Buffalo Grove resident studies primates in Rwanda

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Drake University student Carol Kim, a graduate of Adlai E. Stevenson High School, will conduct research on primates in Rwanda this summer. (Photos courtesy of Drake University)

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Updated: August 1, 2011 12:18AM

Carol Kim, a graduate of Adlai E. Stevenson High School, will spend the summer 7,750 miles from her Buffalo Grove home in the midst of 3,665 acres of forest.

Kim, who is a senior environmental science and policy major at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, is one of two students from the university who will spend the summer in Rwanda, working with the Great Ape Trust conducting research in the Gishwati Forest. She and classmate Johanna Desprez of St. Paul, Minn. will depart June 4 and return Aug. 9.

“I decided to take an Intro to Primatology class just because I had room in my curriculum,” Kim said. “It wasn’t easy, but it was worth studying. Then I signed up for more classes; I wanted to do anything I could to get involved with it. “

Kim’s participation in Drake’s primate studies program connected her with the Great Ape Trust, a scientific research facility dedicated to the understanding and preservation of endangered great apes. The director of conservation at the trust, Ben Beck, recommended Kim for the project after meeting and keeping in touch with her following a series of lectures he gave to Drake students.

“All undergraduate students should have the opportunity to experience other cultures,” Beck said. “International competencies are essential for virtually any career in the 21st century.”

The students’ research will aid scientists from the trust working in Rwanda to ultimately build a corridor between the Gishwati Forest and Nyungwe and Mukuro national parks. The corridor provides animals an avenue of travel between the three protected areas. More room to travel means more potential mates for the animals, another route of escape in case of natural disaster, more food resources and, in the end, a better chance of survival. Kim already worked with scientists to plan different routing options for the corridor, which were presented to Rwanda’s minister of environment and lands in May.

“We will be conducting vegetation research in the Kinyenkanda area and Gishwati Forest to identify and measure growth of tree species to document auto-reforestation,” said Kim. “In addition, we are going to do an experimental study with tree clippings in various landscapes and will assist observations of wild chimpanzees in the Gishwati Forest.”

The Great Ape Trust’s interest in the Gishwati Forest originated in an agreement between the trust’s founder, Ted Townsend, and Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, to found a national conservation park in Rwanda to benefit the global climate, improve the livelihoods of Rwandans and help save apes.

“This was a good fit for many of the competencies of our scientific staff, but some topics, like reforestation, exceed our expertise,” said Beck. “Hence, we sought collaborations with Drake University’s department of environmental science and policy. Carol (Kim)’s work is a product of that collaboration and will inform our habitat-restoration efforts.”

Kim created a database of trees native to the montane rainforests of western Rwanda, which will help select species for reforestation programs.

Kim didn’t start college with a dream to work with the Great Ape Trust, whose primatologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh was recently named to TIME magazine’s “100 most influential people in the world.”

So her upcoming research trip to Rwanda is a totally unexpected highlight of her college experience.

“I did not expect this when I came to Drake, but I’m loving it,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know chimps and monkeys have a lot to do with seed dispersal, which affects what kind of trees come in.”

Kim plans on pursuing graduate-school studies in biological anthropology while concentrating on conservation. She would also like to do more primate research abroad.