Monday, August 11, 2008
The hunters become the hunted
Longitude: 29.6235  Latitude:-4.6641

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Fudge - when he was young. (Photo: JGI)

We started out with the group in Kasekela this morning. It took me a while to track down a target, because the chimps kept climbing higher and higher.  Finally I started following Fudge, who played with Titan, Tarzan, and his uncle Ferdinand while Gimble, Apollo, Titan, and Zeus, hung around in the trees. 

At one point the chimps pursued some colobus. The hunters quickly became the hunted when some fierce red colobus males chased the chimpanzees away!

Kris and Tubi then joined the party with Fudge briefly before charging down the hill into Linda valley. Fudge chose to stay behind with his mom, Fanni, and little siblings, along with Malaika, Tarzan, and others. He seemed happy to stay behind and groom Sheldon and play with Tarzan. The youngsters were having a good time until a fight broke out and the female Malaika beat on Fudge. Maybe their fighting annoyed her. Malaika's attack on Fudge was too much for Fanni. She quickly came to the aid of her son and chased off Malaika.

After Fudge, I rotated to follow Titan. He and his little brother Tarzan chose to follow Sheldon and Ferdinand south towards Kakombe. They met up with Frodo and Wilkie there. Later, the old, struggling male Freud arrived for a grooming session.

Just after I began to follow Tarzan, the brothers met up with the female Dilly and her infant, Diaz. Tarzan played with Diaz, and even Dilly joined in. Titan disappeared into the machaka, appearing to leave his little brother on his own with Dilly, but Tarzan didn't appear to care. I thought Titan was gone for good, but 20-25 minutes later he  popped back up. Tarzan scampered to join his brother as they both raced off into the machaka. 

We quickly lost the brothers; despite searching extensively and waiting to see if they would show up, they never did.

Contributor: Emily Wroblewski    Permalink