In the tradition of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, Robert Sapolsky, a
foremost science writer and recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, tells
the mesmerizing story of his twenty-one years in remote Kenya with a
troop of Savannah baboons.
"I had never planned to become a savanna baboon when I grew up; instead,
I had always assumed I would become a mountain gorilla," writes Robert
Sapolsky in this witty and riveting chronicle of a scientist's
coming-of-age in remote Africa.
An exhilarating account of Sapolsky's twenty-one-year study of a troop
of rambunctious baboons in Kenya, A Primate's Memoir interweaves
serious scientific observations with wry commentary about the challenges
and pleasures of living in the wilds of the Serengeti--for man and beast
alike. Over two decades, Sapolsky survives culinary atrocities, gunpoint
encounters, and a surreal kidnapping, while witnessing the encroachment
of the tourist mentality on the farthest vestiges of unspoiled Africa.
As he conducts unprecedented physiological research on wild primates, he
becomes evermore enamored of his subjects--unique and compelling
characters in their own right--and he returns to them summer after
summer, until tragedy finally prevents him.
By turns hilarious and poignant, A Primate's Memoir is a magnum opus
from one of our foremost science writers.
