Steppes Discovery Blog Sep & Oct 10

Steppes Discovery Blog Sep & Oct 10

Steppes Discovery Blog Sep & Oct 10

Beauty & the Beast - Jane Goodall and the wild chimpanzees

I watched a fascinating programme on BBC Four last night featuring the background behind one of the most important discoveries in primate behavioural study. This documentary covered the 50 year career of Jane Goodall, primatologist and conservationist. She followed a childhood ambition to work with animals in Africa when Dr Leakey sent her out to Tanzania in 1960 to study wild chimpanzees. Her groundbreaking work included proof that chimpanzees use tools, are not vegetarian and social and territorial behaviour previously undocumented was shown to the world. The Gombe Stream National Park was the first area in Africa to be given protected status, and today there is still a thriving chimpanzee community despite decreased habitat and poacher threats. Why not follow in Jane's footsteps, meet some of our nearest genetic relatives and also meet Jane herself, by joining our Gombe 50 Tour next May in celebration of the pioneering work and in support of the Jane Goodall Institute.

Mime Artists

Researchers have recently discovered that (just like humans) orangutans will resort to miming to communicate with their human counterparts.

Recently they have observed an orangutan using her palm to mime opening up a coconut, in the hope that her human companion will use his machete to do just that. They also mimed the action of being scratched to get an itch attended to and enacted opening a termite nest to prompt a partner to help. Often, the primates resorted to mime after other methods of communication had failed, showing that primate communication is far more complex than previously thought.

This was certainly witnessed firsthand on one of our recent orangutan tours. During a tropical shower in the forest, our clients were taking shelter under umbrellas before the female orangutan and her infant picked up a thick set of branches to keep themselves dry.

Exceptional wildlife sighting in the Congo

Following on from another successful Congo and Central African tour, it seems that our group have been very lucky with wildlife, both at Dzanga Bai, but also closer to the lodge itself.

One of our guests awoke early one morning to the sound of chimps across the river, so with a coffee in hand they sat on their balcony watching fishermen head out through the mist in the pirogues accompanied by the calls of several Spot Breasted Ibis that were flying overhead as the sun rose.

The gorillas themselves have also been closer to camp, but the gorilla tracking in the forest yielded even great rewards and with the Ba'Aka guides leading the way, our group were treated to a new born gorilla infant, only hours old! Plenty of elephants at the Bai on both days, along with buffaloes, sitatunga, Giant Forest Hog and on the one day 3 groups of rare and elusive bongo came in, a total of 27 individuals.

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