallen. If you didn't put them to bed, then you need to check their sleeping sites early and hope they haven't departed for the day. The baboons on the reserve use several sleeping sites - some I know about, some I don't - despite my best efforts of find them all. They usually sleep in cracks and crevices in rock faces. In South Africa these rock faces are referred to as kloofs. Only occasionally have I seen them asleep in the trees. Today I will try the sleeping site nearest my house. It's about a 15 minute walk, first down-hill to a meadow, then back up. I've learned to look for them on the opposite side of the rock face they sleep on. My logic is two-fold. One, you can see better. Two, they don't particularly like people there and will push rocks down on you. Thankfully I've never been hit - but got their message loud & clear. Rule #1 in field work is "Honor the Animals You Follow"! Today - no one is there. On to the next sleeping site. It's not so close. The reserve is very steep and for some reason every time I begin the climb up this particular hill I can feel the pulse in my carotid artery and hear my heart pounding. I'm in good shape, but wonder if today will be the day all the cream, cheese and Ben & Jerry's ice cream will catch up with me. Whew, the road flattens out a bit and I'm in the clear. As I move uphill and can check the lower part of the reserve. I scan the meadow - no baboons. I scan the neighboring property - no baboons. The large troop is over 100 individuals and they are quite noisy. I can usually hear them once I'm getting close to their where abouts. Today, all I hear are the hadedas and a zillion small birds I can hear, but not see - but no baboon calls. As I approach the second sleeping site, I feel a little less hopeful with every step. It's too quiet. I reach the edge of the ravine and look across at the rocks. I scan up and down - but realize I won't be spending my morning in the company of baboons. Once the sun is up, its a crap shoot as to where they are. With any luck, they'll come of one of three dams today and I'll have the chance to "put them to bed".