Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Dealing with researcher boundaries
Longitude: 29.6280  Latitude:-4.6518

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Mitumba - When the chimps cross into Mitumba, B record researchers must take over. (Photo: JGI)

Since I needed a target to follow, we hiked to Rutanga where the rest of the group had moved on from Linda. When we finally got there, I found that the chimps had dispersed about the river valley to feed. I located the adolescent Zeus traveling with his mother Trezia, younger siblings Zella and Zinda, and the G family – Gremlin, Gaia, Glitter, Golden, and Gimli. The two families lounged and groomed for over half an hour until the rest of the chimps arrived. The males Tubi, Gimble, Pax, Apollo, and Kris arrived with Flirt, Schweini, Hope, Eliza, Candy and her infant Cocoa. Zeus had a play session with Flirt, which was an unusual match-up. They do not have a noteworthy relationship, but for some reason they took great amusement in each other today.

I had just squeaked in my last observation of Zeus for the hour when the chimps did the inevitable – they crossed the Njia ya Watu boundary. My assistant and I sat on the trail and waited as the B record researchers followed the group into Mitumba. It was only about 2:30 p.m., so we knew there was a chance for the group to come back before the end of the day.

The gamble paid off. After over two and a half hours of waiting, the group came back. Since my only possible target was Zeus, I followed him again. The female Nasa had joined the group, and Gimble and Candy seemed to have dropped out, but otherwise, the group was the same. Shortly after the group crossed back, they started eyeing the colobus in the trees and attempted to hunt for about 45 minutes. Tubi, at some point, caught himself a little one, but otherwise, I didn't see much success for the effort. As the hour grew late the group disintegrated a bit as they all sought out their nesting spots for the night.

 

 

Contributor: Emily Wroblewski    Permalink