I want to direct followers to the National Geographic Explorers Journal where my blogs will be posted for the remainder of my field season. Please follow the tag “Gombe 2013″ for up-to-date news on my research, the chimps, and other exciting events!

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/tag/gombe-2013/

One of my teleportation vessels- a Cessna Grand Caravan

Two weeks ago, that same panicked sensation shot through me again while in a state somewhere between sleep and consciousness. My eyes burst open and I looked around. Instead of the familiarity of my bedroom, I was squeezed between strangers somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean with a bad chick flick playing in the background. This time there was some level of truth to what I was feeling. I was alone and being transported back to Gombe, albeit within the realm of modern technology. Luckily, in contrast to my dream, I had had some level of preparation, though it largely took the form of a three-day, post-holiday shopping spree. In my mind I fervently reviewed the packing list I had made and diligently checked off while packing.

Proof that I had indeed prepared for my trip

First, I mentally took stock of the equipment I needed for my research. I remembered packing my field bags, water bottles, flashlights, ponchos, waterproof notebooks and pens, hiking boots, field clothes, computer, recorder and microphone and the video camera generously loaned from National Geographic. A bit of the panic subsided. At least if I had forgotten everything else I would still be able to accomplish what I was going to Gombe to do- study chimpanzee vocal communication. However, without some other necessities it would be a long five months. I moved on to other essentials: shampoo and conditioner, contact solution, malaria medication, camp clothes, multivitamins, power bars, sunscreen, my Kindle, a few movies and various other items which would be sorely missed if forgotten. All seemed accounted for. I inhaled deeply and turned my attention back to the movie. Everything was going to be OK, though I couldn’t completely shake the feeling of disorientation that had crept over me.

Looking out at Lake Victoria from my hotel in Mwanza

Arriving in Dar es Salaam, finding a hotel in Mwanza, chatting in Swahili in Kigoma and bobbing on the boat to Gombe felt foreign yet strangely familiar at the same time. After all, this is my third trip to Gombe and I have lived there for a total of 9 months already. However, I had just spent the last few months teaching undergrads at the University of Minnesota and going to Happy Hour with friends in the city. Discordant reactions to what I was experiencing fought in my mind. Oh yeah, there’s a baboon, wait…a baboon?!? The night I arrived at Gombe, I took a dip in the lake to wash off the grime of travel. The water was cooler than I remembered, likely due to the present rainy season, so it took few minutes to get the courage to swim. Eventually I waded out to my hips and, in the fashion I had many a night after returning from the forest, plunged the rest of the way into the water. With the chilly jolt came vivid memories. The days of climbing up ridges, hiking behind chimps, and wearily falling into bed were suddenly as clear as day. I really was back at Gombe. However, while I was indeed alone (well, at least the only foreigner) and hastily uprooted from my normal life, that’s where the similarity with my dream ended. I was prepared for this and, with two field seasons under my belt, actually more so than I have ever been before.

 “Rangers must be interpreters of the mountains, their moods and mysteries…they must serve as guides, philosophers and friends” –Superintendent of Yellowstone Horace Albright, 1929

Interpreting the mountains, the wild animals, the North American wilderness and its’ mysteries; that is what I do. My name is Amy Kocurek, and I am a National Park Service Ranger. Every day I wake-up, put on my green and gray uniform, and go to work in the most beautiful places in the United States. This month I return for my second summer season in Wyoming at Yellowstone National Park. If you were to take a look at my resume you would see that I have also worked two winter seasons at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in Carlsbad New Mexico, and one summer season at Padre Island National Seashore in Corpus Christi Texas. There are many different types of park rangers: law enforcement rangers, resource management, and maintenance to name a few. I am an interpretive park ranger. I take visitors on hikes, safe animal viewing areas, and provide many different types of educational programs for their enjoyment. I do this all in the hope that they will understand why the park they are visiting is important and worth protecting for all future generations to visit. You may have heard the saying, it’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey. That being said, I would like to share with you my journey on how I came to be a park ranger, what I’ve learned from this job, and what goals I hope our National Parks will accomplish.

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body of soul” –John Muir

 I attended college at Texas A&M University in College Station Texas. I first majored in biology, then in wildlife fisheries, and graduated with a bachelor of science in psychology. I had lots of ideas about what I wanted to do after college, but as I learned new things those ideas of what I wanted to do with my life also changed. There was always one thing in my life that never changed and that was that I loved the outdoors. As a little girl I spent most of my childhood up in a tree or catching tadpoles and cray fish in a nearby creek. Thanks to girl scouts I was able to escape the city and discover the fun of camping. It was with the girl scouts that I was first able to gaze upon the Milky Way and ponder my place in this world. It became essential to me to find time to spend in nature; whether it was hiking, caving, camping, swimming, or something as simple as a walk in a park. Each moment I was alone with the wilderness my stress seemed to melt away. I’ve always heard that it is okay to not know right away what you want to do for a living to take your time and figure out what makes you happy. Well here I was a college graduate and still not sure. I spent my first year out of college working as a secretary for a utility company. This job did not pay well, was not intellectually stimulating, and I rarely saw the outside of an office building for that whole year, but it was a paying job during a time where other college graduates were struggling to get hired. So instead of excitement and adventures, that first year out of college ended up being a long boring year for me where I struggled to make financial ends meet, and avoided a daily onslaught of office gossip. In the end that job proved to be an important learning experience, it helped me discover what I wanted out of a career. After applying a second time for a seasonal park guide position at Carlsbad Caverns National Park I finally received a phone interview, but unfortunately did not get the job. To my relief I received a phone call a week later, one of the candidates who had been awarded the position dropped out and I was offered the position. Two weeks after accepting the position I was living on the beautiful mountains of Carlsbad Caverns New Mexico and getting paid to take people on cave tours, walk around Carlsbad Caverns, and answer questions about bats. After much searching, I finally found what I wanted to do with my life. It was not easy to get the job, but if something is worth doing it never is easy, so never give up trying.

“In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught” –Baha Dioum

Being a park ranger has granted me opportunities to learn, explore, and experience so many new and memorable things that I never imagined in my wildest dreams I’d ever be able to do. These experiences have helped me appreciate our National Parks even more so, and therefore I want to help others have similar experiences of their own while visiting their National Parks. I would like to share with you a few adventures of mine and what I learned from them. During my time working at Carlsbad Caverns National Park I was able to explore (with the guidance of other park employees) parts of that cave that no one else was allowed to visit. Of course these parts of the cave were not easy to get to. There were no paved trails, no handrails, or a lighted path to help guide you. We had to use helmets, headlights, ropes, and vertical equipment to get where we were going. After all the hard work of climbing, crawling, and being overly cautious (for my sake and the caves sake) I would end up in a room that rarely ever saw the light of a caver’s headlamp. These rooms were pristine, extremely beautiful, and so delicate that it was hard to believe something that wonderful existed underground where no one would ever see it. There were thousands of long, dripping, hollow soda straw stalactites hanging down from the ceiling.  Complete fossilized skeletons of bats inlaid on the caves’ flowstone formations, and pure white stalagmites and cave formations that imitated glittery snow. Unfortunately while working at Carlsbad Caverns, I also saw many examples of how easily this beauty could be destroyed by the hand of man. Cave formations can take hundreds of thousands of years to form, but it only takes one person who lacks the knowledge and respect to break one of those formations and ruin the beauty for everyone else. When visiting a cave there’s a saying: “take nothing but pictures, kill only time, and leave nothing but well-placed foot prints”. When you enter a cave please remember this so that the beauty you see while there can also be seen and enjoyed for many others who may come after you.

Padre Island National Seashore in Corpus Christi Texas is the largest undeveloped barrier island in the United States. This is very important, because many different animals use the island as their habitat, their home. One of these animals that I would like to tell you about are sea turtles. Sea turtles live their lives in the ocean, but once they are mature enough to lay eggs they must crawl out to the same beach they were hatched on and lay their eggs. If the eggs are undisturbed then eventually they will hatch and the baby turtles will scramble towards the water. Some species of sea turtles hatch at night and use the reflection of the moon off the water as a guide of what direction to go in. In many states the beaches are so developed with hotels and condos that when these turtles hatch at night they are often misguided by street lights and end up going towards highways where they meet an unfortunate end. This is very sad because all sea turtles are endangered and if we do not protect them and their habitat they will go extinct. Padre Island National Seashore has a sea turtle program that helps protect thousands of hatchlings (baby turtles). The resource park rangers will collect turtle eggs that are buried in the sand and incubate them in their lab. This protects those eggs from natural predators such as coyotes and raccoons, but also protects them from humans that may try to steal and sell the eggs on the black market. Once the eggs hatch the park hosts public releases where we talk about the problems turtles face and anyone who wants to can see these hatchlings take their first steps towards the ocean. Eventually when their populations are high enough to sustain themselves the park rangers will stop collecting the eggs and allow them to incubate naturally on the beach, even if they become eaten by their natural predators.

Another animal that is in trouble is the grizzly bear. The grizzly bear is listed as threatened in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. While working at Yellowstone National Park I was lucky enough to see many different grizzly bears. Most of the bears that I encountered we called “road side bears”, because they live near the roads where visitors are likely to see them. The back country/wilderness is the optional place for a bear to live; therefore the older and bigger bears claim that territory and push out any younger and smaller bears. These younger bears end up living in the front county, treading a delicate line between getting too close and comfortable with humans, and going into another bear’s territory. Once these front country bears grow big and strong they will eventually head into the back county and demand some territory of their own, until then, we must also be aware of their presence and remember that they are a wild animal that can hurt us. Since I was living in Yellowstone I became very accustomed to these front country bears and learned to recognize them and even love them. One bear in particular was very special to me and this bear’s name was Lightening. He was named that because had blonde lighting stripes down his sides. I would see this bear often while driving to work, and one time I was lucky enough to watch him dig up pocket gophers behind my apartment. Unfortunately at some point in Lightning’s life he had been exposed to human food and thus always associated humans with food. For three years he was unsuccessfully hazed at least 25 times from developed park areas. On July 30^th 2011 he aggressively approached a man hiking on one of the park’s trails and started to charge at him. The man was able to get away unharmed, but due to Lightning’s history and unsuccessful hazing attempts he was deemed as a safety hazard for park visitors and was euthanized. Moving Lightening to the back country was not an option either, because relocating a bear is usually unsuccessful because the bear will simply return to the area they were removed or other bears will move in and face the same challenges. It is sad that these majestic wild animals must suffer the consequences to our human mistakes, but please don’t let Lightning’s life be in vain, let this be a reminder to always store your food and trash properly when camping and living in an area where bears also live. It is easy to forget that we do not live alone on this planet, but it is our responsibility to help look after and protect the other animals who we share this world with.

 “If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them with a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning.” –Lyndon B. Johnson

Being a ranger is more than just a job, it’s a way of life. Though I came into the park service as a young college graduate, I am now much more than that. While wearing my uniform and flat hat I am an extension of the park service. I listen to the animals, the rivers, the trees, and the land that have no voice of their own. I try to ignite compassion in others to help protect and experience the beauty of our National Parks. My hope is that current and future generations may realize the importance of these special places that have been set aside for us by the generosity of past generations. I hope I never live to see the day when there may be no more wilderness, no untamed and natural places. If we do not open our eyes and our hearts to share our world with each other and every single animal on it that is a fate we may face. Science is now discovering that many cures to human disease are found in these wild places, there is much more to be discovered and to learn from these untamed lands. If we ever lost these natural places we would be losing much more than thousands of species of animals, future discoveries for science, and recreational sites, we would essentially lose ourselves.

I don’t think I could have asked for a better last day in the forest. There were relaxing feeding events in Kakombe Valley, two different bouts of food-callling, a rigorous hike to the top of the ridge and even an altercation with red colobus monkeys…

Following Apollo on my last day

My focal target was Apollo, a somewhat quirky adult male who is always exciting to follow. We discovered him early in the day feeding on Mabungo Makubwa in the general vicinity of Titan, another adult male. Though he was high above us, we had a great view of him, which is good because he didn’t come down for several hours. Apollo and Titan gradually inched closer to one another as they fed independently in the vine masses above, while my field assistant and I lounged below with binoculars. After feeding independently and silently for over two hours, the two eventually arrived at the same patch of vines and belted out a dramatic pant-hoot chorus. Unexpectedly, it was answered by the distinctively squeaky pant-hoot of Tom, an adolescent male who must have also been feeding nearby. After answering this pant-hoot with one more of their own, Apollo and Titan began a long series of loud rough-grunts (listen here!) and proceeded to feed together intensively for two more hours, eventually being joined by Tom. Finally, four hours after the start of my focal follow, the pitter patter of falling fruit began to slow and the chimps came down from the trees for the first time. After a short bout of grooming, Apollo and Tom left Titan in Kakombe and took off for the land above the waterfalls where Apollo spends most of his time.

Looking out over the park

Through the rest of the follow, Tom appeared highly motivated to stay with Apollo. At one point they became separated after Tom went down one trail and Apollo another. Ten minutes later, as Apollo was walking through the high grass, I heard quiet whimpers and saw a small figure running towards him. With a few affectionate grunts the two were reunited and Tom spent the next 40 minutes grooming Apollo, grunting in protest each time he made a motion to leave. Eventually, hunger won out, and the two continued on their way in search of food. Suddenly Tom began grunting quietly again, but this time I recognized them as rough-grunts. He was traveling behind Apollo through an open area, but I could tell his eyes were on something up ahead. Sure enough, the pair soon arrived at an mbula tree full of new leaves. The two fed together contentedly for about thirty minutes with Tom giving a long bout of very quiet grunts (listen here) and Apollo occasionally chiming in. However, throughout the bout, I noticed they kept looking towards a nearby group of red colobus monkeys. Then, thirty minutes after they had arrived, the two suddenly bolted from the tree. At first I thought they had seen a hunting opportunity, as Apollo frequently hunts during my focal follows. Instead, I soon saw a giant male colobus monkey charge into the mbula tree and threaten the retreating chimps. This was the first time I had seen these smaller primates chase an adult male chimp from a food patch, and it made for an action-packed end to my last focal follow. With the recording of my last behavioral scan, I reluctantly watched the males fade into the bushes and out of sight. While sad to leave, I can look forward to my return in January 2013 to pick up where I left off. Also, there’s the growing anticipation of exploring my hard-won data upon returning to the United States. Afterall, that’s where the real excitement lies and why I traveled so far to study the chimpanzees of Gombe.

One night while working in the office on my day off, a boisterous panthoot chorus erupted directly behind me. I was startled by the commotion, as it was already dark and the chimps should have been asleep deep in the forest. After asking around I found out that a large party had nested right on the periphery of the forest, basically in our back yard. This was during the time of Mabungo Makubwa when large parties of chimpanzees were coming together to feed. Needless to say it was extremely easy to unnest the following morning, as I quickly found my focal target, Sampson, with minimal effort.

The timid Sampson

Being pretty low ranking, Sampson is very skittish around other males. He makes rapid detours around menacing-looking elders and bolts up trees whenever the group starts into a pant-hoot chorus. That morning the large nesting party dissipated shortly after sunrise as different subgroups went off to feed in various choice locations. Sampson had gone off alone to feed in a palm tree and was contentedly consuming palm nuts until the pant-hoots began. Ferdinand and others had come across a large patch of Mabungo Makubwa a short distance away and were carrying on with typical chimpanzee fervor. Sampson climbed down and tentatively made his way towards the others. Upon approaching, Ferdinand made it very clear that he would not tolerate Sampson in close proximity to himself while feeding on the precious Mabungo. Without making much of a fuss, Sampson resigned to an adjacent tree containing a scattering of likely-inferior Mabungo fruits woven among the branches. This pattern continued throughout the day with parties dispersing for awhile and then fervently coming back together again after a new and abundant resource had been discovered.

A party of chimpanzees feeding in an mbula tree

Later in the day, Sampson was feeding on the soft inner parts of a palm frond when a progression of chimps walked by. Perhaps sensing that they knew something he didn’t, he abandoned his frond and held up the rear. Just ahead, an Mbula tree became visible with an abundance of tender, bright-green new leaves decorating the branches. The party went wild. Numerous chimps ran up the tree and frantically began to feed while emitting loud food barks and a cacophony of other calls (click here to hear the calls!). Meanwhile, poor Sampson was just trying to stay out of trouble. He had once again climbed an adjacent tree, only this one did not contain any edible food. I watched sympathetically as he gradually inched along one of the outer branches until he was just within reach of the mbula tree. Keeping an eye on Ferdinand, he quickly snapped off a branch and then retreated to safety. After nibbling on his meager snack he quietly left to feed in a less desirable food patch with Pax, another somewhat ostracized adult male.

While sad to watch, it’s important to observe these food-arrival events from the perspective of different individuals. Sampson certainly didn’t act as if these food-associated vocalizations were inviting him to join the party, the common assumption about these calls. Thus, this timid and lowly male is unknowingly providing me with invaluable glimpses into the peculiarities of this calling behavior. If only the esteem I have for him could grant him a little more respect from the other males…

 

A party of chimpanzees grooming in the trail after a nice bout of feeding on Mabungo Makubwa

Earlier this field season I talked a lot about how the chimps were moving far and fast as they searched for meager fruits scattered around the park. However, a few weeks ago, thing began to change. The chimps were hanging out all day in Kakombe Valley and in large, boisterous parties. As I am studying their vocalizations, this was good news for my research. It all started with the arrival of Mtobogoro fruits in trees growing along Kakombe Stream (read about an exciting event involving these trees here). However, as only a few trees were fruiting, I figured I would be back following lone chimps through the forest within a week or so. However, then came Mabungo Makubwa.

Mabungo Makubwa (scientific name: Saba comerensis var. florida) is a vine that grows in dense mats over the tops of trees and has large baseball-sized fruits. While these fruits don’t become ripe until November or December, the chimps began eating the tender seeds growing within the bitter, unripe flesh. Tourists talk of how wasteful the chimps are as they discard the flesh in favor of the tasty morsel within, but the chimps are just feeding efficiently while they wait for the fruits to become ripe.  As there is a large crop of these fruits growing in Kakombe Valley, all I have to do to find chimps is walk into the forest directly behind camp and make my way along the stream. As I tip toe below the trees, I listen for the loud *thunk* of the fruits hitting the ground, a telltale sign that a chimp is eating Mabungo nearby. The chimps will sometimes stay up feeding for hours as a pile of discarded fruit grows beneath them. When they have had their fill they slowly make their way down, engage in some much-needed socialization, and then move a few meters away to start all over again in a fresh patch. Needless to say, this fruit has made my job ridiculously easy, a welcome change from the frantic focal follows characteristic of this field season and a nice way to spend my last weeks at Gombe.

Frodo sitting on his log right before the start of his exciting afternoon

Back in the day, Frodo was something else (or so I’ve been told). With his large build, self-assuredness and eye for drama, chimps and humans alike would leap into bushes when they saw him coming (he was known to incorporate humans into his dominance displays). These days, however, Frodo has been less than impressive. He is looking quite elderly (yet distinctive) with his grey back, he has lost some weight, he’s been completely disinterested in social interaction, and spends a lot of time hanging around camp. Nevertheless, he is still one of my favorites.

Yesterday, I set out in the morning specifically to find him. He was a little harder to find this past week and was due for a follow. After 3 hours of searching I heard the distinctive sound of a chimp scratching himself nervously from inside a clump of vines and, shortly thereafter, out wandered Frodo. He sauntered up to a log and sat for a bit looking around, trying to figure out what to do next. I was expecting him to climb up a palm tree and feed for a while, but, instead, he casually walked across the stream and sat in the trail underneath an unassuming clump of trees. Suddenly, Fudge bolted down and ran straight to Frodo. After an affectionate greeting, Fudge got down to buisness and began to groom him enthusiastically. As tourists came and went, snapping idealistic pictures of the two males, the grooming went on and on for no less than 2 hours. As I watched, my heart swelled a bit since I haven’t seen Frodo get much attention in a while. As the bout was winding down, an unexpected pant-hoot sounded from a nearby area. Frodo and Fudge froze, looked towards it, and then rushed in that direction. I was right on their heels as they took off back across the stream and headed towards the sound. Suddenly I saw Frodo expand in size as his hair stood on end, and Fudge quickly followed suit. Like a proud mother I looked on as he transformed into a version of his former self, charging into view of the other chimps, panthooting, drumming on tree buttresses and throwing vegetation. This was the first time I had seen Frodo display in the past 5 months. Soon, another pant-hoot was heard in the vicinity and the two took off again. In a chorus of rough-grunts (hear the calls here!), panthoots, and screams, Frodo joined a large group of chimps gathering at a mtobogoro tree. He scampered up, ate some fruit, and then relaxed as he received even more grooming, complements of his brother Faustino. Afterwards, when the excited group broke apart, Frodo spent the rest of the day basking in the company of Fudge and the G-family and even threw in a good ole’ Colobus monkey hunt for old times’ sake. As he gnawed on a chunk of meat high in a tree I reaffirmed Frodo as my favorite and rejoiced in the fact that he still has it in him, even after all these years.

Looking up the coast from way down south

Trudging back to camp, hour 13 of my grueling day in the forest, I kept fighting back the urge to curl up in the sand and spend my night on the beach. After all, I had to be right back here by 6am the following morning to un-nest the chimps. Sand is soft right? The main thing keeping me going was the promise of food back home. All I had eaten since I left that morning was half of a power bar and a dinner roll. Legs nearly useless, stomach aching, and feeling a bit faint, I was comforted by the fact that if I collapsed on the ground, the Tanzanian researchers trailing behind would stumble across me.

For the past several weeks, the chimps have once again been tremendously hard to find. I’ve spent nearly as many days searching for chimps as I have actually following them. On this particular day, my field assistant and I headed out at dawn to MK12, a lofty ridge we had climbed to the evening before. It’s one of the higher regions of the Kasekela community, which says a lot considering that anywhere we go requires a substantial amount of climbing. With legs still recovering from the previous day’s assent, I slowly trudged uphill for the next hour. We had heard some calls in this valley the night before and were returning to see if we could find their source. Apollo, one of my target males, has been missing for several weeks and I suspect that he claimed these highlands when the chimps scattered. However, despite our efforts, the valleys resonated in silence. We spend the next 5 hours skipping across hilltops, scanning trees, and praying that one of these days something will come into fruit. Five hours in, we received a static-y radio call while resting on a ridge overlooking Kakombe Valley. After multiple tattered exchanges, we pieced together that Ferdinand and Faustino had been spotted resting under a mango tree. Great news! Except that this particular tree was located in Kahama, several valleys south of where we sat and all the way down on the beach…

Goin' South

For the next forty five minutes we discarded the hard-earned elevation we had gained and only then began the hour-long walk south along the beach. Though a bit depressing to pass back by the house I had left six hours before, it did give me a chance to refill my water bottle and grab a roll left over from dinner the night before. While marching down the beach I seriously questioned my ability to conduct a focal follow on a chimp, a challenge even when in peak condition. Graciously, once we found them, the chimps took it easy on us and spent the rest of the afternoon feeding, resting, and doing some (relatively) light walking. Nevertheless, they continued in a southerly direction, approaching the border of the southern-most chimpanzee community. When they magically began making their night nests at a decent hour, I breathed a sigh of relief, only to remember the fact that we still had to make it back home. Slogging back to camp exhausted, dehydrated and starving, I celebrated the fact that at least we had gotten our day’s focal follow and the promise of another the following morning.Given our recent search effort, nothing can really beat that, well, except maybe a passing boat…

The adult males groom one another while the adolescent, Tarzan, rests

So my focal target has gotten out of his nest and I am now following him through the forest. Now, what do I write down? This can depend on whether I am focusing on behavioral states or events.  In general, states are behaviors that last for awhile, like resting and feeding, while events are behaviors that happen quickly, such as producing a vocalization or mating.

For events, you simply need to document the time that they occurred. For instance I could write “Sampson screamed at 9:47:35” (hour:minute:second). However, for states, obtaining information on duration is also important. So, one way to record data on these behaviors is to write down the start and end time of each behavioral state (called “Focal-Animal Sampling”). For instance I would write “From 10:55:43 to 11:03:07 Frodo was feeding ”. In this way I know how long each behavior lasted and when it occurred. Also, for both states and events, it is usually important to include additional information, such as why Sampson was screaming or what Frodo was eating.

For our Social Relationships Project we are interested in grooming behavior. Since grooming typically lasts for several minutes I am considering it a behavioral state. So, every time the focal target is in a state of grooming I document the start and end time, the identity of the grooming partner and who is doing the grooming (the target, the partner, or both). Often, partners will take turns grooming one another so I have to watch very carefully and document each time this change occurs. Also, sometimes multiple grooming interactions are going on at the same time. For instance, Titan may be being groomed by Tarzan while he himself grooms Flirt. Luckily, they only groom one another while sitting still so it is usually easy for me to watch closely and take notes. I have been collecting these data for the past several weeks as part of my dissertation research. Now, I have a long list of who each target groomed, or was groomed by, and how long each grooming bout lasted. Later this week I will post these data and let you investigate whether males spend more time grooming males or females!

Go to Social Relationships Project 

Packing my waistpack the night before

The chimps normally wake up between 6:30 and 7:00am. However, they often nest far from camp and we always have to travel uphill to get to them. This means that on the days that I unnest, I have to leave the house between 5:00 and 5:30am. The night before, I pack my bag with the things I will need for the day. These are many of the supplies I showed you in my suitcase. I have my recorder and microphone, binoculars, camera, notepad and pens, and datasheets. I also carry a bottle of water, some water purification tablets (in case I need to refill my bottle from a forest stream), a basic first aid kit, and a poncho for the frequent rain storms this time of year. I stuff all of these things into a waistpack- the biggest thing we can get by carrying in the dense forest. Its a tight fit so I rarely carry any food with me, but when I do, I bring a small bag of peanuts and raisens or a piece of a power bar. The forest is dense and almost everything gets caught up in the vine tangles, so I try to travel as lightly as possible.

Posing in my field clothes

I always wake up at least an hour before I leave the house so that I have time to hydrate myself as much as possible and eat a big breakfast. This usually includes a cup of coffee and a mixture of oatmeal, peanut butter and bananas or leftovers from my dinner the night before. I put on my quick-dry shirt and pants, my extra-grippy soccer shoes, and my waistpack. After slathering on some sunscreen and insect repellent, I head out the door to meet my field assistant in camp. We then begin our slow, careful journey up the steep slopes. Creeping through the dark forest quickly pulls me into the excitement of the day, suppressing any sleepiness or fatigue from previous days in the forest. I often head out a little early so that I can take my time traveling and spend some quiet time below the chimps’ nests as the forest wakes up around me. There is usually some rustling above that lets us know the chimps are starting to waking up. Then, with the snapping of some branches, the chimps are on the ground and already on the move. Now the day has really begun!

Return to Social Relationships Project