John Oates - Primatological Fieldwork in Zaire

John Oates with graduate student Carolyn Bocian and a team of field assistants [including Mbuti pygmies] at the Basakwe Research Camp in the Ituri Forest of eastern Zaire. Bocian lived in the Ituri Forest for 18 months, studying the ecology of two closely-related species of black-and-white colobus monkeys that share the same habitat. This research, attempting to understand the relative contributions of present habitat and past evolutionary history to the ecology and behavior of primates, is part of a research program in the rain forests of Africa that Oates has been pursuing for more than 25 years.