Hunting update

My current project manager, Kelly Boyer (formerly of the Houston Zoo and now a graduate student at Iowa State) has sent me a few updates lately. I'll just paste one here.  Another observation (of Tumbo hunting bushbabies with a tool) brings our sample size up to 56 records of tool-assisted hunting!  Most hunts are still by females and young males, with only a few adult males ever exhibiting the behavior.  The picture at right is one taken by Kelly.  It is of adult female Nickel (one of the most prolific hunters) with her 1.5 year-old infant Teva and Nellie (Nickel's juvenile sister and Teva's aunt).

The observation described below of David hunting (and not sharing the meat of!) a vervet monkey will be added to a manuscript Stacy Lindshield (Ph.D. student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at ISU) and I are currently preparing.  Here is Kelly's news (I've noted the age-sex classes of individuals in parentheses):

...I did see them this week! AND (subadult male) David had a vervet!  I didn't see the hunt, but I believe it was the hunt that helped me find them because I had just heard one loud WRAA bark and then nothing... David kept nearly the whole monkey for himself, despite Mamadou (adult male), Tia (adult female) and Bo (adolescent male) begging and begging... Yopogon (alpha male) acted as if he didn't care for most of the morning, until one moment when he stood up, piloerect and swaying, charged David and gave him a good beating! Twice! But still, David kept the monkey! In the end, he gave the skin and what little was left to Mamadou. What a pal.  

National Geographic Weekend radio

If you want to hear me talk about the Fongoli chimps on the radio, you can go to these podcasts on National Geographic Weekend's new website.  The dates are April 26 and July 7.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/radio/national-geographic-weekend.html

Also, if you happen to be in the Washington, D.C. area, I'll be participating in a National Geographic Live! "Salon".  Here is the link:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/nglive/washingtondc/f2008/single/explorers.html

Neighbor Ape is incorporated!

Just got word that our non-profit organization 'Neighbor Ape' is now incorporated in the U.S. I will be posting more information at http://www.savannachimp.com/ soon. In chimp news, on my last day out in the field at Fongoli, I was able to observe adolescent male David use a "spear" in an effort to get a bushbaby from a cavity in a Wolo (Malinke name) tree. He wasn't successful - couldn't tell if cavity was empty or not either - but it was great to see nonetheless. It was also ISU student and project manager Kelly Boyer's first glance at the behavior. Check out the bundles of "spears" in the photo here - the longest is a little over a meter in length. Otherwise, the chimps are in small parties these days, as fruit is scarce and none of the females are currently in estrus. Soon, thought, the Minkon (Spondias) fruit will ripen, and most of the community will gather together again.

Add patas monkey to the diet...

Last week, we (me and Wash-U Ph.D. student Joshua Marshak) witnessed an interesting hunt. Siberut and Bandit, two older adult male chimps - that were apparently too shy to do so while National Geographic cinematographers were on hand to capture it on film (cinematographers Bryan Harvey and Nathan Williamson JUST left the day before!) - pursued and captured a young patas monkey! At least Siberut managed to... While Josh and I were following these two males who had split off (fissioned) from the larger chimp party, I saw both of them stop and stand staring in the same direction. I couldn't get as good a look at Siberut as I did at Bandit, but Bandit's hair was on end (piloerect). A moment later, both took off at the same time, running quickly to the same spot next the open plateau/short grass grassland where there was a thicket of trees. The behavior seemed to me to be indicative of a monkey hunt - and it was - but I assumed it was vervets they were after. We hung back a little, then came upon Siberut with a monkey in hand. Bandit was still looking up into the trees where we could hear another monkey. We backed off so as not to spoil the hunt in any way but heard the monkey leap from the tree after Bandit began to climb, and did not hear Bandit pursue it. Bandit returned to where Siberut was, and Siberut shared pieces of the monkey with him - the head, an arm and the intestines (only part of which Bandit ate). To my surprise, this monkey was NOT a vervet but an immature patas monkey! It appeared to be a one-year old patas; actually about 14 months given the birth season of patas monkeys here. Having had studied patas monkeys for 2 years (as well as vervets), I was torn as to how to feel. Since I missed the actual capture and killing of the monkey - as well as seeing it basically headless - it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Mainly, I was excited to see that these guys COULD capture a patas - the fastest primate - even though it was a young one, only a third of its way to adulthood at the most - and to see that Siberut, the lowest ranking male and one of the oldest, still appears to be one of the best monkey hunters in the Fongoli community. Interestingly, there were no alarm calls given by patas - before or after this hunt. This is similar to the behavior I've seen by vervets towards chimps here too...something I plan to write up for a short publication soon.

Chimpanzee Conservation in Senegal

Having just arrived back in Senegal from a 2-week trip to the U.S., I attended a meeting of various persons interested in chimp conservation in Senegal.  In addition to USAID representatives (they organized the meeting), there were folks from IFAW, Peace Corps and the Jane Goodall Institute (Spain).  Some of the issues we discussed were those dealing with chimp-human competition over natural resources (such as Saba fruit), chimp-human conflict (as when chimps steal young goats at the edges of villages), and the increasing human population in southeastern Senegal.  Large-scale projects such as gold and other mineral mining in the region as well as a plan to fence off thousands of hectares for a hunting concession could also affect the chimpanzee population.  Another meeting is being planned for August and, in the meantime, I am heading off to Fongoli to follow the chimps for several weeks.  Updates will follow!

Ross

Today marks the 6th month "anniversary" of the last sighting of aged male Ross in the Fongoli community. He was last seen December 10, 2007 and was apparently in good health, although he was a very old male, based on his reduced body mass (even over the course of the 5 years we've known him - you can see this in the first photo of Ross in National Geographic, where he is crossing a plateau, with short trees in the background), his poor hearing and sight, and the fact that he only had three teeth left (one anterior or front lower incisor and two lower molars).

Ross appeared in two photos in the April 2008 issue of National Geographic, and the last photo, taken by Frans Lanting, in the article by Mary Roach shows a close-up of Ross drinking at Sakoto pool. It is a beautiful photo of Ross, and he will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him. Normally, after not seeing a chimp for three months, they are recorded as being "absent" from the community. Unless the individuals are young females, who may migrate to other communities, the missing chimps are presumed deceased. I gave Ross another three months because most of us do not want to accept that he is no longer here. Ross normally spent much of his time during the dry season at the water source in Djendji, but he also joined the rest of the community once there was a rain or two so that the party was able to move farther afield of Djendji.

I think we will always keep Ross in mind - I still find myself hoping that I see him when I see some chimp that has pigment on their face - before I see who it is clearly. Ross was the first chimp that we recognized in the Fongoli community, and with his tolerance, we were able to continue the project and learn about these amazing chimpanzees. The photo here was taken by Stacy Lindshield during the last months that Ross was with us.

It's a girl!

It's a girl...again! Finally got a good look at Tia's baby, and it is indeed another female. Mother and baby are doing fine. New baby's name is "Amy" (named by Ph.D. student Maja Gaspersic, who took the photo at left of Tia eating Cola fruits, with Amy hanging on and with Bilbo to her left). Tia has been with the big party (32 of 34 chimps in the community!) that has been moving around the core home range together. The only individuals missing are Daoulema, a very shy adult female, and Foudouko - former alpha male who has been hiding out from the other males since his fall from power a few months ago... In other news, it has finally rained again, and the chimps are spending hours and hours termite fishing.  The photo at right is one that Julie Lesnik took as Tia (with Amy) and Bilbo were crossing a recently cut field.