The common chimpanzee is one of two living chimpanzee species, the other being the bonobo, or pygmy chimpanzee. Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, sharing over 98% of our genetic makeup with us and being more closely related to humans that they are to gorillas.
I can’t really explain what it is about chimpanzees that inspired my childhood fascination in them, but something did and it is an interest that has remained with me to this day. As a young girl I idolised Jane Goodall and held ambitions to one-day study chimpanzees in the wild, and so being here on this chimpanzee chasing adventure is a dream come true.
The chimpanzees have so far surpassed my expectations of them, and every minute I have spent observing these Great Apes has been incredible. Or almost every minute I should say, as there have been times when a chimpanzee will appear briefly before retreating behind a branch or a tangle of vines and may remain there for sometime while I strain to see them from below. In this case I must admit that even I struggle to remain enthusiastic about diligently taking notes whilst staring at a clump of leaves for an hour or more!
However, the moments when boredom begins to creep in are few and far between when we are with the chimpanzees. Often we are treated to brilliant views of them and on a few memorable occasions I have been lucky enough to experience very close and personal encounters with the fascinating animals.
One of these encounters has to be my best moment with the Semliki chimpanzees to date, and in fact my favourite experience of the trip so far. We had been watching a group of three chimpanzees for several hours, with the four of us researchers positioned at different points on the forest floor to best collect observational data on them. The chimpanzees had been sat in the treetops above me feeding when suddenly they began to move.
I repositioned myself slightly to better track their movements and soon realised, to my delight, that they were beginning to climb down a tree only six or seven metres from where I stood. I crouched low and waited with my heart in my mouth.
One by one the chimpanzees descended the tree and when close to the ground they each in turn stopped and stared calmly at me for several incredible seconds before disappearing into the undergrowth. Those seconds spent staring into the eyes of the chimpanzees were some of the best I have yet lived through and will forever be etched into my memory.
The chimpanzees are the reason that I am here, and seeing them is the realisation of a childhood dream for me. For that reason it was inevitable that they would be my ‘animal of the week’ sooner or later, and so finally in this week, the 6th of my Ugandan adventure, my featured animal is the common chimpanzee.
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