Baboons

I know, sounds a little strange to have a blog about Baboons but I thought I’d share a story.
Barbara Smuts, a Professor at the Univ. of Michigan sought to gain trust from a troop of baboons back around 1970. She spent every day for two years following this troop around the plains of Kenya, inching her way closer to them each day.
She communicated with them in a soft, sweet, high pitched voice. All of the animal Kingdom understands that a high pitched voice is a less dangerous threat than a gruff, deep voice.
Sometimes they would grunt at her and she would politely grunt back.
Each day she got closer until eventually she was only a couple feet away. She could now see their faces and recognize who was who. It was a long journey to get this close.
One day she lost track of the troop as a big rainstorm began. She ran down to the river where there were some fisherman huts. She ran inside one, and closed the door behind her. It was pitch black inside. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness she began to make out some lumpy shapes inside the hut with her. She realized it was her baboons. 15 or 20 of them! They had already taken shelter there. They were so quiet. No one made a sound. She even thinks one moved over just a bit to give her more room. A beautiful connection of sharing space, retrieving the bonds that we had with the animal kingdom from which we have separated ourselves.

If you have 10 mins, listen to the audio of her interview on RadioLab. It’s delightful!
Enjoy!
http://www.wnycstudios.org/story/91942-the-shy-baboon/

Thank you for reading!

Hugs,
~Christine