Chimp chump

After a false start the day before, we headed out of town before sunrise and managed to make it to the chimp tracking station by around 7.30. We met our guide, had a little explanation about what we were likely to see and headed off in the the dark, dripping, the forest floor littered in wet leaves, the smell of decomposition thick in the air.

After about 10 minutes of walking we heard an almighty roar ring through the forest. This was answered by the well known screeching that sounds like a laugh. Our guide explained that his seasoned ear heard third distinct groups.

Not long after we spotted our first chimp, about 15 to 20 metres above us, sitting on a branch happily munching away on leaves. He gave us a glance and then went back to what he was doing. It was awe inspiring to watch what is effectively our immediate genetic predecessors, moving about in the trees. Using his tail, and his strong hands he looked at complete ease in the precarious looking canopy, walking along thin branches, and stretching out to reach other branches. Suddenly however the branch he was in began to sway towards the ground, and just as he launched himself for a nearby tree, the branch he had just been on came crashing down to the forest floor a couple of metres away from us. The noise of first the tree hitting the ground and reverberating through the forest, followed by the howls of a frightened chimpanzee was ear splitting. The chimp seemed to take offence at us witnessing his misjudgement and proceeded to try and first piss on us and then when they didn't work he started throwing his shit at us. Needless to say we scampered.

A bit of tramping through the bush, and listening carefully and we stumbled upon various groups of around two or three mothers with there infants. The chimps remained high up in the tops of the trees, but they were keeping a keen eye on us. At one stage on of the infants took a keen interest in us, and when his mother wasn't looking he did a little jumping dance for us, ran off, and then came back and did it again.

The strange thing was that despite the distance, with the chimps probably 10-15 metres up and 10-15 metres away, every now and then, particularly the babies would stare you straight in the eye. It was if they were trying to work out exactly what you were and how you fit in to the scheme of things. It was always fleeting, but it made me feel as though I was looking at a mind that was probably not to distant to mind, that was likely to be having similar thoughts to mine.

The chimps were fairly mobile, so we followed them around, finding new groups here and there. At one point we were surrounded by them, maybe 15 or twenty chimps jumping about in the trees above us. I was in awe of their size and their incredibly wide arm span which let them flit about in the thin canopy - running along branches and leaping from tree to tree. The size of their hands, and length of the fingers also surprised me, and watching them use their hands to grip the tree branches, or pull fruit off the branches made them look very, very human.
I found myself thinking how happy I was that I never visit zoos, both in the sense that seeing chimps for the first time meant I was surprised by their size and agility and their almost humanness, and enjoying the privilege of visiting the chimps on their own turf without really disturbing them. (This group of chimps has been habituated for human contact over a period of years, meaning they can tolerate our presence rather than immediately fleeing)

We managed to stumble across a large male, who was more than happy to pose for a few photos for us. He seemed mildly amused by us staring up at him, and after checking us out for a while, he turned away and got stuck in to eating some leaves - a far more interesting activity than human spotting.

We heard a few more loud calls from some males so we headed off to see if we could track them down, and perhaps if we were lucky, stumble on some that were down on ground level.




As we were wandering around we heard a series of loud, thumping noises, like drums ringing out through the forest.
Our guide explained to us that this was a chimp of the ground wacking his legs against the exposed roots of trees. He explained that they do this to signal to other chimps when they are on the ground. We scampered along the track to the source of the sound but there was no sign of the chimp. The guide explained that the chimps like to hide in the thick undergrowth and was probably watching us go by without revealing itself.

The clouds were starting to clear and the sun was getting higher in the sky allowing more light to penetrate to the forest floor. Damo with his hawk-eye spotted a chimp relaxing in his day nest. Chimps construct nests every evening to sleep in, and also build them in the day when they have finished feeding in the morning. We missed the actual construction but the guide explained that the chimp will collect a few branches and throw the nest together in a minute or two.

As we sat and watched the chimp every once in a while he would peer over the edge of the nest and check out what we were doing. If you look carefully at the photo you can see the pale part of the bottom of his face and his eyes intensely gazing at the camera.







Unfortunately our hour was almost up, however we had one final stroke of luck. Not far from the nest was another male chimp, living the good life. Put a beer in his hand and you are looking at Homer Simpson.