Judi is a graduate of UDSM’s Department of Wildlife Science and Conservation, and later worked for GMERC as an intern in 2017. Judi received sponsorship to begin a MA in Project Management at UDSM in Fall 2019 and completed this work in 2021. She then returned to GMERC to be the project manager. Welcome back, Judi!

Kahana received her Bachelor degree from the College of African Wildlife Management (Mweka) in 2020.Kahana began working with GMERC on our long-term data on chimpanzee consumption of figs, before conducting a three-month internship at Issa in early 2022. He later returned is helping coordinate the broader research agenda.

Simon been at Issa in January 2017, and is used skills acquired from working in the Bugwe village forest reserve to help him adjust to the work at Issa. In 2020, Simon was promoted to project leader for the chimpanzee research team.

Rama first interned with GMERC in 2015, then again in 2018, where he worked closely with Christopher Lile to investigate red-tailed feeding ecology. He joined permanently in January 2020 as leader for the red-tailed monkey project.

Shedrack is our longest-tenured team member. He began work with us in 2007, first on monthly surveys to Issa. He was promoted to permanent field assistant  in 2008 and in 2016, as leader of our Phenology .project

Patrick first joined our efforts in 2012 when GMERC led a regional survey to identify priority habitat for chimpanzee conservation. He subsequently began helping us identify red-tailed monkeys and co-leading our camera trap project.

Theresia began with GMERC in 2017 and has been a steady, reliable assistant at camp ever since.

Began work with us in 2007, first on monthly surveys to Issa. He was later promoted to senior field assistant in the summer of 2010.

Sadiki began work at GMERC in 2021 and has been an instrumental part of the chimpanzee behavioural ecology team. He also has a keen eye for tree identifications!

Ivorda received her Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Management from Sokoine University of Agriculture in 2021. She began at GMERC as an intern in 2021 but quickly demonstrated her keeness to learn chimpanzee identifications, lead a project into red-tailed feeding ecology, and now is helping Maire Malone and Denise Su (ASU) in their work assessing mammal distribution and abundance.

I am Epifania Temu, a Tanzanian and Sokoine University of Agriculture graduate (2022) with a BSc. Environmental Sciences and Management. My wildlife enthusiasm dates back to 2021 as the Ecological Field Assistant at the Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Centre with a major operational focus on primate monitoring, tracking, and camera trapping. I believe that “the welfare of wildlife biodiversity is among other things dependent on and dictated by the ecological suitability and climate favorability”. This drives my interest as GMERC Intern to further chimpanzee habitat conservation strategies via in-depth research (investigation) and analysis of the joint influence of ecological and climatological parameters on the chimpanzee population.  In recognition of the wider role of the ecosystem and habitat in rescuing the Threatened Chimpanzee (IUCN Red List), I envision “acting strategizing on Conserving Habitat and halting ecosystem degradation in a changing climate for Chimpanzee and the general biodiversity of the Greater Mahale Ecosystem”.