African cousins: chimpanzees and bonobos

Male chimpanzees feed less when oestrous females are present

2011-05-21T14:35:00.001-04:00

Mating for male chimpanzees involves a lot of noise, running around and fighting. My latest analyses from the thesis study I conducted at Kanyawara, Uganda (under preparation) show that mating also involves less feeding. An increase in energetic expenditure because of all the aggression during mating competition, combined with a decrease in energy intake will result in some pretty tired male chimps at the end of the roughly two-long period during which a female is maximally swollen (at the peak of her conception potential). More news on this topic - at my upcoming talks at the Animal Behavior Society meeting in Bloomington, Indiana (July 2011) and at the American Society of Primatologists meeting in Austin, Texas (Sept 2011).

Kokolopori trip 2007: new photos from the DRC

2009-03-23T08:19:00.014-04:00

Out of the Congo

2007-01-14T11:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my Congo trip came to an end. I boarded a flight from the Kinshasa airport, which took me back across this vast forested country, all the way East to the capital of Kenya, Nairobi.

Now, my slow and round-about return journey back to the Department of Anthropology at Harvard begins.

The blog, intermittent as it was in updates, has also ran its course. In the next few months, an online guide to my pilot research study at Kanyawara, Uganda (chimpanzees) and Kokolopori, DRC (bonobos) will be put together (course workload permitting).

You can check for the latest at: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~primates/

You should also visit the website of the Bonobo Conservation Initiative, without whose work in developing community-based widlife conservation in the Kokolopori area, and their guidance and support in mounting this long and logistically challenging trip to the Congo, my study of the Hali-Hali bonobos would not have been possible.

Alex

Gallery: The Hali-Hali Bonobos

2007-01-14T10:42:00.000-05:00

All images by Alexander Georgiev

From October to December 2006, with the help of local trackers, I followed the bonobos of the Hali-Hali community at Kokolopori. At this site tracking of bonobos has started back in 2002. Since then the Bonobo Conservation Initiative and their local partner organisation, Vie Sauvage, have worked in this part of the Congo to protect the apes, that traditionally are not hunted by the local people.

A lot of the time during October - December the bonobos fed on the seeds of a tree, known locally as Waka . They ate them in the canopy, but a lot of time they just foraged for them on the ground, spending hours picking them up from the leaf litter, not travelling very far in between.

Here a mother feeds on the same Waka seeds, moving slowly as she picks them up, puts them in her mouth and gets rid of the outer husky coating.

Two mothers having a bit of a grooming. The bonobos on this day spent a couple of hours feeding on the seeds of the Waka tree - not on the ground but up in the canopy. Then some of them had a grooming break.

A mother bonobo, relaxing. Her baby is just about visible in her lap area.

The male, who we saw only rarely with the bonobos that we followed. The dominant often chased him. Because of his characteristically long face, I called him, quite unimaginatively, Longface.

A baby boy. Son of the female that I called Clownface. The area around hers, and her offspring's mouth was very white. Hence the name.

A juvenile eating the fruit of one of the big trees in the forest - 'Baalanga' in the local language. Known also as Irvingia.

One of the adult female mothers grooming the dominant male. During the three months at Kokolopori I did not see once a male groom another male. It would be either females grooming one another, or a male-female grooming combination. Big difference to what happens in chimps, where males groom each other a lot.

One of the males. During the entire time in the field I saw only 3 different adult males hanging out with the party we followed. Most of the days there were only two of them - Rafaelo, and another, dominant individual who is yet to be named (pictured here).

The last day that I saw the Hali-Hali bonobos, shortly before Christmas 2006. The entire party, some 5 mothers, 2 young females, 2 adult males and a bunch of juveniles travelled for nearly 1 km along one of the trails we cut in the forest. They were heading straight North towards the area where the primary forest gives way to the agricultural fields of the villagers. There a kind of transitional belt of 'disturbed forest' lays - a thick tangle of terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (THV), often more than 2 m in height, which makes moving around very slow and difficult - especially so for human observers.

Gallery: Leaving Mbandaka

2007-01-12T16:44:00.000-05:00

Image: Michael Hurley/BCI

Wednesday, 10 Jan.

With minutes before the Kinshasa flight check-in at Mbandaka airport we gather for yet another photo opportunity. Left to right: Eric of BCI (holding a video camera in the back), Alex (holding a Pelicase full of bonobo fecal samples in tubes), The Doctor (AKA Luke) of Australia, and Michael Hurley, Exec Director of the Bonobo Conservation Initiative. Person far right is an unknown airport-type individual, looking busy.

Gallery: Australians

2007-01-12T16:38:00.000-05:00

Image: Michael Hurley/BCI

Left to right: Phil, Luke, Angus. Two lawyers and a doctor in between. Obviously having a sophisticated conversation here, having had dinner prepared by lovely Landrine (looking away from the camera on the left). Woman in the back has a little baby and comes from one of the villages of Kokolopori, hitching a ride to Mbandaka. Don't think many people figured what here name is.

Gallery: Misty morning

2007-01-12T16:35:00.000-05:00

Image: Michael Hurley/BCI

One of the mornings between Saturday and Monday.

We're still travelling on the aptly named "Bonobo" - vessel. With this fog, the heat wave is delayed just a bit.

Gallery: Drifting down the river

2007-01-12T16:30:00.000-05:00

Image: Michael Hurley/BCI

Once we got through the narrowest part of the river, the journey became more enjoyable and calm.

Gallery: Boat accident

2007-01-12T16:25:00.000-05:00

Image: Michael Hurley/BCI

One of the more harmless collisions we experienced with riverine flora shortly after embarking on the return trip down river.

Gallery: At the river

2007-01-12T16:21:00.000-05:00

Image: Michael Hurley/BCI

Jan 5th. Leaving Kokolopori. People from the villages are at the bank of the Maringa (Luo) River to see us off. Some of them were hired as porters to get all our luggage from the village of Yalokole to the boats.

Gallery: Nsondo stream

2007-01-12T16:15:00.000-05:00

Image: Michael Hurley/BCI

Jan 5th: leaving Kokolopori. Getting even closer to the boats and the river - we cross Nsondo stream. The same stream near which, a little bit further up, back in October I established the small camp, where I was based most of my time at Kokolopori.

Gallery: last minutes in the forest

2007-01-12T16:07:00.000-05:00

Image: Michael Hurley/BCI

On the way to the 'libongo' - the little port at the Maringa (Luo) River where the boats wait for us. The foot-path takes us through the very same part of the forest, in which we have been tracking the Hali-Hali bonobos or the past few months. We did not see them on this final walk, though.

Shipping shit:

2007-01-12T15:47:00.000-05:00

Kinshasa
Friday Jan 12

All Australian people have now left the house. On their way to their Koala-full country or some other exotic location via Johannesburg. I am still in Kinshasa. There was a power cut a while ago. The air con stopped and the moist heat took over. Spooks, one of the best ever television dramas was on BBC Prime just now. Earlier today I pushed the limits of the Congolese banking system by trying to make a withdrawal from my account after closing time. I have to admit that my attempt was not too successful. They did not give me any money. One of the biggest and poshest hotels here – the Grand did not save my day either. After reading Michaela Wrong’s book “In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz” I hoped that this famous all-powerful institution might concede to my pleading for giving me cash from my debit card. But apparently they have some new regulations. The only way they could have made this huge exception was if I booked a room for the night there. Which in itself would have drained my bank account beyond recognition so I decided it’s not worth it. So, now virtually cash-less, I will have to try and dodge my way tomorrow morning through check-in for my flight to Nairobi. Let’s hope the people there will be somewhat relaxed regarding all the excess luggage that, I am afraid, I will be dragging through the airport…

Even earlier today I did something I have never done before. I shipped almost 7 kg of ape shit by DHL (weight includes the packaging). There was a bit of a rush and panic, when the shippers discovered that the special containers for the samples I had collected over the past few months at Kokolopori, were locked away in a storage facility, and the person who had the key was not really there. Things got sorted in the end though, and after some 2 hours in the nice DHL bureau in central Kinshasa, the precious stuff was on its way to the US of A.

All logistical hassles aside, Kinshasa is a lovely town these days. Back in September when I passed through, the tension was palpable. The presidential election were a huge unknown then. Now, after the landmark vote is over in a very mature and peaceful way, Kinshasa is different. Not anything really you can put your finger on, but the air has definitely cleared. The people are somewhat more relaxed. It just feels like a normal place where people go on about their lives without having to worry about the threat of violence engulfing their lives once again. It’s a pleasure to be in Kinshasa and seeing how things are nicely coming back together for the people who against all odds, have somehow managed to pull through all the horrible things that have went on here in this huge, huge city and country.

Back to civilisation: Jan 9

2007-01-12T15:42:00.000-05:00

Out of the darkness of the night on the vast Congo River the lights of Mbandaka finally came through late yesterday evening. We were approaching what now to me looked like a huge and modern town. After more than three months at Kokolopori, way up stream along the Congo and its tributaries, Mbandaka, this fairly run-down place by any Western standards, was the first point of contact with regular shopping opportunities, beds with pillows, a dripping but adequate shower, and most importantly Internet and emails. Little things but when for three months you don’t get them you can’t help but appreciate them more than you did before.

It’s now Tuesday, the 9th of January. We left the ‘port’ of Kokolopori at around 11 am or so on Friday. It was a fairly dramatic exit, in more ways than one. It is now the dry season and the level of the rivers had dropped significantly. What this means in practical terms and navigating our vessel through the narrow Maringa (also known locally as Luo) river, was a tricky thing to do. Within less than 5 minutes of push off we crashed head on into a thicket of thorny vegetation, growing on the bank. What followed shortly later, downstream from the site of the first crash, was even more extreme. Stressful for some, exciting for others, and painful for our cook, Landrine, who got hit on the head by a tree bough which ripped though and over the right side of the boats. People overboard frantically trying to ease the boats through the tree trap into which we crashed, chainsaw cutting though trees, and all the navigational skills of Le Blanc, the ‘captain’ of the boat, was what it took to get us through this very first stage of the journey back downstream to Mbandaka and the world of refrigerated drinks.

Three guys from Australia – a mix of lawyers, doctors and surfers (or something along those lines), Michael Hurley (the other half of Sally Coxe of the Bonobo Conservation Initiative), the BCI crew, a Congolese researcher, some hitch-hikers, and I were now drifting down the rivers. Amazing misty mornings, absolutely stunning sunsets in the evenings and lots of heat in between. Birds flying around – from one tree to another, darting above the water, just perching on trees at the edge. People, on pirogues, and in settlements along the banks – initially few and far between, but then more and more, the closer we were getting to Mbandaka. Every morning the coals in the boat’s ‘kitchen space’ would be dead. To start the fire anew and make hot water and breakfast we would usually come ashore at one of the small settlements (fishing camps) that we would otherwise drift by. The people there are nice enough and let us have some hot functioning coals. These morning stops along the way also provided us with some basic restroom facilities (a log in the bushes, which people squat on and deposit their digestive waste off its side).At one of these places we also bought a gigantic fish. No idea what it was called but I think it was delicious.

Before this calm drifting journey, there was a lot that went on during October, November and December. Establishing a research camp in the forest of the Hali-Hali bonobos Nsondo Camp was one of the first things I had to do on arrival at Kokolopori. By the way the English translation is Camp Leech (Nsondo = leech, the name of the stream, next to which the camp is situated).

From Nsondo camp the trackers and I followed the bonobos. In one word: amazing. Once I am back in the US, watch out for a special update of the blog with notes and copious amounts of pictures from the field.

Right now I have to think about re-packing all my luggage and preparing for the next leg of the return journey – the flight from Mbandaka to Kinshasa.

FROM ALEX GEORGIEV

2006-10-17T11:05:00.000-04:00

Hi guys

Tomorrow is the first and likely the last chance I get to send emails out of
the forest. You will get them, without doubt with some delay. After a
longish but nice boat trip along the rivers here of the Congo we arrived at
the site. Bit pressed for time and all, so just a brief outline of some of
my personal highlights so far: lovely sunsets and huge double rainbows over
the river on the way in; little kids screaming racist greetings at you
everywhere you go; people staring at you most if not all the time;
caterpillars the size of small sparrows being cooked for dinner (I passed);
extremely powerful lotoke a kind of local alcohol that probably in the US
might be used for peeling paint off walls (but here is administered orally
in profusion);being in the centre of a small village rebellion of sorts
aimed at preventing me from entering the forest to see the bonobos (long
story all down to local politics and petty squabbles over bags of salt).
But all is well that ends well. Bonobos are great, even managed to identify
three of them yesterday. I know that its really bad of me to say so but I
was really pleased to see that those animals had some very characteristic
deformities on their hands making them absolutely distinct from all the
other individuals in the party. By the way another useful feature you
should look out in wild bonobos if you want to tell them apart, as far as
the males go, is the colour of their balls. Some have pink, others have
darkish. Then again, I¹ve heard that some can also be bi-coloured. On this
educational note, I leave you until, probably, January.

Alex,
Yalokole village, DRC
October 3rd 2006

PS: By the way, it¹s very irritating, sitting here in the evening, to have
more than 30 tiny flies crawling all over my laptop screen as I write this.
No doubt the glowing light of the screen is a major of their otherwise
boring day but I wish they get a life and leave my laptop alone!

Pre-departure

2006-09-19T04:07:00.000-04:00

Its Tuesday morning. We are still in Mbandaka. The boat is almost full to the roof with luggage and provisions so much so that my ...bed for lack of a better word is very close to the roof itself. Hence I cant strech much there. I spent the night on the boat. i thought it will be a bit cooler there than in the stifflingly hot and humid house we are staying. It was a bit cooler but not as much as I hoped for. Presumably once we are on the move there will be a fresh breeze coming through the sleeping compartement.

Speaking of which the sleeping compartment resembles an obstacle course for training of soldiers - to get to my bed, I have to crawl over several other beds and then squeze onto mine by carefully trying not to ram my head or limbs into any ot the supporting pieces of wood that make up the entire construction.

The most interesting observation from last night was on the night-time boat traffic. There were many small and large dug-out canoes travelling on the river, some of them with no lights on them at all, only their silhouettes visible against a distant flickering of light on the other shore. Lots of noise and people arguing accompanied the departure of a largish vessel loaded with people. Then after they were gone it was quiet.

At the head of our three boats (that tied together coprise our BIG boat with the word Bonobo written on it) there is room for some camp chairs. At the very rear there are lots of provisions and also barrels of fuel. And since my own bed is somewhat close to those barrels I had the distince feeling I am sleeping in a petrol station. Again with the breeze of travel I hope this will be taken care of. I also hope that we dont have a leaking petrol barrel since our boatsman smokes while driving. I dont want to think what can happen if our boat suddenly blows up big time.

Oh, we also have plenty of inflatable life-jackets.

Cash flow

2006-09-18T05:16:00.000-04:00

With no ATMs in the forests ahead of us, cash is the way to go. And lots of it. It is not as much as it looks like, though. The Congolese Franc is not one of the stronger currencies on the market - this bag, I am told, contains about 5,000 USD.

Curious facts

2006-09-17T19:12:00.000-04:00

Did you know that Mbandaka was founded by Stanley in 1883 with the name of Equateur?
Find out more about this town in Wikipedia.

Sunday - luggage day

2006-09-17T14:50:00.000-04:00

Earlier today people were busy packing lots of luggage. You have to imagine the heat, humidity and copious perspiration that goes along with the pictures below...

Me and most of my stuff.

Bienvenue and Sally.

Packing and re-packing.

Can we get all this back into the bags?!

Sunday evening on the river

2006-09-17T14:31:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from this evening - our boat is getting ready for departure and to demonstrate it Le Blanc took me for a quick spin on the river. Then more than 20 sacks of salt were taken on board. Looks like we might leave Mbandaka tomorrow.

Boat trip update

2006-09-16T16:13:00.000-04:00

Sally Coxe from the Bonobo Conservation Initiative arrived today in Mbandaka from Kinshasa. It is her organisation that had started working to protect bonobos in the Kokolopori area several years ago and was now helping me go there and conduct my pilot study on the apes.

Unfortunately there is still some cargo that we are waiting to arrive on a plane or collect it from the airport or something...

So the long boat journey to the bonobos is postponed until Monday morning.

Our boat(s) on the bank of the Congo river at Mbandaka -
the one on the left with the white roof.

Gallery: river life

2006-09-16T13:06:00.000-04:00

Gallery: getting the boat ready

2006-09-16T08:03:00.001-04:00

The three boats are tied together for greater stability. The little shelter built over two of them should provide protection from storms.

There are three motors for each of the separate boats. It was this morning that the crew attached two of them to the construction.

The motors are quite heavy and it took a while to get them to the boats.

For the next six days the engines will not be stopping, day or night until we reach our destination.

Once the motors were in place the boat had to be moved to a new location.

We travelled a little bit upstream.

Le Blanc was in charge of all the work with the boat since he is the main boat person ( I still cant find the appropriate term for his job...).

Group photo after the job is done.

Chimp attack: Kanyawara update by Kyleb Wild

2006-09-15T15:50:00.000-04:00

Here is a recent message I got from a colleague of mine, Kyleb Wild, who is still with the Kanyawara chimps in Uganda. He is a student at UCSD doing his field research with the Kibale Chimpanzee project on the way females react to male aggression.

Alex

From: Kyleb Wild
Subject: Stout

So, the Stout attack. I didn't see it but it happened on Sunday when the stranger chimps were seen around the Karambi-Butanzi area (deep insideKanyawara territory). James saw unhabitutated chimps chasing, and being chased by, our chimps. On Monday the field assistants found Stout, and he was all ****ed up. Damage to his ears, forehead, hands, arms, and feet were visible. He spent most of the day on the ground, was not seen to eat, and some ofthe other chimps peered at him and groomed him. Somehow the FAs lost him before nesting.

On Tuesday they found him in a Mumisops tree. I saw him that day. He ate fruit for less than five minutes, then spent the rest of the day in a nest trying tokeep the flies off. There were lots of flies around him all day.

On Wednesday I was with Francis when Stout came downfrom the tree and walked for about 20 minutes on theground. He walked slowly but at an OK pace, and all downhill towards the water. We noticed during the walk, and when he was resting at the stream that he smelled really bad - which is why the flies were attracted to him. He drank water and sat swatting flies for a couple hours. Then it started to rain and he moved into very dense THV. We lost him in the combination of huge THV patch and over two hours of heavey rain and hail. He has not been refound yet.

Today (Thursday) the chimps heard the strangers calling from the same area again. They all rushed out of the tree they were in and sat on the ground silently for about half an hour; then they went back to feeding. If Stout is still alive, and the strangers find him, then he is finished for sure.

In other news Aunt Rose and Big Brown dissapeared last week traveling together in a consortship. A couple of days ago Mandella (her son) showed up alone in the big party. I don't know what this means other than: 1) Mandella has finally grown up, or 2) Aunt Rose is dead. Only time will tell.

Kyleb

Gallery: more photos

2006-09-15T11:05:00.000-04:00

Bienvenue is the person working for the Bonobo Conservation Initiative in Mbandaka. He has spent the last several weeks here, organising this trip: from purchasing provisions and fuel, sorting permits, sweet-talking local police and other authorities, picking people and luggage at the airport and, most recently, making sure I learned where all the local *pubs* are. Which was terribly nice of him.

Le Blanc AKA The Pastor (he really isnt a pastor, it is just a joke I was told). He is our boat manager or captain or whatever you call the person on whom we will depend for our lives in the waters of the Congo river over the next week.

The guy seems to know a lot about boats and how to drive them on the river. He is doing all the prep for journey as far as sorting the engines for the boats and choosing the right kinds of boat to take- they are three separate canoes tied together into something looking too exotic to be true; in a good way.

In the mornings bread vendors take to the streets of Mbandaka. The baguettes are really yumm but it still beats me how one can balance a load of them topside like that...

If you are into meat though - this is the butchery. It doesnt look like it but within half an hour of this picture being taken the cute little goats were hanged by their hind legs and their throats slit open. For foood.

Boat

2006-09-15T04:32:00.001-04:00

This morning I got to see our next mode of trasport. The nautical vessel that will be our home for about 6 days starting probably this Sunday. Three large dug-out canoes are moored at a quiet place on the bank of the Congo river. One of them has a rickety shed that covers about half of it. That will be where we will huddle together when storms unleash tonnes of water on us. Given it is now the rainy season, this might happen quite a few times. It did happen yesterday and there was so much water that the streets of Mbandaka looked very much like that famous Italian city with lots of boats and water in it.

The composite boat we will be travelling with looks stable enough. There will be beds on it under the shed for everyone to sleep in. Some long chairs to relax in and do bird-watching from; a little kitchen area where food and hot drinks can be prepared. Doesnt look bad, at all. Couldnt get photos to upload though since the place the boat is now is rigth in front of a military base. It is generally a good idea not to play around with cameras near places like that here.

Alex

So...Mbandaka

2006-09-13T17:17:00.000-04:00

It is a reasonably sized town on the river Congo, north of the capital Kinshasa. I didnt really know what to expect of it so I was sort of surprised by the city-like athmosphere of the place. But I should have thought it was not that run down since there was a large commercial flight going there from Kinshasa. OK, the check-in experience for this internal flight was one of the most chaotic things I have ever seen to take place in an air-port but still they did give us ham and cheese sandwiches at two times during the flight.

Even compared to Kinshasa here in Mbandaka is very, very hot AND humid. Something like Boston in August.

On Tuesday, when I arrived, I met the team who have been preparing the boats, provisions and all, and who on Sunday, if all goes on schedule, will take me and Sally Coxe from the Bonobo Conservation Initiative to the remote site of Kokolopori. The journey, according to the guy who is in charge of navigating the boat up the river, will take us 6 days at best. Non-stop. I was told I will be notified of the rest-room arrangements once we start the journey.I cant wait.

Life here pretty much is going peacefully and slowly. Gone is the hassle of Kampala and Kinshasa. People are going around their business, whatever that may be, and for a visitor like myself it is surpisingly easy to blend in. At least, even in the market area, I am not assaulted by scores of eager to sell their stuff vendors. It is very laid back here. Especially so in the evenings when the main pass time seems to be drinking beer in local bars
...

OK I was gonna write some more but a guy just walked in to tell me I am using too much fuel so may be I can call it a day. Not in these same words but I managed to get the point even in Lingala.

More tomorrow.

Alex

Darkness falls over Mbandaka - 13 Sept

2006-09-13T13:28:00.000-04:00

Some images, I have heard, speak more than words. Lets hope the images bellow fall roughly in that category coz I really cant be bothered to write anything now....

Same sun, looks so much better in Africa...

2006-09-13T09:18:00.000-04:00

Fishing at dusk, Mbandaka

2006-09-13T09:14:00.000-04:00

Landing at Mbandaka 12 Sept

2006-09-13T09:08:00.000-04:00

Sunset over the Congo at Mbandaka - 12 Sept

2006-09-13T08:52:00.000-04:00

Kinshasa 11 September

2006-09-13T03:53:00.000-04:00

It’s still dark outside but the birds are already chorusing. At 5.30 am in Kinshasa it is relaxing and cool. I have fallen asleep while watching a DVD again. When I woke up just now, I realized it would have taken my one small final push for my laptop to crash down on the floor of the room. Good I woke up before that happened.

Yesterday I finally made it to the Congo. While flying across the country, there wasn’t much to see – clouds were covering most of it and when the plane started descending over the capital there was even a little lighting that struck the wing. Obviously if didn’t do anything, there was just this flash and an odd metallic smacking noise.

The airport was more or less crazy as usual but I was saved the immense hassle of picking up my luggage in a room full of anxious porters trying to grab anything they can get their hand on so they earn some money. Outside it was drizzling and soon it was raining torrentially. Everything got wet.

Kinshasa is a surprisingly large place. From the airport it took us probably more than half an hour to get to the office of the Bonobo Conservation Initiative, where I met Sally Coxe. She had just arrived to the country the day before from the US. While driving around the streets I was shown some of the ‘landmarks’ of the city – the office buildings and residences of the two main presidential candidates and the tomb of the former president Laurent Kabila, shot some years ago (after which his son took over). On the streets there were places where UN armored personnel vehicles stood on guard, soldiers on and around them, some of them younger then myself, looking decidedly bored. Sundays seem to be slow, calm and peaceful days here. And everyone speaks French. Even the menus in the restaurants are in French (naturally). It certainly makes ordering food for myself a tiny bit more hazardous endeavor.

Today there is some shopping to be done. Then if we keep to the schedule, tomorrow we fly on a commercial flight to Mbandaka. Which hopefully means I will be able to take the entire luggage, that I dearly paid for in Entebbe airport, all the way to the forest with the bonobos. It wouldn’t have been that easy if we were using one of those tiny little planes. There they even make you stand on a weighing scale before you board.

My nearly non-existent French speaking skills and sort of basic Lingala ones are slowly coming back. I am still a bit jumpy in traffic though, since cars here drive on the right side and in the past few months I got used to the left-side roads in Uganda.

Other than that, all is well, and although there is a large number of men with guns around the place, none of them are actively using them at this point. Which is so much better than what apparently happened here a few weeks ago…

Alex

Well...I am still in Uganda

2006-09-09T04:28:00.000-04:00

Since the last blog update several things happened, one of which being that I changed again my flight out of Uganda to the DRC. It's a long story but it involved several visits to the Congolese embassy in Kampala, among other things.

Saturday morning is here. I am now in Entebbe, the town on the shores of Lake Victoria near which the international aiport is. With most of my last minute shopping for the several months in the Congolese rainforest done, I am now virtually set for take off. I think I still need to buy a bottle or two of shampoo, though. Tonight should be a sleepless night. My checkin time is at 3 am and I am quite sure that I won't be able to go to sleep at all before then (for fear of not hearing the alarm clock if I nod off and also for trying to finish watching as many of the DVDs that I have before I go to the place of no power grids).

Have one day left here in Uganda and probably a large part of it I will spend making a mental check-list of things that could still go wrong and trying to figure out how best to try and avoid or manage them, if they do happen. Like, what do I do if the taxi driver I will need to come and take me to the airport at around 2.30 am doesn't actually wake up on time and I am stuck in the middle of the night in one of the more distant from the airport parts of Entebbe, which from what I saw last night is quite deserted from 10 pm onwards? Provided I manage to get to the airport, there still might be things that could severely test my patience - like someone trying to actually charge me the appropriate amount of money for the mountain of excess luggage I will be bringing with me. Or someone noticing that may be my Ugandan visa has expired (although, there definitely is no expirity date written on it, honest). Or security getting paranoid about all the weirdly shaped items I have in my bags? And that's just the airport here in Uganda. The one in Kinshasa, and the things that could go in an unwanted direction there, I don't even want to think about now.

But provided somehow the end of the world doesnt happen at either airport, things will start getting exciting, in a nice way. And by that, I mean getting closer to seeing bonobos in the wild again, just over 3 years since last time.

Oh, and I do love flying. Especially when at take off and landing everything goes funny inside you like you're actually free-falling!

OK, I've obviously had too much coffee this morning because this is not making much sense now....I better go and take a walk or something.

Alex

Two days to the Congo

2006-09-05T07:19:00.000-04:00

It now looks that I might just about manage to get finally to Kinshasa - the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. I have 2 more days to spend in Uganda before my flight. Last-minute shopping, making flight changes and getting cash out of the bank take up most of my time right now.

Having spent some 3 months in the most western parts of Uganda - I could alsmost see the Congo. Well, not really, but I could imagine where it was. As the sun would set over the Rwenzori mountains, to the west of Kibale forest, the evening would travel further, over the rainforest of the DRC, just across the border with Uganda. Ironically to get there, I traveled East to Kampala, then on Thursday I will board a plane taking me even further to the East - to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. From there on another plane I would sort of back-track my journey - flying west over Uganda and after a few hours, enter the airspace of the DRC. Several more hours and the plane should hopefully land in Kinshasa - which is in most western part of the country, on the shores of the Congo river. And there another jorney would begin - by small plane and boat, taking me back to the East. The destination - Kokolopori community reserve somewhere in the middle of this vast, road-less and French-speaking (among many other languages) country. The only country in the world, where the close relative of the chimpanzee, the bonobo lives.

Until the middle of January I might not be able to send any emails so this might be the last blog update for quite a while.

Alex

More about the bonobos at Kokolopori at www.bonobo.org
Latest news from Kinshasa: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5315448.stm

Monkey joke

2006-08-19T04:40:00.000-04:00

What do you do to a Blue Monkey?
You cheer it up.

(thanks to Sarah for this)

Election watch

2006-08-18T05:15:00.000-04:00

Well, I am still in Uganda. Now, I was supposed to have been travelling on a boat up some river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on way to a bonobo research site to start the second part of my pilot research season.

Things got postponed a bit, though. The DRC is having its first (democratic) elections since time-keeping began and generally speaking, things are a bit unsecure. Hence our trip to the 'heart of Africa' is now on hold, awaiting to see how the situation in that country turns out to be when this Sunday the results from the first round of the polling are announced. Fingers crossed, if all is more or less well, or at least is not blatantly wrong, in a few weeks I will be leaving Uganda and flying to Kinshasa.

It's such a pity that a fascinating species like the bonobo goes with a country as disturbed as the DRC....

Leaving you with the latest BBC news from the Congo,

Alex

Rain rant

2006-07-25T06:16:00.000-04:00

Greetings from the RAINforest. It has been RAINING here for the past 5 days or so more than you would expect for the so called 'dry' season.

There was drizzle, there were clouds as far as the eye can see, there were storms with lightning and water coming down in buckets. And one morning the temperature in the forest under the chimp nests plumetted to 13 degrees Celsius. To put it in short - this made some of the most uncomfortable weather conditions I've experienced ever in Africa.

You could get rid of the palms, the exotic birds, the monkeys, the chimps, the noisy insects and frogs, the bad roads and you could be in Nothern Germany in October , for all I know. To make my analogy even more complete, the nearby town of Fort Portal these days seems to host an amount of lovely German tourists that perfectly matches the recent rainfall patterns. So there you go.

Yeah - and I am now having on and off bouts of cold, temperature, some shiverring and nasty reaction to cold water whenever it touches my skin. Hence today I had to skip going to see the chimps. They are very much like us when it comes to the diseases they are susceptible to, only they apparently are less well used to coping with them (no Coldrex and stuff like that, not even a warm blanket, they just have to sit out the cold showers coming down on the forest). Hence it's not just that going to the forest with cold-like symptoms is very bad and umcomfortable for me but I could actually infect the chimps. Something to be avoided.

On the plus side - there's a bit of sunshine today so hopefully I get better quickly.

Alex

At the end of the day...

2006-07-15T08:32:00.000-04:00

The sun is setting over the hills and fields not far from the town of Fort Portal. The big mountains in the back are the Rwenzoris. They do bottled mineral water there, apparently.

Looking for feeding signs

2006-07-15T07:25:00.000-04:00

For the past few days I haven't been actually watching the chimps. Instead, I spent 4 days with Christopher (C.M.), my field assistant [picture above], searching for feeding signs that indicate the apes have been eating plants on the forest floor.

It might sound a bit of an odd thing to do but it was a thoroughly planned and randomized survey of the forest that aimed to establish how often we would come across chimp feeding signs. In particular, we were searching of THV feeding signs. THV means terrestrial herbaceous vegetation and this category of ape foods roughly includes anything which is a plant, is not too tall to be called a tree and is eaten while the apes travel on the ground. Most of the THV plants are, as their name indicate herbaceous. Some, however have woody stems. These details aside, THV plays a major role in the scientific debate about the differences in the social system of chimpanzees and bonobos. Not much time to go into that now but as a rough guideline: the chimpanzees are said to rely much less on THV foods than bonobos do. Also the bonobos seem to have access to much better THV foods in their moist forests. Which is proposed as a key element that underlies the differences in the social lives of these two closely related apes.

Having spent the last days going up and down through the range of the Kanyawara community looking for THV remains, it does look like the stuff that the chimps here have is nowhere near as nice as what I've seen in the Congo - where bonobos live. How exactly that affects the behaviour of the chimps and the bonobos is yet to be definitively established but some interesting suggestions and contra-suggestions have been made by primatologists. Again - not much time now to go into all this in detail...

Back to our census. We had to do ten 100 m each - transects in 3 areas, or a total of 30 transects. By definition a transect has to be done in a straight line and in places this was really, really irritaing thing to do. The thing about randomization is, that it's randon. So you have no control over where you will do your transects. As a consequence we (mostly my field assistant, C.M., really) had hack our way through dense undergrowth in quite a few places. As a side effect C.M. suffered lots of ant bites, while he was going infront of me, cutting the path. I was lucky to just get a few of those nasty little insects on my neck, under my shirt and in some other places I am not going to specify.

The good news is that we're done, as of yesterday. One part of my work here in Kibale is finished and even though, it's just a tiny bit of my 'to-do-list' it still feels surprisingly nice. Considering the lack of power and shower water (cold one, at that) in camp and the irritating moments when I fight with the special padlockon the door of Chimp House at base, in very early morning hours, not being able to get into the room where our filtered water is stored, things here are still going quite good.

Oh, there was the thing with the nasty scratchy plants today which got my arms to burn and itch horrendously and losing the chimps at one point and then getting lost for about an hour or more in the logged area of the forest...But I'd rather not talk about this now.

Will try to upload some more photos now.
Alex

Retro-blog from Ian

2006-07-07T09:36:00.000-04:00

Since Alex has done such a great job describing life in the field, I thought I’d describe my recent “chimp walk” on Ngamba Island sanctuary.

The sanctuary is located on a 100 acre island in Lake Victoria, a mile or two from shore. I was there for a pre-conference workshop on chimpanzee cooperation, and got a chance to accompany the younger chimps on a walk in the forest. Most of the individuals there are victims of the bushmeat trade, and were confiscated from markets or primitive zoos. Many of them arrived on the island when they were very young, and needed to be taught how to live in the forest. At night, all 39 chimps sleep in hammocks in an indoor enclosure, but spend the entire day roaming around the island.

Each morning, 10-12 juveniles, ranging in age from 4 to 12, take a walk with sanctuary staff and visitors who have passed the strict health requirements (for the sake of the chimps). On the day before the walk, I sat down with the resident veterinarian, who reviewed my immunizations, and declared me fit to take the walk. At 7:00, I met up with several other workshop attendees, donned blue coveralls, removed our glasses, and stepped through the gate into the forest.

The walk started almost like a “regular” chimp follow in the wild. We ambled along a trail with several chimps in front and in the vines all around. Then, they started jumping on us! For someone who has been trained to move away from wild chimps when they approach, it was very difficult for me to change my mindset and let them climb on me. But it didn’t take long. I was amazed at how quickly I dropped into chimp mode, playing roughly, slapping, grabbing, laughing, and generally getting the hell beaten out of me. It was a guilty pleasure, something that I imagine that most chimp biologists quietly long to do. When we stopped to rest, I sat and groomed with a little guy, and made sure to look closely at his hands and the details of his face. Then he climbed on my back and we set off again. It was a funny sensation to feel him holding on with 4 hands, two around my neck, and two gripping my waist.

We passed a colony of millions of fruit bats roosting in the trees, then emerged on the lake shore. The forest isn’t big enough to sustain the whole population of chimps, but there are several natural chimp foods that they have learned to forage for. We watched them feeding on some terrestrial cucumber-like fruits for a while, and then escorted them back home. We returned to base with aching backs and drenched in sweat. It was an amazing experience. We left the forest and watched as the adult chimps were released.

Ngamba Island is a fantastic facility, and is absolutely worth a visit. I do recommend spending the night and taking the forest walk, if possible. Check out their website – www.ngambaisland.org

Lazy chimps

2006-07-05T04:51:00.000-04:00

LATE MORNING

Yesterday we didnt have to walk a long way to get to the chimps. They were about half an hour away from camp. While usually they would stir from their nests around 6.30 or so, they didnt do so this time. We had a long nap before anything happened at about 7.30 when some of the animals moved off in search of breakfast.

BREAKFAST
It didn't take them long to find some food. After less than 5 mins of walking on the ground the party which we un-nested arrived at a large Pseudospondias tree, which was loaded with fruit. Most of it wasn't ripe yet but there was enough purple drupes in the canopy to keep the chimpanzees chomping away for a good hour or so.

The tree was so large that according to our field assistants there were some 26 individuals above our heads. Most of the time they would be feeding, sometimes breaking off small branches with a load of fruit on them, then pick off the several ripe ones and chuck the rest of the green fruit down to the ground. Which apart from presenting us with the possibility of mild head injuries, was also a rather wasteful way to harvest the fruiting trees.

ESTRUS
The week before the congress, Kilimi was the female getting all the attention - she was fully swollen then and all the males were keen to cop off with her. Now, though, Kilimi's swelling was notably losing its appeal. Even to my eyes it appeared a bit past its prime - the skin was not as taught as it used to be and it has also lost some of its shine.

It was Wangari (small eyes, big ears, a bit dopy look) who was the centre of attention for all the ever-horny males on this day. Even one of the juveniles managed to copulate with her and then several adults took their turn as well. And that was even before they went up the Pseudospondias tree for breakfast.

SIESTA

After some eating in the canopy, most of the chimps descended to the ground. They layed down, some of them scratching, some of them snoozing, some of them playing with infants. And that was it. They didnt move from that spot until about noon. Which gave me and Kyleb- another graduate student here - enough time to have a bit of catch-up sleep, too.

Tomorrow am going out again to the forest and may be another blog update will come later in the week or next week.

Alex

Ian back in the US

2006-07-03T13:00:00.000-04:00

After a long but smooth journey, I'm now back in my living room in Massachusetts. I've heard that there have been lots of complaints about my poor blogging effort, and I apologize for that. Didn't Alex do a great job, though?

It was a fantastic trip from beginning to end. The "chimping" was great, largely because there was lots of Uvariopsis congensis, a favorite fruit that results in large chimp parties. The chimps were usually about an hour away from camp, so we had some very early mornings, but it was worth it. Once I had dragged myself out of bed, I enjoyed the quiet cool trek through the forest to the nests. We would lie under them for 45 minutes or so, waiting for the chimps to wake up. It's amazing to see and hear the forest slowly waking up.

After leaving Kibale, we attended the huge International Primatological Society conference, which Alex has described perfectly.

Anyway, I'm feeling a little jet-lagged at the moment, so I'll sign off. But, I will write up a couple of stories and post some pics in the next couple of days. I promise.

-Ian

Going back to Kibale

2006-07-02T23:53:00.000-04:00

Been stuck in Kampala for two days now, courtesy of those lovely people in Bank of America, who once again decided to block my bank account. They thought it’s a bit weird that I am making large withdrawals with my debit card from some funny place in the world, they most likely can’t even place on the map. Even though, that before leaving the US I mentioned in detail my travel plans for the year – with dates and places where I will be using my card to make withdrawals. After speaking for more than half an hour to several robots and not less than half a dozen people from different departments (all of whom seemed to be interested in my date of birth, names, middle initial and all sorts of other tedious details) I finally regained control of my bank account. Which means that tomorrow when businesses open I will be able to make the arrangements I couldn’t do on Saturday and get on the bus going west towards Kibale Forest.

On the plus side of this slight delay – I am now in a place called Backpackers in Kampala – which, even though the rooms are plugless and they don’t give you towels, is like paradise. Especially compared to the ‘guest house’ that we had to stay last night – that had architectural features typical of prison buildings I’ve seen in Mafia films and a clientele to match. Backpackers, on the other side – is remarkably well kept, has a bar that is open till 1.30 am, a pool table (even though I don’t play pool, it’s nice to know that it’s there), a variety of outdoor seating facilities, really hot showers, delicious food, Internet connection and bikini-clad blond English girls sunbathing on the lawns, rubbing lotion onto one another, and running around doing aerobics later on in the afternoon. Oh, there are some vervet monkeys here, too.

Alex

The big primate congress

2006-07-02T23:51:00.000-04:00

Over the last week the most massive gathering of primatologists (over 700 people) took place in a very posh hotel on the shore of Lake Victoria – the 21st Congress of the International Primatological Society. This was the reason I left the forest for a week and indulged in power-point extravaganza of monkeys and apes. From lemurs to chimps, from territorial aggression to mother-infant relations, from evolutionary history of primate lineages to the gloom of the bush-meat trade - very few topics related in any way to our closest relatives were left uncovered. With presentations by so many researchers going on simultaneously in different halls of the hotel, deciding which talks to attend was not easy.

Just to give you an impression, here is a random list of some of the highlights of the week:

- Attending a talk that included showing of some uncensored orangutan porn.
- Watching a researcher gyrate her hips with arms above her head, while pretending to be a slow loris making a cobra impersonation (a kind of defense mechanism against predators).
- Passing through two metal detectors on the way into the hotel for the opening ceremony of the Congress to see the President of Uganda give a welcoming speech. Now I know Uganda is one of the very few countries in the world that can boast with having the Equator pass through it. Apparently, it is also similar in some respect to Ecuador. But otherwise unique. Which is true in so many ways…
- Jane Goodall giving a talk and made loud chimpanzee vocalizations in front of the entire congress audience (to which all the primatologists in the audience were asked to reply with the characteristic vocalizations of whichever primate they happened to study).
- Studying the response of various speakers to sudden power cuts which would persistently disrupt their power-point presentations and spice things up a bit.
- Watching footage, showing the methods that the people of Madagascar use to catch bush-meat, which in their case consisted mainly of different species of lemurs. One of the sequences followed a hunter in the rainforest, arriving at his trap and finding a lemur caught in it, still alive and struggling. The hunter started hitting the animal with his machete repeatedly over the head. The animal struggled to free itself frantically. Which led to it receiving more and more blows with the machete until finally it stopped squeaking. Sad but true. That is how a great number of people acquire a significant part of their diet not just in Madagascar but in many other places, as well.
- Last but not least: voting in the Hottest Primatologist at the Congress Poll - an unofficial and rather subjective survey, carried out by a colleague of mine. There were four separate categories for which you could nominate people, that you thought are hot and then vote for all the nominated ones. The categories were split by sex and by age – male/female & under/over 35 years old. I believe, some of the categories were highly contested right up until the end of the last day of the Congress. But more about that later. May be…

Alex

More forest pics from Kibale

2006-07-02T03:50:00.000-04:00

Ian with Solomon gawping at a chimpanzee.

An arboreal chimp (of Ian).

A chimp

2006-07-02T03:48:00.000-04:00

One of Ian's photos. Can't really remember who was this chimp but obviously, it's one of the males.

Pics

2006-07-02T03:45:00.000-04:00

Finally some good-speed Internet. Now in Kampala . This is a photo from a week or two ago in Kibale forest. Me (Alex) and Solomon somewhere in the forest on a road.

2006-06-14T10:04:00.000-04:00

Internet is really slow here in Fort Portal. Which means that I can't upload any
of the absolutely fabulous photos that Ian and I have from the past few days in
the forest. Will try again from Entebbe where the biggest event in the
primatological world will be held from June 25th or so: the Congress of the
International Primatological Society. Hopefully there will be internet access
there...

Until then we'll have to use words only.

The past two days were intense. You get up at 4.15, have breakfast and get ready
to leave camp at around 5.15 AM. Then you walk for about 40- 60 minutes to
reach the place where the chimps have made their nests for the night. One
colleague of ours (Herman) had described the terrain of Kibale forest as
consisting of 'undulating hills' in one of his research articles. Undulating is
not the phrasing I'd use to describe the hills we have to go up and down before
the crack of dawn, but I suppose you are not really allowed to use swear words
in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Once you get to the nests of the chimps, though, it gets fun (well, except when
the chimps start going up and down those 'undulating' hills and you have to go
after them). I still can't fully get over the fact that a bunch of wild
animals, that in some places in Africa are terrified of humans, are totally
cool with having people around them at such close distance on a daily basis.
They really don't care.

I started trying to collect some data for my pilot project which basically means
I am trying to follow one chimp from the moment it gets down on the ground to
the moment it goes up a tree again, usually to eat some fruit. The field
assistants are so helpful - they can tell you which chimp is which just by a
casual quick look at it without even using binoculars, sometimes even if the
chimp is sitting with its back on us. If it wasn't for these guys I'd need
probably months and months before I start confidently recognizing the
individual animals.

Have to go soon now, so just a brief highlight from yesterday:
A group of 6 or so chimps resting on a trail, including the top male, Imoso.
Ubrella with her infant was also there. Two males groomed each other
thoroughly, taking turns. Then they stretched they arms up above their heads,
clasping one hand each, using their other hands to carry on grooming - this is
the so called 'hand-clasp grooming', a kind of chimp culture which you can see
among some chimp communities but not others. Having spent last Fall at Harvard
doing a term paper on this behaviour, it was quite nice to see it live about 15
metres in front of me, performed by two largish and very chilled out males.

There is also a picture but that will have to wait.

Alex

Sunday June 11

2006-06-11T09:49:00.000-04:00

My first Sunday at Kanyawara. Life at the field station, is shockingly
comfortable. There are showers with running water (cold, though), there is
intermittent electricity in the houses where Ian and I are based. Chimp house
provides very good catering, too. Toast, milk, tea, pasta, resins and pineapple
for desert. There is even a place here at the station of Makerere University
(which is large complex of buildings where we are) where people can watch the
World Cup live on telly! Im not joking. Right here in Kibale Forest National
Park. About the only thing which is evidently absent is a wireless Internet
connection. But well survive.

Anyway the chimps. Yesterday I spent my first entire day in the forest,
following wild chimpanzees from dawn to dusk from the moment they woke up
sneezing in their nests, to the moment when they decided enough is enough,
broke some branches and made beds for the night after a light drizzle.

Its really weird to be observing chimps like this. My only previous experience
with watching apes in the wild involved really skittish bonobos in the Congo,
which would wake up, emit a piercing and very high-pitched scream on spotting
you under their nests and make sure they leave the area as soon as possible
without giving you any clues as to where exactly theyre planning to go next.
So you felt really chuffed if you managed to watch them for about half an hour
or so while they urinate and defecate on you from high up in the canopy and
then jump from one branch to another before disappearing into the dense and
humid rainforest. This was mostly due to the fact that when I arrived at the
Lui Kotal research site the bonobos there have been only studied for about 10
months hence they still considered human observers a potentially dangerous
novelty.

Here at Kanyawara, things could not be more different. The chimpanzees have been
followed by people for nearly 20 years so the animals are pretty much used to
bipeds staring at them through binoculars and taking notes when they eat, move,
have sex, fight, or play. Most of the chimps here for most of the time see
humans from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep in the
evening. A dedicated team of Ugandan field assistants keeps tracking the
Kanyawara chimps on a daily basis throughout the year even when no students or
other researchers are here to work on specific projects. The data that is being
accumulated in this way over the years is an amazing resource that can give you
answers to many questions about the lives of the chimpanzees. And on Saturday,
for the first time I was able join a team who was doing just that spending
the day with the chimps and recording their behaviour.

It was a bit daunting, actually. Not because I was left short of breath most of
the time, while trudging up hill after hill, then down into a valley, then up
again, or trying not to get my eyes poked out or my arms slashed by some nasty
horny slicing plants. It was a bit worrying because things in the field look a
bit different from what you imagined it will be when planning your research.
And when you begin a pilot project on which your future academic career might
depend you cant help but feel a certain level of anxiety bordering on the mild
panic and then going into a depressed staring into the greenness of the
vegetation in front of you. Until the chimps move again then you have to let
go of your worries and try to run thought the tangle of vegetation so not to
lose the apes.

It was just very surreal to have chimpanzees walk around you, sit down, scratch,
play with little juvenile chimps and almost completely ignore the presence of
the four people who were following them wherever they went. The closest
experience Ive had to this was walking my dog. Which, comparatively, was
nowhere near as exciting.

In only a day I saw theses apes fight, scream, get excited about fruit, tease
each other, relax on the ground (for quite a long time, actually), climb in the
canopy, choosing fruit, eat soil on the ground.

I also started to recognize some of the individuals. Unfortunately, the ones I
can tell apart most easily from the rest are two chimps which have lost a limb
each in poachers snares. Max is young male who has a foot missing. Twig has
lost one of his hands. Surprisingly these chimps would not lag too much behind
the others. They would forage up in the trees or walk on the ground along with
the rest of the party. This kind of sight is a very harsh reminder that even in
one of the few places in Africa where chimpanzees survive, in a protected tract
of forest within a National Park, humans can still be a real menace to the
wildlife.

quick message from fort portal

2006-06-09T07:46:00.000-04:00

Alex and I are in Fort Portal now,
and will momentarily be heading
out to Kibale. I'll post more
detailed messages soon.
-Ian

Just one photo...

2006-06-08T11:03:00.000-04:00

Argghhhhh....
I've been uploading some 8 photos for the past half an hour or more at the Internet place at the lovely hotel that we're staying at in Kampala. But when I clicked the publishing button, everything went wrong. All the images were lost somehow and the place is closing in 2 mins. So I will now only manage to upload the image below. Enjoy:

Alex and Ian in a taxi looking for something in Kampala.

Photos from Kampala

2006-06-08T10:20:00.000-04:00

So here are a few photos. The Internet at the hotel is excruciatingly slow so the pictures are small and just a few.

Ian & Alex

In Kampala at last

2006-06-08T05:12:00.000-04:00

Well, I made it to Uganda and caught up with Ian. It's quite hot here actually, but the wind is nice and cool.

Not much time to write now - sittig in a very high-techy net cafe in Kampala, the capital, so just a few points to make:

1. There is really no Starbucks in Uganda!
2. Boda-bodas (motorbike taxis) can be seriously bad for your health (esp if you're on one of them clutching frantically to the seat, hoping for the best).
3. If you want to buy a fizzy drink in a shop you must bring your own empty bottle.

More of this later.

Alex

Ian and Alex in Kampala

2006-06-08T04:58:00.000-04:00

June 7, 2006

Today was a long day, but a good one. I arrived in Entebbe last night, and
quickly gathered my bags and got a taxi to the Jane Goodall Institute, where I
was met by Emma, a confused Australian volunteer who had no idea who I was. She
was quite used to unusual guests, so helped me find a mattress and a mosquito
net without many questions. The power was out, so it was all a bit surreal. I
was pretty wiped out after a couple of long flights, separated by a mad dash in
the airport in Amsterdam, thanks to a two hour delay leaving Boston. So, I
crashed almost immediately.

I was woken by honking outside the gate at 6:30. Alex had arrived in a taxi.
After announcing that he was hungry, he dropped off his bags, and headed back
out with the taxi driver to find some food. He returned two hours later, laden
with sandwiches and cakes. By that time, most of the people in the house had
woken up, and I had introduced myself. It turns out that they had actually been
expecting me, which made me feel a little better about intruding.

We spent an hour eating our sandwiches and organizing our gear, and then headed
to Kampala in the taxi. I felt great! Ive said it so many times before, but
its so difficult to describe the feeling of returning to Africa. It felt so
familiar, yet so foreign. I know Ill never really be a true part of this
culture, but I love being an observer. I couldnt help smiling when I first saw
a car passing a minivan passing a truck. People everywhere, bikes loaded with
jerry cans of water, goats, deep red soil, woodsmoke, heat and noise.

The drive to Kampala took about an hour. The traffic was horrendous, and it took
quite some time for the taxi driver to maneuver through the crowds of cars,
bicycles, trucks and buses. We suddenly turned off of a busy street into a
narrow alley, and then into an even narrower one. Several guys sitting on the
curb helped guide the driver in, but it would have been a lot more helpful if
they had moved out of the way! A couple of honks of the horn summoned a guard
who opened a big iron gate into a tiny courtyard. It was the back entrance of
the hotel, but it certainly didnt look like it. But, sure enough, we walked up
a back staircase into a nice lobby, and booked our room. The power was out, but
they assured us that it would come back on soon, and it did.

The rest of the day was spent in search of our research clearance. A slightly
harrowing boda boda (motorcycle taxi) ride took us to the Uganda Wildlife
Authority, where we picked up our permission letters. Everything would have
been smooth except for the fact that we both needed to extend the dates that we
planned to be in the forest. The research officer wanted us to write official
letters requesting these changes, so we decided to come back when his boss was
there to plead our case. We drank a couple of beers and returned two hours
later, and after much begging, managed to get what we wanted. Then we headed
across town to Uganda House, a 13 storey building that housed the Uganda
Commission for Science and Technology, or so we thought. The power was out, so
the elevators werent working, and as we dragged ourselves up to the 10th
floor, Alex joked, Theyve probably moved their offices. Ha ha. Sure enough,
when we got there, there was a sign saying that UNCST was now in another
building, several blocks away.

By this time, it was getting close to 5:00, so we hustled around trying to find
the new offices. After a couple of false starts, we finally found it, and
submitted our requests for clearance. Well return tomorrow.

So, not exactly the glamorous African Experience that many people might expect,
but pretty typical for the start of a field season.

-Ian

Coming in June: more blogging from Kanyawara

2006-05-14T18:33:00.000-04:00

Ian was at Kibale back in January (Photo: Jean-Michel Krief)

On June 6th Ian Gilby and Alexander Georgiev will be arriving in Uganda. Ian will be visiting Kibale Forest briefly, and Alex will stay there through July. Whenever they get to a computer with Internet connection you'll be able to read the latest news on the chimpanzees of the Kanyawara community.

Latest from Zarin in Budongo: 9 May

2006-05-14T15:12:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

Since my last email, I have received a few comments indicating that my emails have grossed out a few people what with the eating termites and all, so I thought I would send a safe email today that includes a few not-at-all-disgusting photos and anecdotes. However, in the next few weeks we will be digging up 3 buried chimp corpses here at camp and so I'm warning everyone in advance that things will be returning to grossness as usual next time around.

First let me say that I appreciate all of your concerns over my little rat problem. I am very happy to report that little Finny has not returned to my room, although there are now some suspicious noises coming from the kitchen at night. While this should probably concern me more than him/her being in my room, I have found that my tolerance for rats, cockroaches and other disgusting things has greatly increased, especially where food is concerned. For example, I am pretty sure that in normal circumstances, if a cookie falls on the forest floor, the 5 second rule should not apply - but when you're living off beans and rice, and a COOKIE falls on the floor, well there isn't much of a choice in the matter, is there?

Ok on to the photos. The first photo (camp2.jpg) is of our camp. You can see the banda which is where we relax especially when it's either too hot to sit in the sun or raining too hard to run to your room. In the background is o

ne of 2 houses that contain bedrooms and offices. This particular building also contains the most important room at camp, the kitchen. We have to keep all the doors shut with latches because (as some of you will remember from the last time I was here) we have a small but significant baboon problem. Some people think it's petty, but I have never forgiven that baboon for stealing my doughnut. (Interestingly, the paw prints are still on the kitchen wall rom that particular incident.) Recently the baboons stole a whole bag of flour and then wandered around camp the next day with white faces.

The second photo (geresomu.jpg) is of my field assistant Geresomu (pronounced Ger-shom). He is the head chimpanzee field assistant h

ere and has been working at the Budongo Forest Project since we started almost 16 years ago. He is incredibly knowledgeable about the chimps and the forest and like Monday (my old field assistant), he really enjoys beef jerky. He was in some sort of military school when he was younger and likes to march, instead of walk through the forest and he also likes to describe the different ways of killing people with machetes. Not sure what they teach in military school here, but it sounds rough.

And now, of course, the chimp photos. The first photo (grooming.jpg) is of some of our adult males (including Musa, Bwoba, Tinka, and Nick) grooming eachother.

The next picture (chimp_camp2.jpg - below) was taken about 20 metres from camp when the chimps were enjoying the mangoes that grow right by our house. They eat the mangoes when they are unripe, probably because if they waited for them to ripen, the baboons would eat them. Of course this means no mangoes for us either, which is not at all surprising considering a chimp can eat about 25-50 mangoes in one sitting.

The last picture is a close-up of one of our oldest chimps, Maani (who also happens to be everyone's favourite chimp on account of his thoroughly pleasant disposition.) Hopefully from these photos you can see how easy it can be to distinguish individuals from one another especially when they are on the ground. Up in a tree, it's a different story - but that is why we have excellent field assistants to help us out.

I thought I would leave you today with some Ugandan urban legends - although it is probably better to say Ugandan rural legends - as told to us by our excellent field assistants. My favourite involves cannibals that live in the nearby Bugomo Forest. Apparently these cannibals use special herbs to bring corpses to life and then they eat the corpses. But you're not allowed to talk to the corpses otherwise you will have to follow them wherever they want to go and presumably you won't be able to eat them then. A particular field assistant claims to have seen a coffin walking down the road when he was in this forest - but I have recently discovered that this same field assistant believes that movies are real and asked one researcher here if there were really green people living in the world and asked me if Arnold Schwarzeneger was really a robot – so I'm not sure if I believe the coffin story. Some of the other stories we were told involve snakes, most importantly the puff adder. Apparently, the ridiculously lethal puff adder will not bite you unless it is lying on its back and is completely docile if it is right side up. All the field assistants know someone who knows someone who sat on a puff adder when it was right side up and it didn't do anything at all. Also, you can kick a puff adder 5 times and it will only bite you on the 6th kick. Again, they all know someone who knows someone who kicked a puff adder 5 times and is perfectly fine, but none of them have ever witnessed this behavior nor have they tried it themselves. Now here's my problem with this: how exactly do you know that someone hasn't come along right before you and kicked that puff adder 5 times and you're the unlikely schmuck you kicks it that 6th time? As I tell the field assistants, I am not particularly interested in testing any of these theories and if I see a puff adder anywhere - I'm just going to leave it alone regardless of it being right side up, upside down or sideways.

Speaking of snakes, I am happy to report that I have seen my first snake on this trip and survived- actually I only kind of saw it. I was walking with some of the field assistants in a particularly dense part of the forest when we came across a hidden stash of illegally logged mahogany. Well we were so interested in these planks of wood that we didn't hear or see the also ridiculously lethal cobra above our heads....ok let's just wait for my mother to regain consciousness....anyways, I only heard the field assistants scream and then run away and saw something black moving in the trees and then I started screaming and flailing my arms about and tried to run away except that I got tangled in some vines. Luckily all my screaming and arm flailing must have scared the snake away because obviously nothing happened to anyone. In the future, I'm not sure this is the best strategy to use if faced with a poisonous snake, but I just got wrapped up in the moment. Well that's another installment of a day in the life of a chimp researcher in Uganda. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the nice weather that must finally be upon you. And if you ever want to come visit and check out the corpse eating cannibals, let me know...I'll be here until March 2007!

Love Zarin

Read Zarin's older postings on our Harvard website.