Tickle attack - Gombe Stream National Park
Like Dr. Goodall, we found our first group of chimpanzees by hearing them first. We heard calls in the distance above us on a ridge. Those calls moved over time as we hiked, literally straight up the ridge. Soon we heard the sounds of a chimpanzee laughing. Our guides found them in the brush and cautiously guided us to a place about 30 feet away where we could observe and photograph them. On the right is a mother with her infant. On the left is a larger chimp tickling the daylights out of the littler one. The larger chimp is an uncle of the tickled chimp, who is the offspring of the mother on the right.
While hiking on our second foray into the forest we came across a troop of 7 adults. We observed two of the adult females in two different trees, using sticks to fish for ants or termites. This is the behavior Dr. Goodall first documented in chimpanzees: tool use. We were told very few visitors see this behavior.
The Jane Goodall Institute works with the Tanzania National Parks who, along with various other institutions, are doing behavioral and epidemiological research on the animals inhabiting Gombe Stream National Park. Lincoln Park Zoo was participating in this program and funded my trip, along with the primary epidemiologist, for him to evaluate the program on-site and for me to evaluate the laboratory facilities and offer tips on methodology and identification of parasites in the feces of the chimps. This program involved the Park's full-time trackers, who collected the samples and preserved same. These samples could then be analyzed on-site or chemically preserved and then forwarded to laboratories outside the Country. I and another colleague examined nearly two thousand such preserved samples, each of which were from known individual, over a three year period.
Of the two individuals who were my "trainees" in the local clinical lab, one became a veterinarian who is still working for the Tanzania Parks and the other became a veterinary technician. This part of the research resulted in several scientific publications.
Research continues at Gombe Stream, now just a small part of Dr. Goodall's long legacy of work, including her "Roots and Shoots" program which has a world-wide network.
Oh, and I slept in Jane Goodall's bed (and I told her that at our second meeting during a visit to Chicago.)
This image was taken in February of 2005.
Tickle attack - Gombe Stream National Park
Like Dr. Goodall, we found our first group of chimpanzees by hearing them first. We heard calls in the distance above us on a ridge. Those calls moved over time as we hiked, literally straight up the ridge. Soon we heard the sounds of a chimpanzee laughing. Our guides found them in the brush and cautiously guided us to a place about 30 feet away where we could observe and photograph them. On the right is a mother with her infant. On the left is a larger chimp tickling the daylights out of the littler one. The larger chimp is an uncle of the tickled chimp, who is the offspring of the mother on the right.
While hiking on our second foray into the forest we came across a troop of 7 adults. We observed two of the adult females in two different trees, using sticks to fish for ants or termites. This is the behavior Dr. Goodall first documented in chimpanzees: tool use. We were told very few visitors see this behavior.
The Jane Goodall Institute works with the Tanzania National Parks who, along with various other institutions, are doing behavioral and epidemiological research on the animals inhabiting Gombe Stream National Park. Lincoln Park Zoo was participating in this program and funded my trip, along with the primary epidemiologist, for him to evaluate the program on-site and for me to evaluate the laboratory facilities and offer tips on methodology and identification of parasites in the feces of the chimps. This program involved the Park's full-time trackers, who collected the samples and preserved same. These samples could then be analyzed on-site or chemically preserved and then forwarded to laboratories outside the Country. I and another colleague examined nearly two thousand such preserved samples, each of which were from known individual, over a three year period.
Of the two individuals who were my "trainees" in the local clinical lab, one became a veterinarian who is still working for the Tanzania Parks and the other became a veterinary technician. This part of the research resulted in several scientific publications.
Research continues at Gombe Stream, now just a small part of Dr. Goodall's long legacy of work, including her "Roots and Shoots" program which has a world-wide network.
Oh, and I slept in Jane Goodall's bed (and I told her that at our second meeting during a visit to Chicago.)
This image was taken in February of 2005.