Wednesday, June 23, 2010
7:31 AM | 
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safariwildz
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/science/22chimp.html. the following article came from this link in the new york times
Every day, John Mitani or a colleague is up at sunrise to check on the action among the chimpanzees at Ngogo, in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Most days the male chimps behave a lot like frat boys, making a lot of noise or beating each other up. But once every 10 to 14 days, they do something more adult and cooperative: they wage war.
A band of males, up to 20 or so, will assemble in single file and move to the edge of their territory. They fall into unusual silence as they penetrate deep into the area controlled by the neighboring group. They tensely scan the treetops and startle at every noise. “It’s quite clear that they are looking for individuals of the other community,” Dr. Mitani says.
When the enemy is encountered, the patrol’s reaction depends on its assessment of the opposing force. If they seem to be outnumbered, members of the patrol will break file and bolt back to home territory. But if a single chimp has wandered into their path, they will attack. Enemy males will be held down, then bitten and battered to death. Females are usually let go, but their babies will be eaten.
These killings have a purpose, but one that did not emerge until after Ngogo chimps’ patrols had been tracked and cataloged for 10 years. The Ngogo group has about 150 chimps and is particularly large, about three times the usual size. And its size makes it unusually aggressive. Its males directed most of their patrols against a chimp group that lived in a region to the northeast of their territory. Last year, the Ngogo chimps stopped patrolling the region and annexed it outright, increasing their home territory by 22 percent, Dr. Mitani said in a report being published Tuesday in Current Biology with his colleagues David P. Watts of Yale University and Sylvia J. Amsler of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Dr. Mitani is at the University of Michigan.
The objective of the 10-year campaign was clearly to capture territory, the researchers concluded. The Ngogo males could control more fruit trees, their females would have more to eat and so would reproduce faster, and the group would grow larger, stronger and more likely to survive. The chimps’ waging of war is thus “adaptive,” Dr. Mitani and his colleagues concluded, meaning that natural selection has wired the behavior into the chimps’ neural circuitry because it promotes their survival.
Chimpanzee warfare is of particular interest because of the possibility that both humans and chimps inherited an instinct for aggressive territoriality from their joint ancestor who lived some five million years ago. Only two previous cases of chimp warfare have been recorded, neither as clear-cut as the Ngogo case.
In one, a chimp community first observed by Jane Goodall in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park split into two and one group then wiped out the other. But the chimps had been fed bananas, to enable them to be observed, and some primatologists blamed the war on this human intervention. In a second case, in the Mahale Mountains National Park of Tanzania, Toshisada Nishida of Kyoto University noticed that a chimp group had disappeared, presumably killed by its neighbors, but he was not able to witness the killings or find the bodies.
Dr. Mitani’s team has now put a full picture together by following chimps on their patrols, witnessing 18 fatal attacks over 10 years and establishing that the warfare led to annexation of a neighbor’s territory.
The benefits of chimp warfare are clear enough, at least from the perspective of human observers. Through decades of careful work, primatologists have documented the links in a long causal chain, proving for instance that females with access to more fruit trees will bear children faster.
But can the chimps themselves foresee the outcome of their behavior? Do they calculate that if they pick off their neighbors one by one, they will eventually be able to annex their territory, which will raise their females’ fertility and the power of their group? “I find that a difficult argument to sustain because the logical chain seems too deep,” says Richard Wrangham, a chimp expert at Harvard.
A simpler explanation is that the chimps are just innately aggressive toward their neighbors, and that natural selection has shaped them this way because of the survival advantage that will accrue to the winner.
Warfare among human groups that still live by hunting and gathering resembles chimp warfare in several ways. Foragers emphasize raids and ambushes in which few people are killed, yet casualties can mount up with incessant skirmishes. Dr. Wrangham argues that chimps and humans have both inherited a propensity for aggressive territoriality from a chimplike ancestor. Others argue the chimps’ peaceful cousin, the bonobo, is just as plausible a model for the joint ancestor.
Dr. Wrangham’s view is that since gorillas and chimps are so similar, their joint ancestor, which lived some seven million years ago, would have been chimplike and therefore so would the joint ancestor of chimps and humans when they parted ways two million years later. “So I think it’s very reasonable to think this behavior goes back a long way,” he said, referring to the propensity to wage war against one’s own species.
Dr. Mitani, however, is reluctant to infer any genetic link between human and chimp warfare, despite the similarity of purpose, cost and tactics. “It’s just not at all clear to me that these lethal raids are similar sorts of phenomena,” he said. More interesting than warfare, in his view, is the cooperative behavior that makes war possible.
Why do chimps incur the risk and time costs of patrolling into enemy territory when the advantage accrues most evidently to the group? Dr. Mitani invokes the idea of group-level selection — the idea that natural selection can work on groups and favor behaviors, like altruism and cooperation, that benefit the group at the expense of the individual. Selection usually depends only on whether an individual, not a group, leaves more surviving children.
Many biologists are skeptical of group-level selection, saying it could be effective only in cases where there is intense warfare between groups, a reduced rate of selection on individuals, and little interchange of genes between groups. Chimp warfare may be constant and ferocious, fulfilling the first condition, but young females emigrate to neighboring groups to avoid inbreeding. This constant flow of genes would severely weaken any group selective process, Dr. Wrangham said.
Samuel Bowles, an economist at the Santa Fe Institute who has worked out theoretical models of group selection, said the case for it “is pretty strong for humans” but remains an open question in chimpanzees.
Chimp watching is an arduous task since researchers must first get the chimpanzees used to their presence, but without inducements like bananas, which could interfere with their natural behavior. Chimpanzees are immensely powerful, and since they can tear each other apart, they could also make short work of any researcher who incurred their animosity.
“Luckily for us, they haven’t figured out that they are stronger than us,” Dr. Mitani said, explaining that there was no danger in tagging along behind a file of chimps on the warpath. “What’s curious is that after we do gain their trust, we sort of blend into the background and they pretty much ignore us.”
Every day, John Mitani or a colleague is up at sunrise to check on the action among the chimpanzees at Ngogo, in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Most days the male chimps behave a lot like frat boys, making a lot of noise or beating each other up. But once every 10 to 14 days, they do something more adult and cooperative: they wage war.
A band of males, up to 20 or so, will assemble in single file and move to the edge of their territory. They fall into unusual silence as they penetrate deep into the area controlled by the neighboring group. They tensely scan the treetops and startle at every noise. “It’s quite clear that they are looking for individuals of the other community,” Dr. Mitani says.
When the enemy is encountered, the patrol’s reaction depends on its assessment of the opposing force. If they seem to be outnumbered, members of the patrol will break file and bolt back to home territory. But if a single chimp has wandered into their path, they will attack. Enemy males will be held down, then bitten and battered to death. Females are usually let go, but their babies will be eaten.
These killings have a purpose, but one that did not emerge until after Ngogo chimps’ patrols had been tracked and cataloged for 10 years. The Ngogo group has about 150 chimps and is particularly large, about three times the usual size. And its size makes it unusually aggressive. Its males directed most of their patrols against a chimp group that lived in a region to the northeast of their territory. Last year, the Ngogo chimps stopped patrolling the region and annexed it outright, increasing their home territory by 22 percent, Dr. Mitani said in a report being published Tuesday in Current Biology with his colleagues David P. Watts of Yale University and Sylvia J. Amsler of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Dr. Mitani is at the University of Michigan.
The objective of the 10-year campaign was clearly to capture territory, the researchers concluded. The Ngogo males could control more fruit trees, their females would have more to eat and so would reproduce faster, and the group would grow larger, stronger and more likely to survive. The chimps’ waging of war is thus “adaptive,” Dr. Mitani and his colleagues concluded, meaning that natural selection has wired the behavior into the chimps’ neural circuitry because it promotes their survival.
Chimpanzee warfare is of particular interest because of the possibility that both humans and chimps inherited an instinct for aggressive territoriality from their joint ancestor who lived some five million years ago. Only two previous cases of chimp warfare have been recorded, neither as clear-cut as the Ngogo case.
In one, a chimp community first observed by Jane Goodall in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park split into two and one group then wiped out the other. But the chimps had been fed bananas, to enable them to be observed, and some primatologists blamed the war on this human intervention. In a second case, in the Mahale Mountains National Park of Tanzania, Toshisada Nishida of Kyoto University noticed that a chimp group had disappeared, presumably killed by its neighbors, but he was not able to witness the killings or find the bodies.
Dr. Mitani’s team has now put a full picture together by following chimps on their patrols, witnessing 18 fatal attacks over 10 years and establishing that the warfare led to annexation of a neighbor’s territory.
The benefits of chimp warfare are clear enough, at least from the perspective of human observers. Through decades of careful work, primatologists have documented the links in a long causal chain, proving for instance that females with access to more fruit trees will bear children faster.
But can the chimps themselves foresee the outcome of their behavior? Do they calculate that if they pick off their neighbors one by one, they will eventually be able to annex their territory, which will raise their females’ fertility and the power of their group? “I find that a difficult argument to sustain because the logical chain seems too deep,” says Richard Wrangham, a chimp expert at Harvard.
A simpler explanation is that the chimps are just innately aggressive toward their neighbors, and that natural selection has shaped them this way because of the survival advantage that will accrue to the winner.
Warfare among human groups that still live by hunting and gathering resembles chimp warfare in several ways. Foragers emphasize raids and ambushes in which few people are killed, yet casualties can mount up with incessant skirmishes. Dr. Wrangham argues that chimps and humans have both inherited a propensity for aggressive territoriality from a chimplike ancestor. Others argue the chimps’ peaceful cousin, the bonobo, is just as plausible a model for the joint ancestor.
Dr. Wrangham’s view is that since gorillas and chimps are so similar, their joint ancestor, which lived some seven million years ago, would have been chimplike and therefore so would the joint ancestor of chimps and humans when they parted ways two million years later. “So I think it’s very reasonable to think this behavior goes back a long way,” he said, referring to the propensity to wage war against one’s own species.
Dr. Mitani, however, is reluctant to infer any genetic link between human and chimp warfare, despite the similarity of purpose, cost and tactics. “It’s just not at all clear to me that these lethal raids are similar sorts of phenomena,” he said. More interesting than warfare, in his view, is the cooperative behavior that makes war possible.
Why do chimps incur the risk and time costs of patrolling into enemy territory when the advantage accrues most evidently to the group? Dr. Mitani invokes the idea of group-level selection — the idea that natural selection can work on groups and favor behaviors, like altruism and cooperation, that benefit the group at the expense of the individual. Selection usually depends only on whether an individual, not a group, leaves more surviving children.
Many biologists are skeptical of group-level selection, saying it could be effective only in cases where there is intense warfare between groups, a reduced rate of selection on individuals, and little interchange of genes between groups. Chimp warfare may be constant and ferocious, fulfilling the first condition, but young females emigrate to neighboring groups to avoid inbreeding. This constant flow of genes would severely weaken any group selective process, Dr. Wrangham said.
Samuel Bowles, an economist at the Santa Fe Institute who has worked out theoretical models of group selection, said the case for it “is pretty strong for humans” but remains an open question in chimpanzees.
Chimp watching is an arduous task since researchers must first get the chimpanzees used to their presence, but without inducements like bananas, which could interfere with their natural behavior. Chimpanzees are immensely powerful, and since they can tear each other apart, they could also make short work of any researcher who incurred their animosity.
“Luckily for us, they haven’t figured out that they are stronger than us,” Dr. Mitani said, explaining that there was no danger in tagging along behind a file of chimps on the warpath. “What’s curious is that after we do gain their trust, we sort of blend into the background and they pretty much ignore us.”
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96% of chimpanzees could be saved by African action plan
21 June 2010 | News - News story
Ninety-six per cent of known populations of eastern chimpanzees, that’s an estimated 50,000 individuals, could be protected with a new action plan, which puts stamping out illegal hunting and trafficking as key to saving one of man’s closest relatives. The nations of East and Central Africa have developed a 10-year plan to save the eastern chimpanzee from hunting, habitat loss, disease, the capture of infants for the pet trade and other threats, IUCN and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced today.
“Eastern Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii): Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan: 2010-2020”, calls for the conservation of 16 areas, which if protected would conserve 96 per cent of the known populations of eastern chimpanzees, estimated to be around 50,000. However, the total number could be as high as 200,000, almost double the estimates that have been made previously.
The eastern chimpanzee is currently classified as Endangered on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species™, and lives in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia. Eastern chimpanzees share an estimated 98 per cent of genes with humans and are among the best studied of the great apes.
“We know about the distribution and abundance of only a quarter of the world population of the eastern chimpanzee”, says Dr Liz Williamson, IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Great Ape Coordinator. “There are large areas of the Congo basin where we know very little about this ape. The plan identifies key areas for future surveys that are likely to be of importance for chimpanzees.”
“This effort to assess the status of eastern chimpanzees will help us to focus our conservation actions more effectively,” says Dr Andrew Plumptre, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Albertine Rift Program and the plan’s lead author. “In the next decade, we hope to minimize the threats to these populations and the ecological and cultural diversity they support.”
In addition to targeting two of the greatest threats to the species, illegal hunting and trafficking, other objectives include reducing the rate of forest loss in chimpanzee habitats; increasing knowledge of chimpanzee distribution, status, and threats; improving the understanding of health risks to chimpanzee populations, including human-transmitted diseases; increasing community support for chimpanzee conservation; and, securing sustainable financing for chimpanzee conservation units.
“The plan will require considerable support from the global community but will ensure the continued survival of eastern chimpanzees in their natural habitats,” says Dr James Deutsch of WCS’s Africa Program. “The conservation of wild populations is important not only for conservation, but also for the survival of chimpanzee cultures in the region that are invaluable to helping us define our own place within the natural realm.”
Development of the Eastern Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii): Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan: 2010-2020 was funded by WCS, the ARCUS Foundation and the Daniel K. Thorne Foundation.
For more information contact:
Leigh Ann Hurt, IUCN Species Programme Communications Officer, t. +41 22 999 0153 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +41 22 999 0153 end_of_the_skype_highlighting e. leighann.hurt@iucn.org
John Delaney, Wildlife Conservation Society, t. +1 718 220 3275 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +1 718 220 3275 end_of_the_skype_highlighting, e. jdelaney@wcs.org
Stephen Sautner, Wildlife Conservation Society, t. +1 718 220 3682 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +1 718 220 3682 end_of_the_skype_highlighting, e. ssautner@wcs.org
Saturday, June 12, 2010
We currently use three locations in Uganda to trek Chimpanzee
1. Kibale Forest
2. Budongo Forest
3. Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Kibale Forest the original chimpanzee trek destination boasts the largest group of Chimpanzee to Trek and has the highest success rate for trekking. The chimpanzee group we follow boasts over 120 members who split in to small groups to forage during the day. There are 13 different types of primate in Kibale forest and the walking is beautiful. Treks are generally 3-4 hours and go out twice a day.
Budongo Forest near Murchison Falls National Park is our newest destination for chimpanzee trekking. These chimps are the newest to be habituated but good sightings have been had. This community is known as the southern community and consists of around 45-50 individuals. Budongo has a high biodiversity with 24 species of small mammals; nine being primates; 465 species of trees and shrubs; 359 species of birds; 289 species of butterflies; and 130 species of moths
Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth National Park also has a good group of 20 habituated chimps. This walk can be steep and slippery and good fitness is required.
What to bring:The weather in this region can be extremely changeable and can move from hot to cold in a very short space of time. A few extra layers of clothes when you set of in the morning can easily be removed as it warms up while on the trek. As the rainfall in these areas can be prolific it is also advisable to have a good rain jacket handy. Long, light weight (but strong) trousers are also advisable as the vegetation can be thick with sharp thorns.Comfortable walking boots or shoes (worn in) are essential as you may be walking for a long time over some pretty demanding terrain. A small day bag that can be carried on your front is a good idea for the likes of your camera, spare film/memory cards; spare camera battery, insect repellent, sun cream, loo roll, water and lunch etc.
1. Kibale Forest
2. Budongo Forest
3. Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Kibale Forest the original chimpanzee trek destination boasts the largest group of Chimpanzee to Trek and has the highest success rate for trekking. The chimpanzee group we follow boasts over 120 members who split in to small groups to forage during the day. There are 13 different types of primate in Kibale forest and the walking is beautiful. Treks are generally 3-4 hours and go out twice a day.
Budongo Forest near Murchison Falls National Park is our newest destination for chimpanzee trekking. These chimps are the newest to be habituated but good sightings have been had. This community is known as the southern community and consists of around 45-50 individuals. Budongo has a high biodiversity with 24 species of small mammals; nine being primates; 465 species of trees and shrubs; 359 species of birds; 289 species of butterflies; and 130 species of moths
Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth National Park also has a good group of 20 habituated chimps. This walk can be steep and slippery and good fitness is required.
What to bring:The weather in this region can be extremely changeable and can move from hot to cold in a very short space of time. A few extra layers of clothes when you set of in the morning can easily be removed as it warms up while on the trek. As the rainfall in these areas can be prolific it is also advisable to have a good rain jacket handy. Long, light weight (but strong) trousers are also advisable as the vegetation can be thick with sharp thorns.Comfortable walking boots or shoes (worn in) are essential as you may be walking for a long time over some pretty demanding terrain. A small day bag that can be carried on your front is a good idea for the likes of your camera, spare film/memory cards; spare camera battery, insect repellent, sun cream, loo roll, water and lunch etc.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Check this out the Uganda Wildlife Authority guide going above and beyond duty on a chimpanzee trek carrying the cleints across the river - who says service is dead. The UWA guides are passionate and well informed Godfree did not want the cleints to miss out on a chimp sighting so he carried the four clients across the flooded river. What a man!
Kibale Forest Chimpanzee Treck Uganda
We have just come back in from trekking with the Chimpanzee at Kibale Forest National Park in Uganda. What a experience with a great sighting of some of the habituated group of 120 chimpanzee that live in Kibale Forest. Kibale Forest was the first site in Uganda to habituate chimpanzee which means the group is very used to human contact and you do get closer than some of the other trekking spots on Uganda. We were treated to a great view of this chimp just chilling out in the forest while others were busy playing and eating. You can see why the chimpanzee and human share over 77% of their genetic material.
Meeting at the forest head quarters at 7.45 you are briefed by park rangers and once you have rolled your long socks over your pants to stop the aggressive red ants having you for lunch you are off walking in to this pristine forest. We found the chimps an hour in to our walk and spent the hour with them as they cruised around the forest. We spent one hour with the chimpanzee before walking out of the forest. We were also lucky to sight the Black and White Colobus monkey and trails and spoor from the forest elephant in the forest. A great morning out was had by all.
Meeting at the forest head quarters at 7.45 you are briefed by park rangers and once you have rolled your long socks over your pants to stop the aggressive red ants having you for lunch you are off walking in to this pristine forest. We found the chimps an hour in to our walk and spent the hour with them as they cruised around the forest. We spent one hour with the chimpanzee before walking out of the forest. We were also lucky to sight the Black and White Colobus monkey and trails and spoor from the forest elephant in the forest. A great morning out was had by all.
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- safariwildz
- East African Safari Company specialising in small group tours and private safaris in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania.