Life in Kasokwa has ben easy recently, the chimps have been eating the
fruit of the antiaris trees for the past three weeks. Their daily
movements were very predictable- we often found thm feeding in the
same tree each morning, and if they happened to move on, we could know
exactly which tree was their next destination (there are very few
trees, much less fruiting ones, inthis highly disturbed habitat). This
makes observation easer, but it is unfortunate for the chimps.
Now that almost all the fruit has ben eaten, the chimps are beginning
to fall back on their usual diet of sugar cane. One day, they spent
approximately 26 minutes in the antiaris tree beforeclimbing down, and
we did not see or hear them for the rest of the day. That evening, we
went to look again, and found a field of sugar cane recently raided.
We saw chimps moving in the thcket adjacent to the field, and heard
them chomping and enjoying the sugar.
The following day, they spent a short time in the tree before climbing
down again. We spent a good part of theafternoon listening to their
activity on the ground. The undergrowth is thick, so even when we know
the chimps are present, visual observation is impossible. This is the
frustrating part of primatology. We couldhear teeth clacking, an
indication of males grooming each other. They make this sound to
notify their grooming partner thatthey hve found an removed some
parasite from the oher's fur.
We knew the chimps must be getting hungry and restless (we were too!
Shannon and I discussed all the foods we missed from home, and as
Shannon finished her lunch, se sarcastically marveled,
"Mmmm....rice."). Butit was already past 4pm, our usual finish time,
and so we left he forest.
Disappointed that we had not seen much of the chimps that day, we
decided to linger at the edge, whre the fores meets the sugar cane
field, in hopes of catching them raiding as they had done the previous
evening. Many local villagers walked y to inquire about our work with
the chimps, and it wasnt before long that a "guard" posted himself in
front of he cane field. At this point, we knew the situation had
become a standoff- chimps vs guard, and that t was hopeless for us to
wait any longer. As long as we waited, so would the guard, and we
wouldnt see the chimps partakein their evening meal.
We departed on our way home, and w were surprised to see just around
thecorner, Sukari at the top of a sparsely fruiting tree, literally at
the edge of the road. Any leaves that dropped landed at the feet of
several observers. He was very hungry, desperate even- to expose
himself like that. Many people stood ponting and commenting as Sukari
uttered a series of suppressed food grunts coupled with nervous "huu"
sounds.
The crowd started growing as more bicycles stopped, herders arrived
with cattle, and final as the afterschool group of children came
running and shoutig down the hill. All the commotion certainly
fightened Sukari, who climbed down in a hurry. A teenage boy, no shirt
or shoes, tried to follow him into the forest out of curiosity, but
this would definitely drive the chimps further in. Would they go
hungry tonight?
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-Katie
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