By Lazaro George, Guide - Greystoke MahaleI set off from Greystoke Camp into the Mahale forest with a group of five clients. After about 45 minutes we saw four juvenile female chimpanzees - Acadia, Imani, Aqua, and Xantip. They were all repeatedly shaking a big vine as though they were scaring something. We became curious as to what was happening. We then saw an adult female warthog laying about 1.5 metres below the chimpanzees and about 2 metres from the entrance to an aardvark burrow. With persistent disturbance from the chimpanzees, the warthog got up and ran into the burrow. The four chimpanzees then jumped to the ground and walked toward the burrow. Three of the chimpanzees then threw dirt and large sticks into the burrow and popped their heads and forelimbs in and out of the burrow. They did this for about 3 minutes.
Having observed what was happening, adult male Cadmus and sub-adult male Christmas descended to the ground from a neighboring tree. They then walked to the burrow and began pounding the ground above the entrance with the palms of their hands for a good 5 minutes. The warthog then suddenly rocketed from the burrow and ran into a nearby thicket. The chimpanzees did not pursue the warthog, but moved to join the rest of the group about 60 metres away.
