University of Wisconsin–Madison

Summer 2026 (winter in South Africa) students working in the field with Nature’s Valley Baboon Project!

For June – August 2026, three University of Wisconsin-Madison students, primate nutrition lab members Sophia Mummert (PhD student), Griffyn Jones (undergraduate student who received the Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowship) and Luis Vazquez Chavez (undergraduate student), are in Nature’s Valley, South Africa to complete independent research projects as part of the Nature’s Valley Baboon Project and with our partner NGO NVT. They join four other students and postbacs from additional universities, including Emory and Colorado State University, working on baboon-related projects with NVBP’s co-directors.

Three students with pink hats watch baboons grooming in a pine plantation in South Africa
NVBP field assistant Adrien Vol trains PhD student Sophia Mummert and undergraduate Hilldale fellow Griffyn Jones on behavioral data collection, maintaining distance from chacma baboon study subjects at left.
(photo by Margaret Bryer)
Female baboon eats mushroom
In early June 2026, the NVBP team watched the baboons eat a lot of mushrooms in pine plantations, specifically Boletus edulis, as seen here being eaten by an adult female baboon in the study group.
(photo by Margaret Bryer)