A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons

Robert M. Sapolsky

Simon and Schuster, Nov 1, 2007 - Nature - 304 pages

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.

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A PRIMATE'S MEMOIR

User Review  - Kirkus

From the author of The Trouble with Testosterone (1997) and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (1993), a witty concoction blending field biology, history, hilarious cross-cultural mishaps, and hair-raising ...

A PrimatesMemoir

User Review  - gabc - Overstock.com

FirstI had CDs by Robert Sapolsky Neurphysiologist and I enjoyed them somuch I bought his book. He made clear the difference between shortterm stress which is a necessary part of life and long term ...

Contents

• Acknowledgments: 9
• Saul in the Wilderness: 95
• Samwelly Versus the Elephants: 105
• The First Masai: 117
• The Coup: 127
• Hearing Voices at the Wrong Time: 135
• Tenuous Adulthood: 167
• The Unstable Years: 169
• Ol Curly Toes and the King of NubianJudea: 177
• The Penguins of Guyana: 187
• When Baboons Were Falling Out of the Trees: 197
• The Old White Man: 209
• The Elevator: 213
• The Mound Behind the 7Eleven: 219
• Nick: 233
• The Raid: 243
• Ice: 249
• Joseph: 255
• The Blind Leading the Blind: 259
• Whos on First Whats on Second: 263
• The Last Warriors: 269
• The Plague: 275
• 105: 278

About the author

Robert M. Sapolsky is the author of several works of nonfiction, including A Primate's Memoir, The Trouble with Testosterone, and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. He is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant. He lives in San Francisco.

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons
• Author: Robert M. Sapolsky
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2007
• ISBN: 1416590366, 9781416590361
• Length: 304 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Adventurers & Explorers; Nature / Animals / Primates; Travel / Africa / General