The Chimps of Mahale

(A slightly longer post due to the fascinating nature of chimp politics)

Photos can be found here (format wouldn’t upload on wordpress) https://photos.app.goo.gl/B6UpfdWMpXSDX5Fd6

Mahale National Park:

Lake Tanganyika forms part of Tanzania’s western border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the longest (~650km) and 2nd deepest (~1500m) lake in the world, containing ~15% of the world’s fresh water. It is also “gin-clear” according to our hotel’s marketing materials, and forms a stunning setting, complemented by the rain forest of the Mahale Mountains that rise straight off the lake shore.

Adding to the serenity is the remoteness of the park. Outside of a few other lodge guests (and some Japanese researchers), we were completely alone, an hour and a half boat ride and a couple hour flight from the nearest population center.

Thursday, August 22nd:

Mostly a travel day, we left the Serengeti in the mid morning enroute to Mahale park. After a 3 hour flight (with a quick refueling stop), we approached the small dirt airstrip on the water and saw a plane stopped halfway down the runway. Fortunately, we were able to land on one side of the runway, and we later learned the stopped plane held the other guests at the lodge who had blown a tire on landing. With everyone safely disembarked, we headed to the boat (a very old, rickety wooden craft) and navigated the very choppy waters into the national park and to our lodge about 90 minutes away. We had a few false alarms, but our motion sickness-prone group survived the journey without incident and we settled into the “lake lifestyle”, donning traditional kikois to dinner.

Friday, August 23rd:

The lake lifestyle involved a slightly more relaxed morning, and we all met for breakfast at 7:30 and awaited news of the chimps from our trackers. At around 8:30, the chimps were spotted and we embarked on a short boat ride to the trailhead. We enjoyed a lucky start to our chimp viewing experience and the chimps were congregating only 30 minutes from the trailhead, with minimal bushwhacking required. About ~50 meters from our first encounter, Matias, our guide, had us don surgical masks (to prevent the spread of disease to the chimps – and because they look great in pictures…), then we proceeded towards where the a couple chimps were congregated.

Chimpanzees have received a lot of attention over the past ~50 years because of their close relationship to humans (sharing >98% of the same genes), their immense intelligence and their ability to use tools. For me, the most impressive and unique quality that we observed was their interpersonal behavior and politics. Matias provided the backstory on the chimps we observed, and it seemed that each action was very much informed by their standing in the group.

Chimps live in groups, and the “M group” that we observed has a population of ~70, led by the current alpha, Primus. Below the alpha, Teddy is the clear number 2, although he has left the group to recover from a failed coup to take over the top spot. Leaving the group is a fairly common occurrence to avoid losing one’s place in the pecking order, or to build ones strength to challenge for the next position. Achieving the next position occurs through a combination of intimidation and having a strong coalition behind you. Teddy had seemed to have a strong coalition of Emory (#3) and Mitchio (#4) to take down the weakened Primus, but Emory withdrew his support under pressure leading to Teddy’s temporary exile. 

With Teddy gone and Primus not around, we saw other males attempting to gain in the pecking order, leading to a spectacular charging display from Azam. We also witnessed some of the more relaxed components of chimp society as Bonobo (actually a chimp despite his confusing name) mentored the orphan Figaro, and Phone nurtured her young baby.

Later on, we enjoyed a relaxed evening featuring a makeshift Shabbat dinner under the stars complemented by tails of the famed overthrow and murder of Pimu (the alpha in 2011) before preparing for our next day of chimp politics.

Saturday, August 24th:

The chimps were a bit harder to reach, staying in the trees to eat fruit and flowers for much of the morning. We arrived in a river bed and observed them from afar as they snacked and relaxed at the top of the canopy. We even were treated to one female making a makeshift day bed of leaves before napping (Chimps make a more sophisticated bed of leaves and branches in the evenings). 

Another hold up was the presence of Effie, a female in ostrus, which attracted the attention of both Bonobo and Mitchio. This led to a high altitude standoff as they postured at each other from different branches while attempting to approach her. The treetop maneuvering of full-grown males is incredibly impressive given their size (well over 100 pounds). Effie was not at all interested in either male, although Mitchio would remember the lower-ranked Bonobos competition the following day.

The hours dragged on, and patience in our group wore a bit thin, but everyone stuck with it into the early afternoon, aided by Jenna’s guided meditation session and Matias’ stories of chimp politics. Finally, the chimps began to climb down from the trees and the politics began.

Emory (#3) and Mitchio (#4) arrived on scene, and after a bit of posturing, it was clear that there had been a change in power following Emory’s betrayal of Teddy. Emory showed respect to Mitchio and began to groom him, demonstrating a change in the power dynamics with Mitchio appearing to have ascended to #3 with Emory falling out of the picture. Similar to the previous day, we also witnessed some more lighthearted moments as a baby attempted to steal fruit from a teenager before swinging through the trees to test his strength.

After a long (and eventually fruitful) day of observation, we arrived back at camp in the later afternoon and settled down for the evening.

Sunday, August 25th:

For our last chimp trek, we enjoyed better luck and the chimps were spotted immediately about 30 minutes from the trailhead. We followed Bonobo as he attempted to evade Mitchio. The evasion included several loops through the underbrush, meaning a lot of bushwhacking on our part to keep pace. Eventually, they settled down under a tree and Mitchio began to call out to other chimps to congregate. For good measure, he included some aggressive posturing in Bonobo’s direction, banging the trees excessively to demonstrate his increased dominance and status in the community. Sadly, this marked the end of our chimp observance and we will have to await news of Mitchio’s ascendance, Teddy’s return and Primus’ struggle to maintain his grip on the Alpha position.

Before returning to camp, we all took a quick dip in the Lake, ensuring a safe distance from shore to avoid the crocodiles and hippos. Despite its immense depth, Lake Tanganyika was a temperate ~70 degrees, a temperature it maintains year round, which made for pleasant swimming after the humidity of the rain forest.