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An excited whoop erupts from deep
in the forest, boosted immediately by a dozen other voices,
rising in volume and tempo and pitch to a frenzied shrieking
crescendo. It is the famous ‘pant-hoot’ call: a bonding ritual
that allows the participants to identify each other through
their individual vocal stylisations. To the human listener,
walking through the ancient forests of Gombe Stream, this
spine-chilling outburst is also an indicator of imminent visual
contact with man’s closest genetic relative: the chimpanzee.
Gombe is the smallest of Tanzania's
national parks: a fragile strip of chimpanzee habitat straddling
the steep slopes and river valleys that hem in the sandy
northern shore of Lake Tanganyika. Its chimpanzees – habituated
to human visitors – were made famous by the pioneering work of
Jane Goodall, who in 1960 founded a behavioural research program
that now stands as the longest-running study of its kind in the
world. The matriarch Fifi, the last surviving member of the
original community, only three-years old when Goodall first set
foot in Gombe, is still regularly seen by visitors.
Chimpanzees share about 98% of
their genes with humans, and no scientific expertise is required
to distinguish between the individual repertoires of pants,
hoots and screams that define the celebrities, the powerbrokers,
and the supporting characters. Perhaps you will see a flicker of
understanding when you look into a chimp's eyes, assessing you
in return - a look of apparent recognition across the narrowest
of species barriers.
The most visible of Gombe’s other
mammals are also primates. A troop of beachcomber olive baboons,
under study since the 1960s, is exceptionally habituated, while
red-tailed and red colobus monkeys - the latter regularly hunted
by chimps – stick to the forest canopy.
The park’s 200-odd bird species
range from the iconic fish eagle to the jewel-like Peter’s
twinspots that hop tamely around the visitors’ centre.
After dusk, a dazzling night sky is
complemented by the lanterns of hundreds of small wooden boats,
bobbing on the lake like a sprawling city.
NOTE:-
Strict rules are in place to safeguard you and the chimps. Allow
at least 2 days to see them - this is not a zoo so there are no
guarantees where they'll be each day.
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