Off to the Nile, Murchinson Falls National Park

A group of primatologists visits the savanna! Last weekend I traveled with some other researchers to Murchinson Falls National Park, Uganda’s largest. It was a wonderful return to the biome of grass-tree dynamics and megafuana from my experiences last fall in South Africa.

Chimp tracking – A day in the life

So what do you actually DO all day? I’ll now break from scholarly topics to give an account of my fieldwork. Academic frills shed aside, it’s time to enter the forest.

Snapshots of Budongo Forest

A glimpse into the captivating and diverse Budongo landscape. (Images have been downsized to meet the demands of Ugandan mobile internet.)

Debating altruism (an addendum to The Biology of Ubuntu)

Last spring, I gave a talk on the evolution of altruism for my living group, Ubuntu. Our namesake is the southern African philosophy of community. I am because we are, being one literal translation. With our social action organization full of members looking to devote their careers towards the benefits of others, I thought it relevant to explore the biological roots of such behavior in our student-lead talk series.

Why be nice? and Is altruism human nature? my prezi asked. It described how cold-hard biology explains the warm-fuzzies of helping others. To this end I employed two major theories: reciprocal altruism and kin-selection.

Well guys, I have an admission to make: I lied, at least by omission. I, like countless science advocates before me, simplified the picture for a streamlined presentation. The truth is that altruism researchers are often at odds with one another and ironically unable to cooperate.