Hunting for Red Colobus

By Hassani Rashidi- Tracker, Greystoke Mahale.

 

On the 12th December 2010, I was in the forest trekking Chimpanzees for the Tanzania Broadcasting Institution’s employees who came out to Mahale to film wild Chimpanzee’s. The Tanzanian National Park Authorities had asked Greystoke Mahale if they could lend them some of their staff to help the Broadcasting Institution find the Chimps. So Hamza and I set off into the forest for the second time that day.

 We located the Chimpanzees in an area where there were Red Colobus. The Chimpanzees went quiet for a short period of time before they started vocalizing and ran towards the Red Colobus in the tree canopy. They ultimately hunted two Red Colobus; a juvenile and an adult. They ate the juvenile instantly when it was caught but played with the adult for quite sometime by dragging the still screaming monkey backwards and forwards. Finally they tired of the game and killed it by biting.

It was quite a drama watching chimpanzees hunting and treating two of their catches differently.

Pimu asks for forgiveness

By Mwiga Mambo, Tracker - Greystoke Mahale

It was my first morning in the forest since I got back to Mahale from my off-days. We set off trekking for the chimpanzee’s heading south of Greystoke Camp and we saw the chimpanzee’s just about coming to drink water from the lake. A large part of the community was sitting down and playing.

It is known that chimpanzee’s, if they have had enough to eat, enjoy resting and playing as man does. Chimpanzees some times look like they are dancing with one another, babies and mothers, sisters or brothers.

Among the group of chimp’s we saw this time was Pimu and Kalunde and they looked happy, smiling at one another as if they had a very funny storey. This is something new for Pimu who is normally worried about looking tough in order to keep his Alpha male status. And not only was Kalunde looking happy even the other chimpanzee’s looked happy to be with Pimu.

Pimu is generally disliked by the other members of the M community since he became the King or Alpha male. He is always misbehaving when in the group and showing the aggressive characteristics of a chimpanzee. His attack on his mother was a good example of this misbehavior, and he likes fighting all the time. Ever since Pimu became the boss, all the community has not been happy in his company, they don’t even want to sit close to him at all. Maybe Pimu has finally matured and this day was asking forgiveness from Kalunde who is the wise old Chimp and king maker of the community. Will Kalunde and the M community forgive Pimu?

Chimpanzee's cross the Lubulungu River

By Hamza Mmole, Greystoke Mahale 
 

It was a peculiar day of its own kind when I went out chimp tracking with a group of six guests. We encountered a large group of chimpanzee’s crossing Lubulungu river heading south which is near the border of another chimpanzee community that is not habituated.

We spent 35 minutes watching them and they were all in single file stepping from rock to rock and holding on to only the dry rocks. It is known that chimps are very careful to avoid wet rocks or any area with water. One characteristic of Chimpanzees is that they cannot swim, very similar to the Makua people, which is my tribe.

It was very interesting to observe chimpanzee’s bending their necks drinking water while other chimps were crossing the River.

On our way back to camp one of the guests who has been to the Serengeti told me that the Chimpanzee’s crossing the river reminded him of the very spectacular crossing of wildebeest on the Mara River.

Matsuya with a necklace of figs

By Lazaro George - Guide, Greystoke Mahale

Matsuya is one of the sub adult chimpanzees in M community, here in Mahale Mountain National Park. We are normally expecting Matsuya to play different games especially during the time the other Chimps are holding their siesta. Some of her activities include playing with people by throwing pieces of wood, stones and other things.

She will also happly play soccer if she finds Wild Mangos on the Forest floor.

This year there has been a shortage of food from May to July and all of our Chimps are a little skinnier than usual.  At the time when the fig trees and some other trees were fruiting the chimps were very happy and it was the time they grouped themselves by calling each other. We were out chimping with six guest one day in July, and had the luck that day to see a troop of chimps one of them being Matsuya being very active in front of the guest.

Matsuya after fed up with playing , moved from the tree looking for a comfortable place where she could make a day time nest and also sit and eat comfortably. After she made the nest she climbed back down, went  to the fig tree in order to pick up more fruit. She picked up a big bunch of figs and hung them around her shoulder and walked back to the nest where started to eat. This sight really reminded everyone of a beautiful necklace.

Michio plays with his reflection in the river

By Sulemani Juma-Tracker, Greystoke Mahale.

Quite recently while trekking chimpanzees, I followed them heading from north toward the southern border of M-Community, the habituated chimpanzees’ community in the Mahale Mountains National Park. I saw Michio, a 13 year old male chimpanzee in accompany with others. He came to drink from the river using his hand. It is known to many people that chimpanzees avoid getting wet, and when approaching water bodies they will cross in sites where it is possible for them to cross by jumping and staying dry. Even when drinking from rivers they will occasionally step and hold on to a dry rock, bend the neck, and drink using their mouth.  

But on this day I saw Michio drinking with his hand, and later—seeing his own image reflected from the water, he started playing with it. Of course he got his whole body wet. At the time he was drinking, and later playing with the water; other chimpanzees were beside him watching, but no one joined his play. Other chimpanzees moved away, and Michio with his whole body wet; followed the rest of the group across the river. After talking over this story with other people who were in the forest that date, we all found it exciting, and each one asserted they had never before seen that sort of behaviour performed by chimpanzees.

Kalunde's dubious habits

By Paul Siololo - Guide, Greystoke Mahale

Chimpanzees like humans do perform a lot of amusing behaviors. We see them assuming different poses for grooming; bowing to greet as the higher ranking individuals come towards them. But a unique behavior that I have seen is that of Kalunde the oldest Male of the M-habituated Community of chimpanzees feeding on his own feaces. I witnessed this with a group of guests here in Mahale. 

We have had a lot of unanswered questions when we saw him feeding on his own feces. Kalunde is the only Chimpanzee seen to do this in the habituated community. We think that he may be behaving in this manner because of his age, 47 years, or there are minerals he could get by doing this. Some think it may be feed scarcity that led him to behave like this.

It will be very interesting to know why Kalunde is the only Chimpanzee who has been seen doing this as far as the trackers, other guides and researchers are aware.