Second good chimp day
Well, the last two days have shown me the ups and downs of field work. On Wednesday we walked about 9 km all throughout our grid and did not see one chimpanzee. Considering it is really hot and humid 9 km can be quite a track... In a way it is nice though that these animals are wild, no one can force them to be at a certain place at a certain time. Here, we as the researchers have to adjust to their schedules and decisions.
Quite contrary to the day before, Thursday was an amazing chimp day. Since James was not feeling good, I spent the day with Monday and Sam. The group had slept immediately north of camp, which made them easy to find in the morning. Again, our focus was to follow the alpha throughout the day. He basically decides what the group does all day and the core group is usually pretty closely assembled around him. Yesterday morning he was surrounded by Kewaya, her daughters Kox and Katja, Nambi with her daughter Night, Kalema and her baby Klauce, Tinka an old male, Zig, Kutu, Juliet, Ruhara and her tiny baby Raphi and a few more heads....
As you can see in the list, there were lots of little chimps and they reminded me why I always wanted to become a chimp when I was a kid. The were swinging back and forth in the trees, strampling with their feet, hanging upside down and sometimes even chasing each other along branches. Once down on the ground, it was time to ride mom's back to the next feeding opportunity. They fed on Cynometra and recently riped figs. After feeding, it was time for a relaxed play and snooze session on the ground. That was the best part of the day. Four chimps between 2 and 5 years playing like crazy. Up and down small trees until they bend back to the ground, rolling around, softly slapping each other. All of course with a playface - it looks similar to an open-mouthed smile - to reassure everyone of the good intensions while chasing them.
Thanks to Monday's amazing patience, I am also picking up the names and individual characteristics of different chimps as we go. Unfortunately, many of them have crippled hands because they had been trapped in snares. The snares are traps put in the forest by the locals to capture duikers, bush bucks and maybe even bush pigs. There has been a great effort by the Budongo Forest Project (www.budongo.org) to have the snares removed out of the forest. The chimps get their hands caught and don't manage to pull them back off. Slowly the limb then dies off or is disformed in a horrible way, if only parts of the hand are caught. As far as I have seen, about 60%, if not even more, of the adult chimps have snare injuries. This makes the identification a little easier for newbies like me. What also helps are cuts in the ears, bald spots on the head or back, white beards, the size and colour of genitals. The little ones I can only differentiate because of their mothers so far.
As I had already mentioned, chimp interactions tend to be concentrated on very little time during the day, meaning that most of the time they spend feeding or travelling and then - all over sudden - somebody charges at someone else, screaming and hooting everywhere. One thing that happens quite frequently though are the pant grunts. Subordinate indivdiuals pant grunt to acknowledge its position and to appease the superior. If they don't do so, they risk being attacked. These grunts therefore give us a good idea, who is dominant over whom.
Well, enough for today. I am off to Masindi to go shopping and taking care of some errands. One little request for the readers of this blog. A little comment below another gripping account of chimp research (muaahhahha) really makes my day. So let me know who's been checking what the swiss is doing abroad - drop me a line.
Pictures will follow....
Quite contrary to the day before, Thursday was an amazing chimp day. Since James was not feeling good, I spent the day with Monday and Sam. The group had slept immediately north of camp, which made them easy to find in the morning. Again, our focus was to follow the alpha throughout the day. He basically decides what the group does all day and the core group is usually pretty closely assembled around him. Yesterday morning he was surrounded by Kewaya, her daughters Kox and Katja, Nambi with her daughter Night, Kalema and her baby Klauce, Tinka an old male, Zig, Kutu, Juliet, Ruhara and her tiny baby Raphi and a few more heads....
As you can see in the list, there were lots of little chimps and they reminded me why I always wanted to become a chimp when I was a kid. The were swinging back and forth in the trees, strampling with their feet, hanging upside down and sometimes even chasing each other along branches. Once down on the ground, it was time to ride mom's back to the next feeding opportunity. They fed on Cynometra and recently riped figs. After feeding, it was time for a relaxed play and snooze session on the ground. That was the best part of the day. Four chimps between 2 and 5 years playing like crazy. Up and down small trees until they bend back to the ground, rolling around, softly slapping each other. All of course with a playface - it looks similar to an open-mouthed smile - to reassure everyone of the good intensions while chasing them.
Thanks to Monday's amazing patience, I am also picking up the names and individual characteristics of different chimps as we go. Unfortunately, many of them have crippled hands because they had been trapped in snares. The snares are traps put in the forest by the locals to capture duikers, bush bucks and maybe even bush pigs. There has been a great effort by the Budongo Forest Project (www.budongo.org) to have the snares removed out of the forest. The chimps get their hands caught and don't manage to pull them back off. Slowly the limb then dies off or is disformed in a horrible way, if only parts of the hand are caught. As far as I have seen, about 60%, if not even more, of the adult chimps have snare injuries. This makes the identification a little easier for newbies like me. What also helps are cuts in the ears, bald spots on the head or back, white beards, the size and colour of genitals. The little ones I can only differentiate because of their mothers so far.
As I had already mentioned, chimp interactions tend to be concentrated on very little time during the day, meaning that most of the time they spend feeding or travelling and then - all over sudden - somebody charges at someone else, screaming and hooting everywhere. One thing that happens quite frequently though are the pant grunts. Subordinate indivdiuals pant grunt to acknowledge its position and to appease the superior. If they don't do so, they risk being attacked. These grunts therefore give us a good idea, who is dominant over whom.
Well, enough for today. I am off to Masindi to go shopping and taking care of some errands. One little request for the readers of this blog. A little comment below another gripping account of chimp research (muaahhahha) really makes my day. So let me know who's been checking what the swiss is doing abroad - drop me a line.
Pictures will follow....
posted by saintcity at 5:35 AM
3 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hallo Sohn, ich bin sehr beeindruckt von dem, was da ablaeuft, aber auch nachdenklich ueber die vielen Fallen-Geschaedigten unter den Schimpansen. Und: danke fuer die fesselnden Berichte und die schoenen Bilder. Mamma Cecilia
Mamario! Schön, dass ab und zuä anärä Damä nolaufsch wo glich heisst wiän i! Hoffentlich isch da diä einzig Gmeinsamkeit, wo di a mi erinnered:)
Wör diä Morgästimmig au gärn mol erläbä! Schöni Farbä- mir fählt dä Gruch däzuä;) Gnüss für mi mit! I Gedankä mit dir!
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