By Gabriel L. Mushi, Guide - Greystoke MahaleIt was around 8:15 AM and we were viewing chimpanzees in the forest along the L Trail. There were about six adult females, three of which had young babies. Also present were three adolescence females. Suddenly, Cadmus, an adult male, appeared behind us. He bristled his hairs and charged, climbing the tree where the females were grooming and the babies playing. All of a sudden, all the females began “pant- grunts” while being submissive towards Cadmus. They greeted him and reached out their hands towards him for assurance. The females normally do this because they are below the males in the social ladder as of when the males reaches adolescence at about 13-14 years of age.
At this point, Cadmus calmed down and engaged in a grooming sessions with some of the females. Pimu, the current alpha male of the M Community, then appeared on the scene. He swaggered from foot to foot, bristled his hairs, and dragged a large branch. He then moved in the direction of the tree where Cadmus and the females where sitting, dropped the branch and grabbed a big vine, shaking it back and forth before climbing the tree to displace Cadmus and the females. They ran away while “pant–grunting”. Pimu then climbed back down and sat in the undergrowth of vines followed by several females who then submitted themselves to Pimu before moving out of sight.
Cadmus - picture Yvonne de Jong
Chimpanzees often throw rocks (sometimes into water) and drag branches or logs in order to enhance their charging display. They consider any object lying on the ground as suitable props for this. Adult male chimpanzees typically do the charging display accompanied by rock throwing and branch dragging when they are excited, when they arrive at a food source, or when joining up with other chimpanzees. This is only done by the dominant males of the community as they intimidate, threaten, and show dominance to lower ranking chimpanzees. This is not a physical attack on other chimpanzees.
