There is something happening on the chimp island.

There is something happening in the island chimpanzee group.  All of the big males are starting to show up with bite marks and tears, even TKC this 90kg bull of a chimpanzee. The core of the ruling males are TKC (the alpha), Carlos the tallest chimpanzee ever with the human eyes, Mokolo and Damian. There aren’t many males big enough to even try to take a spot higher than they have. Jules is a large male with one eye and a pretty black and reddish coat, but the older ladies still beat the hell out of him any time he gets out of place (including reaching for and grabbing their favorite humans, we are protected by Margaret and Suzie—I can say “we” now, I’ve earned my place with them).

There are two theories going around about what’s going on. 1) The Madames are taking over. The bigger older females who take shit from no one may in fact be tired of living under military rule and are taking over, I guess it happens and when it does it ends up being a much more peaceful ruling with an overall decrease in injuries to the troupe from fighting.  2) The smaller younger guys are banding together. We have two subspecies here, the Pan troglodytes ellioti and Pan troglodytes troglodytes , the elliotis can be much more political about things, in the absence of sufficient leadership, the will bind together to form their own, whereas the troglodytes  tend to rule in the traditional alpha male kind of way. Or this is what I’m told anyway, I’ve never read this, nor can I seem to find it anywhere.

What is clear, is that the boys are losing their power, you can see it in how their acting (there is much pouting, especially in TKC and Carlos), not just the wounds their showing up with.  TKC escaped the week before I got here and he’s been showing weakness ever since. He’s not been as active in the group as he usually is and Carlos will just outright flop on his belly on the floor and just sit there and pout in a really submissive position. Its strange to see something I am so afraid of acting like a baby, its hard to maintain that level of wariness when he keeps waddling over and making sad noises at you, but then I remember he did rip off another chimpanzees face and run around with the body.

Our new job is to watch the social interactions that are going on now and see who seems to be doing better than normal, and if any relationships have changed. I’m interested to see what the outcome of this is, where the power will go. 

(A small post script, since I originally wrote this three days ago. It seems to be some of the smaller males trying to take over. Standing in front of the island chimps while they were still in their satellite this morning we watched the interactions. TKC was still pouting, Carlos hugged him but it did little to brighten him. The biggest standout was Papa. Papa looks like what human 13 year old boys look like when they are going to be tall but aren’t yet.  His hands, feet and testicles/ scrotum are all huge while the rest of him is the size you would expect for a 9ish year old male chimp. He and Carlos were battling this morning, antagonizing each other with avocado pits from different rooms and doing the human equivalent of bumping chests before a fight, lots of posturing and peacocking.  It seems like Carlos is trying to hold this whole thing together but with a hierarchy of 6 chimps that are not consistently doing much in the way of ruling, it’s becoming more difficult to keep everyone in line. More observation will follow, but for now, it seems like there is an overthrow coming led by pubescent teenagers. What will make it more interesting is that Papa is due for surgery next week to fix an inner ear issue and will be in quarantine for some day. We'll see if his supporters hold it together or fall apart then.)

TKC pouting

 

 

 

 

shoulder post coconut carry

On a completely unrelated note, I turned retrieving coconuts into a wod (not that anyone is surprised) but I managed to make myself the sorest I’ve been since I tanked regionals last year. I took 12 in my internal frame hiking bag and walked the kilometer from the volunteer house to the sanctuary, then halfway around it to store them in quarantine, knowing we would have a series of later nights and I wouldn’t get a chance to wod for a couple days I decided to make it harder. I don’t know what 12 coconuts weigh, maybe 20lbs? (The whole thing from the tree, not just the husk you get at the store), so it wasn’t enough to be difficult. So I grab the biggest bag I have, this ridiculously big duffel bag that I can fit in. The only problem is it doesn’t have wearable straps, at least it doesn’t have straps that should be worn. So I pack in roughly 4 dozen coconuts, which ends up being 41kgs when I weighed the bag later (roughly 90lbs). I wore it like a backpack, with the short handles digging into my shoulders, bent 45 degrees at the waist the whole time to keep the bag from flopping backwards. So, dripping sweat in Mtn Rob and Gene fashion I walked the kilometer, all the while passersby calling out “Asha”, which roughly translates to “I’m sorry, that sucks”. The keepers weren’t surprised, everyone else thought I was retarded for doing it that way, which is probably at least a little true. But, in the end, we had 5 dozen coconuts to give the animals, which they loved. Quarantine got them yesterday, chimps today, and the gorillas will get them tomorrow. The bigger guys get the whole thing, its good to make them work for their food sometimes, it passes the time and then they get a reward at the end when they finally get it open. It takes them about an hour to get through everything.  We cut them up and fed the pieces to all of the smaller guys in quarantine.  Nvuru got to the middle, but then gave up, he did have a wonderful time tearing at the husk and splashing it through his water dish. There were indeed seed dispersal breaks.  (Funny story, one of the vets saw a white substance on the bottom of his enclosure and thought he had a tapeworm. There was much anxiety about the whole thing as they are pretty hard to get rid of and can do a nasty number on the body, especially certain types that go into the blood stream and affect the organs including the brain. They made a microscope slide to check the species, just to find out it was ejaculate. This whole thing is the in vet notes, good on them for putting it in, but I can’t say I wouldn’t have let that one go undocumented).  Never a dull moment at the sanctuary.

Leadership

There are many more people in leadership roles than should be leaders. There are those who envy the power, those that need to break people down in order to build themselves up (we have two inspectors here doing that very thing), those that need others to find value in them because they cannot do it themselves and a million other types 

But there are also those who should never do anything else, those that would be taking something from the world if they chose to do something else with their lives. I have had the privilege to learn under some of the most uplifting leaders, those without trying, or training can build you up and make you think that there are no barriers to what you can accomplish. Ainare, the director here, is one of those people.  She, two of my (human) roommates and I went on a drive yesterday after the last surgery at the sanctuary and just stared at the place the field site will be at, or one of the options anyway. It was a distant mountain in the haze of the hot day, but in her presence we could all see it. I took pictures of the drawing she made in the sand, of the truck with the mountain in the backround, of Ainare and the Jens pointing and planning, because I wanted to remember the beginning. In that moment, we could see it all, we could see the mona monkeys, drills, chimps and assorted other monkeys roaming the forest floor, climbing the trees and foraging for themselves.  We could see past the field site (more of a sanctuary in the forest than anything else) and onto years later when some will be able to be released into the wild. We could do that because she believed so fully that her vision blanketed all of us and we could see it too. 

There are few people who can manage that, who can take you in and in a positive way, challenge you to make things better with them. Leadership is not an easy thing, some people were born to do it, others learn, and then there are people like me who are crap at it.  Animals don’t have the issue of bad leadership. 

If someone in the chimp group tries to overtake the alpha male, he better not only be strong, but have the support of the group. He won’t be able to worm his way up some political ladder, he can’t inherit power from his father or pay someone for the position, earning it is the only option. TKC is the alpha male in the island chimpanzee group (leader of 37 of our 50 chimpanzees), and there are no contenders to his position. That being said, there is also Suzie. She is the matriarch of the group, she is one of the few left from when this was a zoo. Her coat is a blondish color from years of malnutrition and pulling her hair out or rubbing it off in her tiny cage. She also walks very slowly and stiffly due to a broken leg that was not treated and healed poorly giving her limited range of motion, and thus mobility. She looks much older than her 26 years, as do most things, people included, which have had a hard life. But woe be to the chimp that crosses her and makes her stamp her foot. The entire group will fly about the island alarm calling and raging, beating the offender until she is satisfied. But she is also largely gentle and calm. She took in Neo when his mother died, she grooms all of us, and usually just hangs out on the ground or one of the lower portions of the climbing structure. Suzie spent the day inside the other day, which is strange for her, but it happens, and I had my first opportunity to get to know her. We groomed each other, she untied my shoes, I poked her belly and tickled her. We had quite the moment.  I’ve read her file, so I know some of the particulars of the life she had, and with my soft spot for anyone on the B-team, I can’t help but want to be friends. She’s not pretty, she’s awkward when she moves but she has a great personality, she’s fun to watch and I was happy to make friends. I wouldn’t trust her to not bit my face off if it came to it, but in as much as we interact with them, especially those that will never be able to be fully released, it was a special moment for me, being accepted by the matriarch.

Fortune Favors

Fortune favors the bold

Fortune favors the prepared mind

Fortuna favet fatuis (Fortune favors fools). 

These are all true, especially the last one, for me anyway. I think most of the things I’ve done that I am proud of happened because I was too stubborn or foolish to realize I shouldn’t have done them. I’m the fat bumble bee that shouldn’t be able to fly, but somehow still manages. 

I am back in Limbe, falling into the familiar patterns of the city and the centre.  My first night here I had a tiny baby guenon on my head and the first full day I had them all over me. With a shortage of keepers I ended up back in the quarantine section for half a day. Cleaning the enclosure with the baby guenons (who are not so much the babies I left) had them using me as another piece on enrichment. For the record, I have a three guenon backside. 

Bakumba is much bigger now, and much more wild. She wants nothing to do with people anymore, including me. I was a little saddened, but ultimately this is a good thing, she will have to go back to the wild someday, and the less she wants to be around people the better for her. I was greated with a smile and traditional hello from Nvuru (the masturbating mandrill). He, it seems, has not changed at all.  Sagat the patas monkey now has a mini me as a friend, her name is Frieda (the species has a thick black line across their faces that makes them look like they have a unibrow).  And the baby chimps have a MUCH bigger satellite enclosure, which was really exciting. The one they had was made for a couple of chimps, not 5, one of which being 7 years old. Now there is room for more if it comes to it. I spent the morning with Mayos and she untied, unlaced and relaced my shoes (well, all the holes were accounted for anyway). It was kind of amazing to watch, she hates double knots and I thought she was going to rip the laces out of my shoes before she got it. 

My human roommate is a friend from my first visit, and the two non-human roommates took some getting used to. Edogue is a month older and much quieter, though quite crazy when left to her own devices, she peed all over Jens bed as a goodnight present. There is also Philip. I think the name suits him, he looks like sad old man. He isn’t much younger than Edogue, but they grow so fast that he looks stages behind. He came in the day before I did, riddled with shrapnel from the bullets that killed his mother, 8 pieces in his tiny body, and a burn mark from the bullet that passed through his mother and across his back. He screamed and cried the entire first two nights he was here, there was no consoling him, and given the trauma, it’s not surprising. He lives attached to a gibbon stuffed animal, and now that his wounds have closed, also attached to Edogue. She is his mother now even though she is only a month older. He clings to her like his life depends on it, and in turn she acts like any big sister and loves him sometimes and beats the hell out of him others.  Jen and I rejoiced last night when he took his first wobbly steps since he’s been with us. His eyes grow brighter and he becomes stronger. They weren’t sure he would make it when he came in, his eyes were clouded and his wounds were deep and swollen, but he’s managing thus far. Jen and I have much hope. 

I can’t be as stressed about the conference while being here, it puts too much into perspective. Animals like Philip make my stress seem a silly thing in the grand scheme. New hopes for release sites and the day to day running of the center seem like much better and worthy things to focus on.  And the director liked the posters I came up with and the project as a whole, so with a little bit of work over the next few days, I think I can make it into something I’m proud to present.

The Nature of Things

There are two main groups of chimpanzees aside from the 4 babies and partially paralyzed Ghaa in quarantine. The island has 37 chimpanzees and the mainland group has 8. The mainland group is comprised of chimpanzees that have at some point or another found their way out of the island, most on multiple occasions. It is also home to two that cannot be let outside at all until they can figure out how to contain them, they are Jack (the current leader of the mainland) and Bankim. Collectively they are hugely stubborn and cause more issues with the keepers than their island counterpart but there are relatively few issues between the chimpanzees themselves.

Then there is the island. The island is home to a wide range of personalities. There is Suzanne who is the matriarch, and the oldest member of LWC, she was a resident of the zoo before it was the sanctuary and is thought to be somewhere in her mid to late twenties. She is identifiable at a distance because she is the only blonde chimpanzee we have, it is not genetic, it comes from old age, the stress of having spent her early life in a very small cage and pretty horrific circumstances and having plucked or rubbed off most of her hair at some point. She looks like a matron now and plays the part well. If she stamps her foot, everyone stops what they are doing and the offender is often attacked in some manner by a large portion of the group. Aside from the violence, its kind of cute because she’s old and moves relatively slow. She is also the foster mother to a three year old chimp named Po-Po whose mother died last year.  

There are some young chimpanzees, just a few years old, some older. There are about 7 that rarely or never go outside including my grooming partners and an older chimp named Mac who really likes when you jiggle his huge belly. And there is Carlos.

Carlos is an anomaly in many ways; most of the workers here either have a guarded respect or outright fear of him. One of the volunteers here told me that being alone in a room with him was her worst nightmare, that just the threat of it would cause her to have a heart attack and die before he even entered the room. I can’t say I blame her.

He is the tallest chimpanzee we have, even on all fours he stands about 4ft tall. Most striking are his eyes. Unlike humans, most if not all primates do not have whites to their eyes, outside of the iris is a brownish black that fades into a paler brown and almost white at the extreme edges. Carlos though, he has eyes like we do. So in the morning before everyone gets let out, you are greeted with varying amounts of aggression by a huge chimpanzee with human eyes. Its oddly disconcerting. Fortunately much of his aggression and dislike is focused on men. Carlos is our chief poo flinger, and some staff will only come to the island in the morning with a stick to keep him at bay. When chimps throw poo, they don’t mess around, their hands are huge and they fill them, and it never seems to be with the solid stuff…

He is also our most aggressive towards other chimpanzees. It wasn’t until our newest volunteer came in that I was really made aware. She had volunteered here before, and had asked about a chimpanzee named Jackson. Having gone through all the files I knew he had died at the hands of Carlos, but I did not read the full report. I pulled it up and read it, then went to the keepers for some clarification and details. What was apparently a fight over a female, the low ranking Jackson became the object of Carlos’ aggression. It does not appear to have been much of a fight, Jackson had just rejoined the group after having been fairly sick. Carlos pounded his head into the ground and ripped most of his face off until he died. During the post mortem it was noted that there was no blood in many of the organs, most of it coating either him or the floor.  He then paraded around with the body. Yup, you read it right, held him up like he was a parade leader and pranced around with the now lifeless and faceless Jackson in hand.

I feel like a kid who just found out Santa isn’t real. It is easy to be around these guys and forget what they are capable of. Jane Goodall went through the same progression (She’s the chimpanzee lady from England who studied in Tanzania, not the Gorilla lady from the US who was macheted to death in Congo, that was Dian Fossey). She thought that chimps were better than people because they seemed so much gentler—then her group split into two and one annihilated the other. It was silly of me to put them on the same pedestal. Perhaps it was because all of them had suffered so much at the hands of humans. But they suffer just as much, if not more, at the hands of each other sometimes. Nature is not a beautiful calm. There is no such thing as a peaceful forest, I say it all the time, but apparently I forgot. Forest systems are classified as a dynamic equilibrium, they need a certain amount of disruption and chaos to continue to develop (come to think of it, so do we). There are fires and wind storms, there is death and suffering. Everything gets eaten, everything dies. Aside from possibly trees, there is no such thing as dying of old age in nature. You are alive until something stronger finds and eats you. I got caught up in the stories and forgot this. I remember now. Wild things are beautiful and wonderful, but nature is harsh and sometimes cruel and there is no escaping it.

Poking crocodiles with sticks and other minor assaults on wildlife

There is a nile crocodile that lives here, he’s about 9 ft long and pretty intimidating looking. To clean his enclosure involves going into his cage and poking him with a big stick until he moves far enough away where the keeper feels comfortable with the two of us going in to clean his pool. Once you’re in you have to turn your back to him at points to clean the pool of all the algae growing in it, it isn’t a good feeling. If he decided that he was hungry and I looked like a good meal, there would be no hope for me. But he never seems to care once the initial poking and gnashing of teeth and jaws are done. He just goes to the corner and waits for the pool to fill back up.  I will never be comfortable with this process, and the keeper , Killi, finds the combination of my hesitance and my willingness intensely amusing. There is a lot of me saying “Ok… If you say its safe…” followed by his laughter.  I do the same thing anytime I’m told to go into an enclosure with any animal bigger than a putty-nosed guenon.

                The escapee ninja drills continue to plague me when I feed that section. I feel like there was a generally call to all the free ranging drills that was something like “That light skinned girl who isn’t intimidating at all is here, rush the food truck and take all the bananas!” They were getting increasingly brazen, one using me as a midway point to bound off of to get to the food. All the other keepers throw rocks at them, over them really, but the drills don’t know the difference. My aim is pretty terrible most days so I have never, will never, throw rocks at the animals here. Instead I have gone to the less harmful option of pelting them with the food they were going to steal anyway. I will bean them with bananas and “plums” (kind of like an avocado hiding in the skin of a plum) or mango. It has had the desired effect of getting them to leave me alone. They still all gather when I approach, but they keep their distance until I am gone. I’ll take it.

                I continue to gain comfort with this place and insights into it. I’m never sure what to write, because everything seems interesting to me, but I’ve seen that glazed over bored look in too many peoples’ eyes to think you all feel the same. I remain an anomaly and a huge dork. I got excited over a mantid today and Killi thought I saw a snake since I yelled in excitement when I saw it. Though he humored me and let me take pictures of it, holding the leaf it was on so I could get close to it. He did later feed it to the adult mona monkey (who is finally my friend and rarely shows his teeth to me anymore), which I yelled at him for. I’ll feed the rats to the hawk, but don’t feed my bug to the monkeys. 

            I'm still in awe of the relationships I've been able to forge in the short time I've been here.

The nature of relationships has always seemed to me to be the decision that no matter the outcome, someone is beneficial and worthy enough to warrant the risk. Having a pet means that at some point in the future you will endure a great amount of pain when they die. Making friends, finding a significant other both run the risk of the deep pain associated only with those who know you well. But we all run those risks because primates are social creatures.

           As I bond more with certain animals here, I worry about their well being when I suddenly stop coming by. When I no longer come to groom or play chase, when I no longer tickle bellies or bring them food will they notice? The keepers say that they do, but they also encourage me to keep coming until I leave. Their lives have had so much negative, mostly associated with humans, that these interactions with people help them. I am one more person that did not starve them, throw things at them (with few deserved exceptions) or lock them in a cage.They have given me much already and I hope I leave having been as beneficial to them.