A young male baboon takes a selfie with a high-resolution thermal camera. Before this teenager got excited about his photo shoot in the middle of the night, the thermal camera was videoing him and his group-mates (background right) as they moved around their sleeping cliff. Baboons face a significant risk of being eaten by leopards during the night, and although they reduce this risk by sleeping on cliffs and in trees, leopards are capable of infiltrating these nighttime refuges and predating baboons within their sleep site. My research uses thermal cameras to shed light (no pun intended) on the strategies that baboons use to avoid nocturnal leopard attacks, and how these strategies influence their sleep quality.

[Photo and caption by Carter Loftus  + Sojain (subadult male baboon)]

[Edited by Maggie Creamer]