"Chimpanzee" Movie

Disney's Chimpanzee has come out in theaters! The movie was primarily filmed in Ivory Coast with the habituated chimps from the Tai Chimpanzee Project and partially with the chimpanzees from the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project and the story is about the orphan adoption by an unrelated male in Tai's East Group :)

I am so proud of so many of my colleagues from the MPI (Tai Chimpanzee and Ngogo Chimpanzee Projects) that helped make the movie 'Chimpanzee' possible. (& thanks to Carly O for the screen snap from the movie :) )


Also, I LOVE Jane Goodall and here is an interview she did about the movie 'Chimpanzee' on the Daily Show. It was a little disappointing she didn't promote the chimpanzees actually featured in the movie (the chimpanzees of the Tai (Ivory Coast) and Kibale (Uganda) forests) or the NGOs that represent them, but if you want to help wild chimpanzee conservation please consider donating to the WILD CHIMPANZEE FOUNDATION or the NGOGO CHIMPANZEE PROJECTs.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

*UPDATED* Gorillas at Bwindi (?) play with photographer

*UPDATE* I really should have made a comment when I originally posted this about how this is really not the greatest situation with humans and wildlife coming into contact, especially apes. Liz W posted this great article outlining the issues with these interactions, its important reading http://www.igcp.org/touched-by-a-wild-mountain-gorilla/ (I've posted it below the video link as well) -MA


thanks to josh L for the link (best watched with volume off)
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Go to the ABC.com site to watch

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From igcp.org

Katie Frohardt wrote about her impulse to touch a mountain gorilla in her reflection of her time with IGCP in the 1990s, “At one point when the snare had been removed, I found myself quite near to the right foot of the female gorilla. I remember looking at that foot, and being transfixed. Without even really realizing that I was doing it, I had reached out my hand towards her foot, and was just inches away from touching her. At that point, I remember José very gently touching my hand, and shaking his head. Of course, I had no gloves on, and he was preventing my misstep, and protecting the mountain gorilla. I remember him doing this with real kindness, and with a look that made me know that he understood what I had just experienced. That was my first real day with IGCP.”

So, while the video that has gone viral is quite mesmerizing, it raises a lot of fears in the conservation community. It certainly isn’t the first time that mountain gorillas have interacted with people outside of the park, and it won’t be the last. And there is no blame to be placed. The fact is that habituated gorillas leave park boundaries, having overcome their natural fear of humans.

The mountain gorillas of Buhoma, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, are now quite notorious for it, roaming through the tourist lodges like they themselves are guests. And tourists to Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda are surprised to find that they might be visiting mountain gorillas outside of the park, in a farmer’s field or in a eucalyptus plantation.

A few months ago, gorilla groups monitored for research in Volcanoes National Park even spent the night outside of the park, forcing rangers to camp alongside them to protect and monitor them. And there are gorilla groups as well as a lone silverback that are also occasionally range outside of Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, causing neighboring farmers grief and crop loss.

There are several other facts to keep in mind: Tourism is vital to the conservation of mountain gorillas, allowing for regular monitoring of mountain gorilla groups and allowing for veterinary intervention when necessary. Tourism also brings in much-needed revenue to fund park operations and community conservation activities as well as contribute to the national and local economies.

Here are the hard facts: Humans can spread diseases to mountain gorillas and disease outbreaks among mountain gorillas have been recorded in the past, including scabies and respiratory disease. Although it is hard to believe it when seeing the ease at which mountain gorillas can include humans in their social families, mountain gorillas are wild, even those in habituated groups. So now you see the delicate balance that must be struck in tourism as a means for wildlife conservation. Tourist guidelines are in place within the region, a pivotal initiative for IGCP as an advocate for responsible mountain gorilla tourism. We advocate for managing, to the very best of our collective abilities, tourism that carries the smallest risk to people and mountain gorillas.

This is a phenomenon that won’t go away. It will take a constant effort on behalf of conservation organizations like IGCP, park rangers and managers, lodge employees and managers, as well as tourists to take the steps necessary to protect the critically endangered mountain gorillas. Behind the scenes, continued efforts are underway.

JOB!!!! seeking new assistant director of the Semliki chimpanzee project

Caro D posted today that "The Semliki chimpanzee project is seeking a new assistant director asap! If you are interested in habituating chimps and running a small camp at this awesome site in Uganda, send me a message! Please pass this on to fellow primatologists or interested students. Former field experience appreciated!" You can contact her at "caroline_AT_ist.sowasvon.org"

Mysterious nodding syndrome spreading through Uganda

from New Scientist
by Curtis Abraham

Large areas of northern Uganda are experiencing an outbreak of nodding syndrome, a mysterious disease that causes young children and adolescents to nod violently when they eat food. The disease, which may be an unusual form of epilepsy, could be linked to the parasitic worm responsible for river blindness, a condition that affects some 18 million people, most of them in Africa.

The current outbreaks are concentrated in the districts of Kitgum, Pader and Gulu. In Pader alone, 66 children and teenagers have died. More than 1000 cases were diagnosed between August and mid-December.

Onchocerca volvulus, a nematode worm that causes river blindness, is known to infest all three affected districts. Nearly all the children with nodding syndrome are thought to live near permanent rivers, another hint of a connection with river blindness.

The link is not clear cut, though. "We know that [Onchocerca volvulus] is involved in some way, but it is a little puzzling because [the worm] is fairly common in areas that do not have nodding disease," says Scott Dowell, who researches paediatric infectious diseases and is lead investigator into nodding syndrome with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There is no known cure for nodding syndrome, so Uganda's Ministry of Health has begun using anticonvulsants such as sodium valproate to treat its signs and symptoms. Meanwhile the disease is continuing to spread, say Janet Oola, Pader's health officer, and Sam William Oyet, the district's medical entomology officer.

It has now reached the Ugandan district of Yumbe, which borders the Republic of South Sudan – and cases have also been reported in the southern region of the world's newest country. Since gaining independence from the rest of Sudan in July, South Sudan has remained on track to eradicate one of humanity's oldest diseases – guinea worm. It is unclear, though, whether foreign aid for the new country could help prevent the spread of nodding syndrome.

Copulation Calls in Female Chimpanzees Convey Identity but Do Not Accurately Reflect Fertility

Towsend SW, Deschner T, Zuberbühler K (2011) Copulation Calls in Female Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) Convey Identity but Do Not Accurately Reflect Fertility. International Journal of Primatology DOI: 10.1007/s10764-011-9510-2

Abstract
Copulation calls are a relatively common feature of female primate behavior thought to function in the advertisement of female receptivity and subsequent incitation of male–male competition. To date, the majority of work on copulation calling behavior has focused on various monkey species, with little empirical evidence from the great apes. Previous research on wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) has suggested that estrous females produce copulation calls to avoid monopolization by single males and to minimize competition from other females. We here extended these findings by investigating to what degree these social demands were reflected in the calls’ acoustic structure. We recorded and acoustically analyzed 71 copulation call bouts from 6 adult female chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest, Uganda. We did not find any acoustic differences in calls given by females in fertile and nonfertile periods, as assessed by their hormonal profiles. However, the calls’ acoustic structure did reliably encode identity cues of the calling female. We propose that, in chimpanzees, the use and morphology of copulation calls have jointly been shaped by the selective advantage of concealing fertility. Owing to the low visibility conditions associated with chimpanzees’ natural forest habitat and their dispersed social system, providing identity cues may be of particular biological relevance for these nonhuman primates.

Bloodhound Anti-poaching Dogs for Virunga - March 2011

The Virunga National Park facebook page has a great album and information on their new bloodhound anti-poaching dogs. Go HERE to see the gallery and read more.

From the site:

These are photos of the first few weeks with our new bloodhound dogs.

The first week, world-renowned bloodhound trainer, Dr. Marlene Zähner, and Robert Williams escorted the six dogs to Congo. They stayed a week to help get the dogs settled, and Marlene worked with the new dog handlers, teaching them everything she could in a week about caring for dogs and training them how to control a dog on a walk in the forest.

A week after they left, Stella, one of the 3-month old dogs, got sick. She was examined by a vet and put on antibiotics with care instructions. She seemed to get better but not well over the next week, and exactly one week later, she crashed. Although we still don't know what it was, it showed signs of possible pneumonia and it seemed that her lungs were filling with liquid and she struggled to breathe. She refused to lie down because she couldn't breathe, even though she was so exhausted she literally fell asleep in the sitting position and fell over several times. Dr. Jan Ramer from Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) rushed over from Rwanda and administered some drugs that helped to release the liquid in her lungs and she survived the night. She now seems mostly recovered to our great relief. Stella has become a favorite with her sweet disposition, and we are grateful she survived and to all who cared for her - the handlers and Dr. Jan in particular, with lots of email and phone advice from Marlene in Switzerland.

These dogs will be trained by Marlene for anti-poaching. It's an important program and will take time with on-going expenses for care and training. If you would like to assist in this program, you can donate on the blog toward monthly for the expenses or with one-time gifts. Go here and find the item on the right side of the blog to contribute. Thank you for your support!

http://gorillacd.org/blog/

Ngogo blog alert: las aventuras de don ernesto

"Don Ernesto" is a research assistant at the Ngogo chimpanzee field site in Kibale National Park, Uganda. He has a very fun blog full of gorgeous photos and funny anecdotes from his time in and around Ngogo. Thanks to Carol RL for the link! - MA

las aventuras de don ernesto blog

Dr. Langergraber’s kids. You can’t tell from the smiling faces in

this photo but Kip just kicked all their asses at soccer.

New MPI Primatology Book: Among African Apes Stories and Photos from the Field

Among African Apes
Stories and Photos from the Field
Edited by Martha M. Robbins, and Christophe Boesch

Description:
These compelling stories and photographs take us to places like Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, Ivindo National Park in Gabon, and the Taï National Park in Côte d’Ivoire for an intimate and revealing look at the lives of African wild apes—and at the lives of the humans who study them. In tales of adventure, research, and conservation, veteran field researchers and conservationists describe exciting discoveries made over the past few decades about chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. The book features vivid descriptions of interactions among these highly intelligent creatures as they hunt, socialize, and play. More difficult themes emerge as well, including the threats apes face from poaching, disease, and deforestation. In stories that are often moving and highly personal, this book takes measure of how special the great apes are and discusses positive conservation efforts, including ecotourism, that can help bring these magnificent animals back from the brink of extinction.

Contents:
1. Discovering Apes - Martha M. Robbins
2. Life and Death in the Forest - Christophe Boesch
3. Encounters with Bili Chimpanzees in the Undisturbed Gangu Forest - Cleve Hicks
4. Is Blood Thicker Than Water? - Gottfried Hohmann and Barbara Fruth
5. Our Cousins in the Forest—or Bushmeat? - Christophe Boesch
6. Discovering Chimpanzee Traditions - Crickette Sanz and David Morgan
7. Keeping it in the Family: Tribal Warfare between Chimpanzee Communities - Josephine Head
8. Winona’s Search for the Right Silverback: Insights into Female Strategies at a Natural Rain Forest Clearing in Northern Congo - Thomas Breuer
9. The Long Road to Habituation: A Window into the Lives of Gorillas - Chloé Cipolletta
10. Among Silverbacks - Martha M. Robbins
11. The Diversity of the Apes: What Is the Future? - Christophe Boesch

"Some of the most devoted primatologists offer a wonderful collection of first-hand accounts and splendid photographs that make us feel like we're beside them watching our relatives in the forest."

-Frans de Waal, author of Our Inner Ape and Chimpanzee Politics

Click here to go to buy it and find out more

Kassiisi Proidge Project - short and long term development and education planning

Check out the Kassiisi Porridge Project operating in two schools in Western Uganda. The project provides over 1500 school children with a mug of porridge every day (the mugs are paid for by the community) since many of these children are going to school, and spending the day, on an empty stomach. The project has also recently acquired several acres of farm land so that feeding the children can become a self-sustaining project. Furthermore, the project also has a partnership with the Jane Goodall Instititute's Roots & Shoots to plant trees to prevent forest loss. Seems like all the bases are covered to me!
Do you remember what is was like being a teenager? I recall pervasive hunger and sleepiness, these kids are going to school and aren't eating at all! Please consider supporting the Kassiisi Porridge Project by donating here - MA

From the Kassiisi Porridge Project website:
Why Porridge?

We decided that a daily meal of porridge would be the best choice, both nutritionally and economically.

Whilst most of the children are currently receiving maize flour porridge, we are supporting the trialling of an innovative school food, developed by Florence Muranga, Professor of Nutrition at Makerere University, in Kampala. The study is being carried out by her PhD student, Miriam Kanyago.
Three groups will be fed banana flour porridge - each with different nutrients added - with those eating maize flour porridge as a control group.
A range of data will then be looked at to demonstrate the impact of the different foods on variables such as the children's health, their level of absenteeism and their school achievement.

also, banana porridge is:

o easily stored

o can be quickly reconstituted – and is therefore an instant porridge

o makes an ideal base for enriching with minerals, protein and vitamins

o an indigenous plant, a local staple, and its production will generate income for the community.

Thanks to Adrian B for the link!

Elephant poaching in Semliki Wildlife Reserve, Uganda...

From New Vision Online via the Far Horizons Facebook Page
Elephants killed in Semliki wildlife reserve
BY GERALD TENYWA

Two elephants have been killed in Toro-Semliki wildlife reserve in western Uganda by poachers who crossed over from the Congo.

Sources said one of the poachers was intercepted with elephant ivory and was being held by the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces. The sources added that the elephants were butchered on Wednesday and the carcasses were discovered the following day.

“It is unusual for poachers to cross over from the DR Congo and kill endangered species undetected,” the source said. In a separate interview, John Makombo, the acting head of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), said the poacher who is being held is a Ugandan from Ntoroko and not a Congolese.

“UWA is working with security operatives to identify the ownership of the gun recovered from the poacher,” he said. “It is possible that he was working for someone from Congo which has a porous border. Many poachers prefer working in Congo and use Uganda as a trafficking route.”

He also said UWA will share information with a watchdog called the Monitoring of the Illegal Killing of Elephants and the Lusaka Task Agreement Force, which polices wildlife crime. Uganda has 5,000 elephants and the number is increasing after the population had slumped in the 1970s due to political and civil unrest.

Poachers killed a lot of wildlife including elephants, which are key tourist attractions. The black and white rhinos were driven into extinction.

Elephants are categorised as endangered species, according to the World Conservation Union, meaning that they are likely to disappear if nothing is done to protect them and their habitats. Locally, a kilo of ivory goes for sh120,000 [~ $50 US dollars]. The value in the Far East is about $600.

Although last week’s incident is the first case of killing elephants in Semliki, elephants in Queen Elizabeth National Park cross over to Congo.

“This is an ecological system and that is why Uganda and the DR Congo collaborate in managing the animals,” said Okello Obongo, the chief park warden.

“Large mammals do not know boundaries and the most important thing is to protect them irrespective of where they are,” said Obongo.

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The Far Horizons posted the following statement today:
"We condemn the recent poaching of elephants in Semiliki Valley Wildlife Reserve, and support the quick action taken by Uganda's armed forces to apprehend the poachers and recover the ivory. Poaching in East Africa has seen a sharp increase in the last two years and we will be looking to support efforts to counter the l...ooming threat posed by the influx of so called "investors" that are fuelling the trade."

chimpanzee culture: now featuring back scratchers

From livescience.com
Cultured Chimps Invent and Share Back-Scratching Tool
By CHARLES Q CHOI

By learning an utterly superfluous technique for scratching their backs, wild chimpanzees are displaying even more evidence that humanity's closest living relatives are capable of what might be deemed culture.

In recent years, researchers have accumulated many examples of chimpanzees apparently learning relatively complex ideas that get passed down over generations much like in human cultures. For instance, chimps in the wild have developed a variety of specialized tool kits for foraging army ants that differ across regions.

Still, not all scientists are convinced the apes can learn practices by mimicking their companions, at least not in the wild. Instead, one could argue that generations of chimps might either instinctively know or independently figure out techniques for accomplishing certain tasks, a process that might resemble the learning by imitation seen in humans.

The new evidence that chimpanzees are indeed capable of "monkey see, monkey do" came from the Sonso chimp community in Uganda.

"I would sometimes spend days trying to find the chimps and then they might travel through everything from muddy swamps and thick undergrowth to colonies of army ants before there'd be a good chance to film them," said researcher Catherine Hobaiter, a primatologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "But then, when you do get to observe them in their natural habitat, it's an incredibly rewarding experience, and you completely forget about the fact you're sitting in the mud with ants in your socks!"

One chimpanzee there was named Tinka, a roughly 50-year-old male who had near-total paralysis in both hands. Until recently, Sonso chimpanzees would encounter large numbers of snares intended for bush pigs and kinds of antelopes known as duiker, leading one-in-three adult chimps in the community to have permanent disabilities.

To compensate for his paralysis, Tinka invented a new way to groom himself using a liana, or woody vine. Imagine using a towel on your back, except in this case, rather than moving the towel, Tinka held the liana taut with his feet and moved his body against it. [Watch video of Tinka using his invention.]

"It's always sad to see chimpanzees with these debilitating injuries," Hobaiter said. "On the other hand, it was incredible to see just how individuals such as Tinka were able to innovate new techniques in order to overcome these disadvantages."

Other chimps follow suit
Scientists then video-recorded seven perfectly healthy, able-bodied wild young chimps ages 4 to 13 who shared Tinka's home range. The videos revealed the chimpanzees mimicking Tinka's backscratching technique, even though they could just as readily have groomed themselves with their hands, as chimpanzees normally do. This suggested the apes learned this novel, distinct practice through imitation.

"Copying behavior that has no function is one of the classic characteristics of human imitation," Hobaiter said. "To see that in wild chimps was incredibly exciting."

The capability to imitate an organized sequence of action was something that had been argued to be a uniquely human trait.

"The fact that we are able to show that wild chimpanzees have the ability to learn new behavioral routines through imitation is not only relevant to how they might be able to acquire complex technical skills such as food processing, for example nut-cracking, but it also suggests that this cognitive capacity evolved earlier than previously supposed -- at least as far back as our last common ancestor," Hobaiter told LiveScience.

The scientists detailed their findings online Aug. 5 in the journal PLoS ONE.

--
Reference
Hobaiter C, Byrne RW (2010) Able-Bodied Wild Chimpanzees Imitate a Motor Procedure Used by a Disabled Individual to Overcome Handicap. PLoS ONE 5(8): e11959. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011959

Abstract
Chimpanzee culture has generated intense recent interest, fueled by the technical complexity of chimpanzee tool-using traditions; yet it is seriously doubted whether chimpanzees are able to learn motor procedures by imitation under natural conditions. Here we take advantage of an unusual chimpanzee population as a ‘natural experiment’ to identify evidence for imitative learning of this kind in wild chimpanzees. The Sonso chimpanzee community has suffered from high levels of snare injury and now has several manually disabled members. Adult male Tinka, with near-total paralysis of both hands, compensates inability to scratch his back manually by employing a distinctive technique of holding a growing liana taut while making side-to-side body movements against it. We found that seven able-bodied young chimpanzees also used this ‘liana-scratch’ technique, although they had no need to. The distribution of the liana-scratch technique was statistically associated with individuals' range overlap with Tinka and the extent of time they spent in parties with him, confirming that the technique is acquired by social learning. The motivation for able-bodied chimpanzees copying his variant is unknown, but the fact that they do is evidence that the imitative learning of motor procedures from others is a natural trait of wild chimpanzees.

Female chimps build up alpha male's ego by dissing subordinates

From the BBC
Chatting chimps 'socially aware'
By MATT WALKER

Chimpanzees are aware of the social impact of their communications, primatologists have discovered. Chimps communicate using a variety of calls and gestures, including making vocalisations known as pant grunts, which signal subordination. But researchers have found that chimps will change what they "say" depending on who is listening. That reveals a previously unrecognised social awareness that has implications for the origin of human language. Details of the discovery are published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

PhD student Ms Marion Laporte of the University of St Andrews in Fife, UK studied a population of chimps living in the Sonso community of Budongo Forest in Uganda. The Sonso chimpanzees have been followed by researchers without interruption since 1990. Together with Professor Klaus Zuberbuhler of the University of St Andrews, Ms Laporte recorded how often, and in what context, the chimps communicated with one another using the pant grunt vocalisation (go to original article to watch/hear video).

Chimpanzees produce four basic call types: grunts, barks, screams and hoots. "However, there is considerable acoustic variation within these four call types, which makes them difficult to study," says Prof Zuberbuhler. "Our research is beginning to show that much of this variation is closely linked with different external events and therefore very meaningful to others."

Chimps specifically use the pant grunt to signal they are subordinate to another ape. A higher ranking group member will never use it in front of a lower ranking member of the group. "Because of this, they were thought to be rigid expressions of rank relations," says Prof Zuberbuhler. "Our study shows this is not true. Callers exhibit a high degree of social awareness when producing these signals."

Ms Laporte and Prof Zuberbuhler's research, partly funded by the UK's Edinburgh Zoo, documented all the times when subordinate female chimps did, and more important, did not not make a pant grunt vocalisation when meeting a higher ranked chimp. Then then analysed the data to understand when and why the chimps communicate this way. The researchers found that female chimps modify their use of the pant grunt signal depending on which other chimps are listening. If the alpha male was in earshot, the female chimps often refused to greet another male. The presence of the alpha female also inhibited lower ranking chimps from communicating.

The researchers do not yet know exactly why the chimps stop calling in certain social situations. One idea is that they stop deferring to other males in the presence of the alpha male to ensure he does not become aggressive. A more provocative suggestion, say the researchers, is that females may allocate their pant grunts strategically, to help their favourite males climb the social ladder, though this idea remains speculation.

"Pant grunts are very special vocalisations in the chimpanzee repertoire because they are directed at specific individuals," says Ms Laporte. "And still, surrounding individuals seem to be taken into account before producing this vocalisation." Prof Zuberbuhler agrees: "What we found was a surprisingly high awareness of the potential social consequences of calling, something that has not been shown so far in any non-human primate," he told the BBC.

The finding that at least one species of great ape is socially aware in this way may have implications for our understanding of how our own language evolved. "When humans communicate they mainly want to be understood," explains Prof Zuberbuhler. "Monitoring the effects of one's own communication signals on the audience is a key component in this process. "The current study shows that chimpanzees do the same, thus revealing some of the evolutionary roots of a key capacity required for language in our closest living relative. "Our common ancestor which lived some six million years ago must have been able to do the same."

NYTimes interview with Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods

From the NYTimes.com
Why Bonobos Don’t Kill Each Other
By CLAUDIA DREIFUS

Brian Hare, an assistant professor at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences at Duke University, and Vanessa Woods, a research scientist in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke, do comparative studies on the cognitive development of bonobo apes, chimpanzees and humans. Ms. Woods, 33, a former journalist from Australia, has just published a book about their marriage and work, "Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo." We spoke last month after they had appeared at the World Science Festival in New York City. An edited version of the conversation follows:

Q. VANESSA, YOU’RE NOT A TRAINED PRIMATOLOGIST. HOW DID YOU COME TO WORK WITH BONOBOS?
Vanessa: By a series of happy accidents. For much of my 20s, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. So I went to Africa and did a little of everything. I worked with chimpanzees for a bit and then I did a little bit of filming and I worked a bit on children’s books. When I met Brian in 2004, I was 27 and volunteering at a chimp sanctuary in Uganda. Brian was testing the chimpanzees’ capacity for cooperation and sharing. Then Brian got invited to the Congo to perform the same experiments on bonobos, our other close ape relations. Would I come along as a helpmate? I hated the idea. My mother, the world’s biggest feminist, always said, “Never follow a man — do your own thing.” I knew almost nothing about bonobos. I thought: “Aren’t those the apes that have a lot of sex?”

Brian: That’s what most people know about bonobos: they have a lot of sex. That’s not what’s interesting about them. The No. 1 reason they are interesting is that they don’t kill each other. The question I was in Africa chasing was: why will a chimp get into a severe fight with another — perhaps kill or maim it — while a bonobo, in the same situation, won’t? I’m basically an anthropologist. And in looking at the psychological and social propensities of our close relatives, learning about their differences in behavior, maybe we’ll be able to make some inferences about what happened during human evolution.

Q. WHAT KINDS OF EXPERIMENTS DID YOU DO?
Brian: The type of experiments that developmental psychologists try on human subjects to see how they’d behave in certain situations. With the apes, I designed tests and games where they could obtain treats — apples, bananas — if they engaged in acts of cooperation. The chimps, it turned out, would only cooperate if they were teamed up with others of equal status. If you put them with subordinate or superior status chimps, they became intolerant. When you had equal-status chimps together on a test, they were able to solve conflicts of interest, negotiate successfully and recruit collaborators. But when we changed one simple thing, we’d crush their ability to cooperate. We took separate piles of treats and combined them into one. Immediately, the chimpanzees started competing with each other and all cooperation fell apart. Later, when we were in the Congo, we posed the same question to the bonobos. The piles of food were merged. No problem. Everyone shared.
My doctoral thesis adviser at Harvard, Richard Wrangham, thinks this may be because chimpanzees evolved in a situation of food scarcity while bonobos developed in the giant salad bowl of the Congo basin where there was abundance.

Vanessa: Another thing: bonobos are matriarchal. If it’s usual for female chimps to get pushed around and battered by males, bonobo females run things. Once, while in the Congo, I witnessed Tatango, this young male bonobo, start to do what the chimps in Uganda regularly did: he went up to the alpha female, Mimi, and backhanded her across the face. She gave him the most withering look. Within seconds, five unrelated females chased him into the forest. Poor guy. They almost took his testicles off. After that, he never made another problem. Bonobo females seem to know that if they stick together, the males can’t dominate. Brian’s gender was actually a problem when we first arrived in the Congo. He walked right up to the bonobos, did all these loud displays, which usually fascinates chimpanzees and makes them want to play with you. The male bonobos were terrified of Brian and the female ones would have nothing to do with him. I had to run the experiments because they seemed to accept me more easily. Once that became clear, my role became larger than that of a “helpmate.” With time, the work became mine, too.

Q. WHERE EXACTLY DID YOU PERFORM THESE EXPERIMENTS? I’M UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT BONOBOS ARE DIFFICULT TO RESEARCH BECAUSE THEIR HABITAT IS IN THE WILDS OF THE CENTRAL AFRICAN RAIN FOREST.
Brian: Well, we went to the semiwild. There’s this amazing conservationist, Claudine Andre, who founded a sanctuary in Kinshasa for bonobos orphaned by the bush meat trade. She’d convinced the Congolese to let her use this 100-acre wood with lily ponds and forests that once had been a bucolic retreat for Mobutu Sese Seko. Working with the orphans in the sanctuary, they were much more like wild animals than the captive bonobos one might study at a zoo. They were obviously much easier to see and interact with than animals in the forest.

Q. HAVE YOU FOUND ANSWERS TO THE SCIENTIFIC QUESTIONS YOU’VE BEEN ASKING?
Brian: Tentative answers. The research is ongoing. Some of the differences between chimps and bonobos have to do with what happens to them during their development. Essentially bonobos and chimps have similar behaviors as youngsters. Like bonobos, juvenile chimps are very tolerant, peaceful. When they go through puberty, they change. So what happens to adolescent bonobos? Nothing! They don’t change. Their levels of play, their levels of sharing and sex, it all keeps going. They are Peter Pans.

Q. HOW ENDANGERED ARE BONOBOS?
Vanessa: Very. There are probably about 10,000 remaining in the wild. Nobody really knows. It’s hard to get in there and count them all. There’s very little agriculture in the Congo. And a lot of hunting. Bush meat is how people get their protein. And unfortunately, bonobos are really prized meat for hunters because they live in communities. If you’ve found one, you’ve found thirty that you can shoot and kill all at the same time. Of course, bonobos aren’t the answer to feeding the Congolese people. There are 68 million Congolese and 10,000 bonobos. The people need aid, some kind of agricultural program so that the farming becomes sustainable, and peace.

Much success!: INTERPOL's 'Operation Mogatle' seizes 400 kilo of ivory and rhino horn

Ivory seized during Operation Mogatle

From Interpol.int
llegal ivory and rhino horn trade target of INTERPOL co-ordinated operation across southern Africa

A transnational operation co-ordinated by INTERPOL targeting wildlife crime across southern Africa has resulted in the location and closure of an illegal ivory factory, the seizure of nearly 400 kilos of ivory and rhino horn with a market value of more than one million dollars, as well as the arrest of 41 people.

The two-day operation (13-14 May), codenamed Mogatle, involved nearly 200 officers from police, national wildlife, customs and national intelligence agencies across six countries – Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe – who carried out inspections and raids on markets and shops.

Checks were also made on suspect vehicles at border crossing points where for the first time in a wildlife crime operation, sniffer dogs provided by South African and Swaziland police were used at check points at the Mozambique/Swaziland border.

“The success of Operation Mogatle is not only in relation to the seizures and arrests which have been made, but is a demonstration of the commitment of national and international law enforcement and other involved agencies to working together to combat wildlife crime,” said Peter Younger, manager of INTERPOL’s OASIS (Operational Assistance, Services and Infrastructure Support) Africa wildlife crime programme.

“Taking these illegal items off the market is just the first step,” added Mr Younger. “Information gathered as part of this operation will also enable law enforcement, both in Africa and abroad, to identify smuggling routes and eventually to further arrests of other individuals involved in these crimes.

“The impact of wildlife crime is wide-ranging. People are threatened with violence, law enforcement officers have been killed while carrying out their duties, and there is the wider economic impact on a country and therefore the livelihoods of ordinary people.”

Supported by INTERPOL’s National Central Bureaus and INTERPOL’s Regional Bureau in Harare, Operation Mogatle was co-ordinated by INTERPOL’s OASIS Africa initiative, which is funded by the German Federal Government. Additional support and funding was also provided for the operation by the Humane Society of Canada and the Born Free Foundation.

INTERPOL’s OASIS programme helps countries in Africa develop a global and integrated approach to fighting 21st century crime by building operational capacities for policing in the region and enhancing the ability of INTERPOL member countries to tackle crime threats nationally, regionally and globally.

Operation Mogatle - named in honour of the late Professor Keitirangi Mogatle, assistant director of the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks and principle motivator behind effective wildlife law enforcement in Botswana – was the third multi-agency wildlife operation co-ordinated by INTERPOL.

The first, Operation Baba (November 2008) resulted in the arrests of nearly 60 people and the seizure of one ton of illegal elephant ivory following co-ordinated actions in Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.

The second, Operation Costa (November 2009) across Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, led to the arrest of more than100 people and the recovery of 1.5 tons of ivory and hundreds of other illegal wildlife items.

Thanks to Boo M. for the link!

Book Review: Vanessa Woods' Bonobo Handshake

From pbs.org
What We're Reading: Bonobo Handshake
By Susan K Lewis

The beautiful woman on the book jacket cavorting with a baby bonobo might make Bonobo Handshake look like family-friendly fare. But primatologist Vanessa Woods' powerful new memoir is no Curious George (unless you can imagine The Man in the Yellow Hat swept up in a passionate romance and living with endangered apes in war-torn Congo).

I came across Woods' book in the course of doing research for an upcoming NOVA scienceNOW website on animal cognition, and it is indeed a window into the emotions and psychology of our nearest primate relatives, bonobos and chimps. But more than that it's a revealing look into the mind and heart of a young woman finding her way as a scientist and a conservationist.

The book is an appealing read even for people not usually drawn to science (hardcore science fans might, in fact, be turned off by the personal drama) and an eye-opening reality check for anyone interested in doing research with primates. I would love for my own young daughters to read it someday, but not much about this book is G-rated.

Let's start with the title. What, exactly, is a "bonobo handshake"? Here's a hint: "Kikongo ... sticks his penis through the bars, waving it wildly at the bonobos outside munching on papaya and manioc leaves, begging for a bonobo handshake." It turns out that when bonobos greet one another--even strangers from another troop--they are as likely to rub each other's genitals as we humans are to shake hands. (In contrast, when chimps encounter unfamiliar chimps, they often react with murderous rage.) As the primatologist Frans de Waal famously puts it, bonobos are the "make-love-not-war" primate.

Sex among bonobos is less about procreation than recreation--it's the means for resolving conflicts when tensions flare; it's the glue that holds social groups together. And while bonobo sex resembles a hippie lovefest, the sex life of chimps is more like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. What makes chimps and bonobos so different? And which of our primate cousins are we humans more like?
Woods offers a personal glimpse into the studies exploring the cognitive differences between chimps and bonobos (some of which are covered in NOVA's "Ape Genius.") She got involved in the research after visiting a chimp sanctuary in Uganda in 2005, where she fell in love with a charming post-doc fresh out of Harvard named Brian Hare. Hare is now an assistant professor at Duke as well as Woods' husband.

Woods' book raises but wisely doesn't attempt to definitively answer the question of whether we are more bonobo than chimp. The backdrop of her love affair--both with Hare and with the orphan bonobos of the Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary--is a country wracked by a war in which children are recruited to take up machetes and rape is a favorite weapon.

Unlike our simian cousins, however, we humans may have more control over which of our emotional sides to favor--the altruistic or the vicious. And many of the resilient characters Woods encounters in the Congo give us reason to hope: Through her, we meet a remarkable man named Mugwagu, who has survived the squalor of refugee camps with dreams of becoming a doctor, and a gutsy conservationist named Claudine Andre, who has turned the former weekend retreat of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko into a refuge for bonobos and people alike.

"Extreme cold and rainy conditions" suspected as cause of 4 mountain gorilla deaths

From WWF
Four gorillas die in Volcanoes National Park

WWF is saddened by the death of four mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park. The mother and three infant gorillas were part of an estimated 380 members of the highly endangered Virunga mountain gorilla population.

On Sunday, May 16, trackers from the Karisoke Research Centre visiting the Pablo group reported they had found a dead female and her baby—Mutesi— alive but very weak. As the trackers went to find the rest of the group they then discovered another dead baby gorilla. Fortunately, the second baby’s mother was found a day later with no signs of illness.

The trackers immediately alerted the Rwandan Development Board which mobilized veterinarians to try and save the ailing baby Mutesi. In the quickly fading daylight, the veterinarians decided to move towards the park to link up with the trackers. Their valiant efforts to administer antibiotics and warm her up were futile. Baby Mutesi was hardly breathing; she died about two hours later.

“Each baby mountain gorilla is a source of great hope and is monitored very closely,” says Eugene Rutagarama, Director of the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation, Fauna & Flora International, and W WF. “We are all shocked and saddened by the death of these baby gorillas as well as the adult female, and by the grave implications for the mountain gorilla population as a whole.”

Cause of deaths unknown at this time
While the cause of death has yet to be determined, the gorillas are thought to have died because of the extreme cold and rainy conditions. The gorillas’ current range is high on Mt. Karisimbi, and at high altitude it will be even colder. There are no signs of foul-play. However, all the dead gorillas were taken to the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project laboratory for necropsy in order to determine the possible causes of the deaths.

There only about 680 mountain gorillas in the wild making them one of the world’s most highly endangered great apes.

About half the population lives in the Virunga Volcanoes, a chain of active and inactive volcanoes that straddles the borders of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The other half lives in Bwindi Impenetrable Park in Uganda.

Since the four dead gorillas were discovered, the Rwanda Development Board and Karisoke Research Centre staff have identified all other gorilla groups in Volcanoes National Park to confirm that there have been no further casualties.

“We can thankfully report that for all other research and tourism gorilla groups all individuals were identified,” says Maryke Gray, IGCP’s technical advisor. “There were no missing gorillas and no gorillas were found to have serious health problems.”

Results of latest census may provide hope for the future
The news of the gorilla deaths is casting a pall over enthusiasm being generated by a mountain gorilla census being conducted across the Virunga Volcanoes. Facilitated by IGCP and funded by WWF, a team of 80 park officials and other experts over two months collected data on gorilla activity as well as faecal samples for genetic analysis and health.

The results are now being analyzed and are expected to be released in October 2010. The last census of mountain gorillas in the Virunga Volcanoes, conducted in 2003, revealed the population had increased 17 percent since the previous census in 1989. Conservationists are hoping to see another rise this time around.

Related link: Virunga mountain gorila census to begin

Virunga Mountain Gorila Census to begin - Genetic samples to be collected for entire population

From the New Times.co.rw
Rwanda: Census of Mountain Gorillas Begins Next Month
by Irene V. Nambi

As an effort to strengthen conservation of the mountain gorillas, Rwanda will join neighbouring countries and partners to make an accurate count of the total gorilla population in the Virunga Volcanoes.

According to a statement from the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), Rwanda will collaborate with Uganda's Wildlife and National Park Authorities as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to conduct the census slated to begin March 1 and end in April.

The count will also help determine the genetic variability and health status of the gorilla population as well as measure the effects of the recent history of conflict in the region on such a small population of critically endangered animals.

"Though the area is now relatively calm, recent conflicts in the Mikeno sector of Virunga National Park in the DRC has left the gorillas there vulnerable," the statement adds.

According to Eugene Rutagarama, the director of IGCP, which is also a partner in the exercise, the census will enable partner-states to assess the impact of conservation efforts carried out by all gorilla conservation stakeholders.

"We are hoping that the census will confirm a continuous increase of the mountain gorilla population and guide us on how we can further contribute to the growth of this still endangered population," Rutagarama is quoted as saying.

The exercise is supported by the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (a coalition of AWF, WWF and FFI), the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Virunga Volcanoes is one of only two habitats where mountain gorillas live, whose total numbers are currently estimated at 680 individuals.

The last Virunga Volcanoes census that was done in 2003 resulted in an estimate of 380 individuals, with the remaining individuals living in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park of Uganda.

Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill Threatens Human Rights

Please visit the care2 petition site and consider signing the petition against Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill.
The site states:

There is a dangerous proposal that threatens the human rights of LGBT people in Uganda.

If passed, Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill would start a witch-hunt for homosexuals in the country. Its punishments include:

• A 7 year jail sentence for consenting adults who have LGBT sex
• A life sentence for people in same-sex marriages
• Extradition and prosecution of LGBT Ugandans living abroad
• The death penalty for adults who have LGBT sex with minors or who communicate HIV via LGBT sex, regardless of condom usage
• Jail for anyone who doesn't report suspected LGBT activity within 24 hours

The bill also endangers HIV/AIDS programs, and may be exploited by those wanting to abolish these programs.

This proposed legislation is anti-ethical, anti-equality and anti-human rights. Tell Uganda's President Museveni that this bill is unacceptable, and that people should not be criminalized for sexual orientation or gender identity.

For a good overview of the issue please see TIME magazine's article "Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill: Inspired by the U.S."

Please go the petition site and consider signing!

Jiko stoves can save gorilla lives!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR THIS PROJECT TO WIN THE WORLD CHALLENGE 2009

Stoves for Survival ( from the world challenge website)

The endangered Mountain Gorilla population is getting a helping hand from a fuel-efficient ‘Jiko’ stove.

“Charcoal is a commodity that everybody needs, especially poor households, because there’s nothing else, and unfortunately 90% of Charcoal being used in Goma and Rwanda comes from Virunga National Park” Emmanuel de Merode, Virunga National Park

There are only 380 the Mountain Gorillas left in Central Africa, and their habitat is shrinking fast: one of their last refuges is Virunga National Park, but the Park and surrounding areas are rapidly losing their forest cover. The wood is used to supply towns like Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- swelled by a refugee population -- with charcoal for cooking. To lessen the demand for charcoal, fuel efficient stoves are being manufactured locally and given to the people. It’s all part of a new approach to conservation which aims to show that conservation can benefit the poor as much as wildlife.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR THIS PROJECT TO WIN THE WORLD CHALLENGE 2009

Very Important Scientist of the Month - Katja Guschanski

In this week's issue of current biology, Katja Guschanski, Damien Caillaud, Martha Robbins and Linda Vigilant from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, present their work on how females are shaping the genetic structure of the Bwindi Mountain gorillas.

Females Shape the Genetic Structure of a Gorilla Population

Katerina Guschanski, Damien Caillaud, Martha M. Robbins and Linda Vigilant

SUMMARY: Dispersal, one of the key life-history features of a species, influences gene flow and, consequently, the genetic structuring of populations. Landscape characteristics such as rivers, mountains, or habitat fragmentation affect dispersal and result in broad-scale genetic structuring of various mammalian species. However, less attention has been paid to studying how dispersal is influenced by finer-scale microgeographic variation in a continuous habitat. Here we investigate the genetic structure of a closed population of ~300 endangered mountain gorillas living in multiple groups in a small (331 km²) forest in southwestern Uganda. In a species in which both sexes routinely disperse, population genetic structure in females was influenced by distance, altitude, and plant community composition, whereas males were not geographically structured. The effect of distance fits the observed tendency of females to transfer to neighboring groups, whereas the effects of altitude and vegetation reflect the changing species composition of locally available food resources. These results suggest that individual dietary preferences are important even in a highly mobile species living amid abundant food, and we propose that preference for natal habitats will influence dispersal decisions in many other vertebrate taxa.

click here for current biology paper