Guest Comment by Karen Zulauf, Owner of Deeper Africa
I still remember the alpha male walking next to me on the trail. He was walking so close the hair on his long forearms brushed up against my leg. I froze in place. I remember thinking, The rangers told me not to get close to the chimps. What am I supposed to do? I thought that would be the high of my chimpanzee viewing in Mahale, but the best was yet to come.
It came in a forest clearing after the rangers motioned us all to sit down. We'd only been seated for a few minutes when the chimps began to move into the clearing. Some came through the trees and others along the forest floor. I watched three young chimps wrestling and rolling over each other. A momma chimpanzee shimmied quickly straight down the truck of a tree with a wee one gripping her chest with two hands.
My bliss was punctured by shrieking and the fast movement of one of the big males across a high branch. He reached out and quickly grabbed a colobus monkey, snapping it against the tree trunk dead. It didn't take long for several of the female chimpanzees to move out on the branch reaching out for some of the meat. The male handed out portions of the meat, saving the largest portion for himself. Chimpanzees as carnivores... I'd read about it, but at Mahale I got to see it in action.
Karen Zulauf
Boulder, Colorado
USA