040308 Sonso
Today was the first day that James, Cathy and I followed the chimpanzees. Zinta and her assistant Jackson followed some individuals independent of us. The group ended joining, so we spent most of the day together. Since I had never observed chimps for longer (captive or free-living), this was a good crash course in chimp daily planning and everyday life. When we encountered Nick, the alpha male, together with Harriette, her daughters Helen and Honey, a few other males such as Musa, Kato, Bwoba and Maani, and a few more chimps in a tree not far down the road from camp, they were simply feeding on Cynometra seeds. After a while we heard another group calling not too far away. Our group responded by calling back. Even when just feeding in a tree, there is a lot of action. If a subordinate individual does not behave properly towards a more dominant one, it may be chased through the whole tree and maybe even two or three neigboring trees. This is always accompanied by loud screaming by the attacked animal.Once the dominants have decided that they have fed enough, they will start climbing down the (40m high!) tree and pant-hoot meanwhile. The pant-hoot is the call that most people know and associate with chimpanzees. It starts with a low ooh ooh ooh and will then get louder and climax in loud aaah aaah aaah screaming. Often other individuals join in and it gets very loud.
Down on the ground we then started following the dominant males. The rule is to stay at least 7m away from the animals, which is not always easy when the run by you. If we are lucky they use the paths of the grid system here, but most of the time the just walk cross-forest, through thick underwood (unfortunately this is mostly secondary forest), muddy parts or they climb in the lower canopy. As Zinta pointed out: "Maybe it is adaptive to be small here" - you are constantly ducking and avoiding liana, old branches, climbing over big logs and at the same time trying to keep an eye on the chimps. Well, Nick obviously wanted to join up with the other group that had been calling earlier. So we found ourselves in front of a party of about 15 chimpanzees of all ages. The two year old James was constantly trying to play with Honey but was being held back by his mother Janet. Helen, Honey's older sister, was playing with some subadults further back and Nick, Bwoba and Fred spent quality time grooming each other. The sight of such a large group of chimps peacefully going about their business is priceless. At that moment I felt so incredibly blessed and privileged to be here.An hour of play time was enough for the day - off to the next food tree. This time it was an even mightier Cynometra tree. Pant-hooting in great excitement, everybody climbed the tree. There are different ways of doing so. Since the trunk is usually too wide to climb it from the bottom, neigboring trees are mounted and then they attempt to transfer to the food tree. If the crown of the tree they are on does not reach close enough, they will start rocking the whole tree back and forth until it bends far enough to switch. All the liana hanging down from the large tree also helps and gives the smaller individuals an easy path up. While everybody was climbing up, I observed that Harriette pulled a liana towards her, waited and held it in such a position that her older juvenile daughter Helen could reach and climb. Once Helen had savely reached a larger branch, she continued climbing herself.
(A little note about all the individuals: I have a hard time recognizing even three or four individuals at this time, which is why we work together with field assistants. They are incredible trackers and know exactly who did what to whom, even if all you see are 20 chimpanzee behinds from 40m underneath.)
As the chimps are feeding, the researchers and assistants try to get as comfortable as possible below, preferrably in a position where the chimps can't pee or poo. The Cynometra seeds have hard cases that now rain down for the next hour. Every once in a while, there is an interaction between Nick and somebody else, but overall things are pretty quiet. All over sudden though, Nick noticed that Anna, a female who has recently joined the community was presenting to Fred. As a true Alpha, Nick cannot tolerate such an obvious undermining of his position and charged at Anna with erected hair, looking twice as big as usual. He chased Anna down the tree, through the canopies of several other trees and eventually got a hold of her down on the ground, where he started beating her. The rest of the group screamed along with Anna and there was havoc throughout the tree. Finally, Nick let go of Anna so she could get away, still screaming in horror. The rest of the group also started leaving the tree. James, Cathy and I followed Nick who walked about 50m away from the tree and layed down on his back, staring into the sky. Must be hard being the boss of at least 60 chimps....
And then it was time to get back to camp. Quite an impressive first day. In chimp life, there seem to be a lot of quiet times and then all over sudden, activity erupts. Much of the nine-hour field day was spent waiting or squinting into the canopy of a really high tree, with the vision often blocked by the foliage of the lower trees. Definitely not an easy way to get data, but one of the nicest places and animals to get data from.
Tuesdays are meal days at the manager's club of the Kyniara sugar mills. Cheap good food and a swimming pool, what more does a group of forest-dwelling chimp researchers need to draw them out of Budongo? In my new role as driver I was chauffeuring the gang over to Kyniara, attempting to stay focussed on the road and trying to ignore all the birds sitting on the power lines or soaring high above. Well, we made it there safely and after Zinta had collected her poop samples from the freezer in the guest house (what a nice place to store chimp faeces ;) ), we were off to the pool, enjoying a cool beer. After my first field day I was so hungry that I had to order a second steak plate after devouring the first one in seconds. The manager's club is a bit too colonial for my taste, meaning that it is basically a bunch of well-off people being served by locals in a western setting, next to the golf course and pool, but it was a good distraction. The people are friendly though. Some of them we invited to a BBQ that we will host on Friday.
Zinta in the foliage :)
James and Jackson, typing their observations into their handhelds
A female with a good swelling...
grooming time
hanging around
Down on the ground we then started following the dominant males. The rule is to stay at least 7m away from the animals, which is not always easy when the run by you. If we are lucky they use the paths of the grid system here, but most of the time the just walk cross-forest, through thick underwood (unfortunately this is mostly secondary forest), muddy parts or they climb in the lower canopy. As Zinta pointed out: "Maybe it is adaptive to be small here" - you are constantly ducking and avoiding liana, old branches, climbing over big logs and at the same time trying to keep an eye on the chimps. Well, Nick obviously wanted to join up with the other group that had been calling earlier. So we found ourselves in front of a party of about 15 chimpanzees of all ages. The two year old James was constantly trying to play with Honey but was being held back by his mother Janet. Helen, Honey's older sister, was playing with some subadults further back and Nick, Bwoba and Fred spent quality time grooming each other. The sight of such a large group of chimps peacefully going about their business is priceless. At that moment I felt so incredibly blessed and privileged to be here.An hour of play time was enough for the day - off to the next food tree. This time it was an even mightier Cynometra tree. Pant-hooting in great excitement, everybody climbed the tree. There are different ways of doing so. Since the trunk is usually too wide to climb it from the bottom, neigboring trees are mounted and then they attempt to transfer to the food tree. If the crown of the tree they are on does not reach close enough, they will start rocking the whole tree back and forth until it bends far enough to switch. All the liana hanging down from the large tree also helps and gives the smaller individuals an easy path up. While everybody was climbing up, I observed that Harriette pulled a liana towards her, waited and held it in such a position that her older juvenile daughter Helen could reach and climb. Once Helen had savely reached a larger branch, she continued climbing herself.
(A little note about all the individuals: I have a hard time recognizing even three or four individuals at this time, which is why we work together with field assistants. They are incredible trackers and know exactly who did what to whom, even if all you see are 20 chimpanzee behinds from 40m underneath.)
As the chimps are feeding, the researchers and assistants try to get as comfortable as possible below, preferrably in a position where the chimps can't pee or poo. The Cynometra seeds have hard cases that now rain down for the next hour. Every once in a while, there is an interaction between Nick and somebody else, but overall things are pretty quiet. All over sudden though, Nick noticed that Anna, a female who has recently joined the community was presenting to Fred. As a true Alpha, Nick cannot tolerate such an obvious undermining of his position and charged at Anna with erected hair, looking twice as big as usual. He chased Anna down the tree, through the canopies of several other trees and eventually got a hold of her down on the ground, where he started beating her. The rest of the group screamed along with Anna and there was havoc throughout the tree. Finally, Nick let go of Anna so she could get away, still screaming in horror. The rest of the group also started leaving the tree. James, Cathy and I followed Nick who walked about 50m away from the tree and layed down on his back, staring into the sky. Must be hard being the boss of at least 60 chimps....
And then it was time to get back to camp. Quite an impressive first day. In chimp life, there seem to be a lot of quiet times and then all over sudden, activity erupts. Much of the nine-hour field day was spent waiting or squinting into the canopy of a really high tree, with the vision often blocked by the foliage of the lower trees. Definitely not an easy way to get data, but one of the nicest places and animals to get data from.
Tuesdays are meal days at the manager's club of the Kyniara sugar mills. Cheap good food and a swimming pool, what more does a group of forest-dwelling chimp researchers need to draw them out of Budongo? In my new role as driver I was chauffeuring the gang over to Kyniara, attempting to stay focussed on the road and trying to ignore all the birds sitting on the power lines or soaring high above. Well, we made it there safely and after Zinta had collected her poop samples from the freezer in the guest house (what a nice place to store chimp faeces ;) ), we were off to the pool, enjoying a cool beer. After my first field day I was so hungry that I had to order a second steak plate after devouring the first one in seconds. The manager's club is a bit too colonial for my taste, meaning that it is basically a bunch of well-off people being served by locals in a western setting, next to the golf course and pool, but it was a good distraction. The people are friendly though. Some of them we invited to a BBQ that we will host on Friday.
Zinta in the foliage :)
James and Jackson, typing their observations into their handhelds
A female with a good swelling...
grooming time
hanging around
posted by saintcity at 4:06 PM
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