You may be wondering why I am blogging about a year, which I will tell the majority of you about, in person, on a daily basis. Well, you're not the only people in my life and its a free internet where I can say whatever I want without your judgemental judgement, you judgers.
Apparently honours is the best and worst year of your life. My coordinator even felt it necessary to quote Dickens, although I think the French Revolution was probably a period more suited to a Dickensian novel than my honours thesis.
Despite the doomsayers I am currently feeling pretty optimistic about this year.
Pictured: Optimism.
I have decided to study the attachment of hand-reared gibbons to their mothers compared to mother-reared gibbons and a fostered gibbon based on the theories of attachment developed by Bowlby.
For the non-scientists: I want to see if the babies who stayed with their mums like their mums more.
The big plus of this question is that it is a unique study and never attempted before with gibbons or with such a variety of rearing techniques in the infants and I get to look at baby gibbons. All year. Baby. Gibbons.
A baby gibbon.
That charming little fellow is, in fact, Nakai, one of the gibbons in my study.
I have two species in my study the White-Cheeked Gibbons and the Silvery Gibbons and three families to compare. Each individual has their own quirks and tricks and I'll detail each one in later posts.
However, before the best of the study (the baby gibbon bit) can be done I have to do the slog work first. Unfortunately the slog work involves reading hundreds upon hundreds of articles and books. And understanding those many many words. So before you get to read about my exciting adventures at the zoo involving exotic animals and screaming children with ice cream, you get to hear about my exciting adventures with words!!
I am just as thrilled.
Hopefully this year is as good as my optimistic thumbs up hopes it will be. But if it isn't you can hear firsthand about the stress and tears, right here, so you can empathise and care about me or laugh and gloat, really its up to you...
For me now, its back to my book "Baboon Mother and Infants". Stay tuned for another installment called "Why I Hate Baboons".
xx
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