By Lazaro George, Guide - Greystoke Mahale
The M-community’s home range in Mahale is extremely rich in vegetation, which allows the chimpanzees to be in good health throughout the year. Their home range is about 167 square km and in this area there are more than five hundred and fifty flora and fauna species of which three hundred and twenty of them are used by the chimpanzees as food; this includes leaves, fruits, flowers, bucks, saps or roots. One hundred and twenty six of these species are also used as medicine by the chimpanzees.
On the 14th January 09 I took six clients for chimpanzee viewing. We had very good time with twenty two chimpanzees. One of them was Rubicon who came across us and sat about 12 meters away from where we were. She was looking around, without us knowing what she was looking at. Three minutes later she went into the bush and she came back on the path with a branch of Aspilia in her hand. She sat down and started to pick off the Aspilia’s leaves and put them in her mouth without chewing. She repeated that three times, folding the leaves with her tongue and swallowing them. She did that for almost ten minutes and then got up and followed the other chimpanzees. Aspilia leaves are thought to be one of the medicinal plants taken by chimpanzees, used to combat worms in the stomach.
