Kibale Forest: The treehouse and the chimps

We decided to splash out and book into the Primate Lodge treehouse (http://www.ugandalodges.com/primate/index.php?page=rooms) which is about a twenty minute walk from the lodge in the forest on a glade with a lovely waterhole. It was spectacular and we both loved it (as does the resident mouse who lives in the roof!). That night we had two forest elephant at the waterhole and although they were very difficult to make out clearly we could hear them quite well.

The chimps were, in my opinion, the highlight of the trip. Our guide was Jessica and we ended up having about 3hrs with them as it was low season and we were the only people there to see them. First when we found them, they were up in the canopy feeding but later they came down and we watched several episodes: First we watched two females and a baby. The baby was playing around in the trees while nearby one female was dozing and another was chewing at a tree stump. Jessica said she had a bad stomach and the chimps know which trees act as which medicines. Second we watched the big male wandering around the forest floor, feeding, relaxing and checking on his troop. Periodically a load pan-hooting would sounds from one chimp or another and then the forest would echo the pan-hoots back from all directions; each of the chimps keeping in touch with the others.

The final piece of behavior we watched was frightening: Three adult males suddenly turned on one female and beat and pummeled her using both fists. They kicked and bit her and at one stage threw her against a tree. The noise and screams were so loud and all this happened just three metres from where we stood. We thought they were going top kill her but finally the big male rushed in, also screaming at the top of his lungs, curling his upper lip back and the chimps dispersed. The bullied female sat just metres from us low on a tree and we could see she had wounds although surprisingly they looked superficial. After about 15mins a male who had not been involved in the beat up approached her and she started screaming blue murder again but he reached up took her toes in his one hand and patted her foot gently in the other hand and then she came down from her tree all calm and they went off together. Absolutely incredible!

We celebrated by having a big fry up in the forest clearing within hearing distance of the chimps ... after Chrissie had severely sprained her ankle falling on the slippery path.