Shirley C. Strum

I have studied olive baboons in the wild since 1972, over 50 years. As Director of the Gilgil Baboon Project, I watched naive baboon troops become crop raiders in 1981-1984. I did the first scientific translocation of 3 primate troops in 1984 and monitored their responses to present, changing the name after translocation to the Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project. I implemented the first primate study to involve people, community based conservation (CBC), starting in 1981, and continued until present. This involved ecotourism beginning in 1996 with the Twala/Tenebo Cultural Village, helping to train local women in guiding, financial management, and other skills. I was name "Mama Twala" in 2019 in recognition of my role in fostering the women of Twala. I've also done the first study in 100 years of the invasion process of Opuntia stricta, an invasive cactus. For 25 years, with a colleague from Biology, I taught Conservation and the Human Predicament, a multidisciplinary course that we revised over the years as sensibilities and options evolved. Recently, I wrote "Echoes of Our Origins: baboons, humans and nature to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press on September 9, 2025.