(Yeah, yeah, I know, I should write more often, but I getting very lazy,
my English is getting worse and so do my writing skills…nothing last
long in the jungle, my friend, very high turnover rates. Well, here we go…)
Darkness starts early in the jungle, way before the sunset. Around
16h30-17h there is a sudden switch in noises; the bonobos search for a
place to build their nests while the galagos jump out of their holes and
begin to stretchpreparing themselves to forage under the stars. Below
the canopy the absence of light is almost complete around 17h30, time
when, if we are lucky and the bonobos have decided to go to sleep, we
are heading back to camp.
Such was the situation some days ago, when my boss and I had nested a
small party far south of the home range and 9km separated us from our
bucket shower and our 60% manioc dinner. 2h walking, a couple icy water
cups poured on our bodies and some beans, kwanga and mpondu later, we
were ready to sleep 5h before coming back to the nest site. Oats, powder
milk, bananas, instant coffee and ready to go.
The night before we managed to follow two adult females until they built
they nests, so around 5h, we were ready below them to collect the early
morning urine. In my case, mine made me wait for an hour, before she
finally peed and I could try to catch a fair amount in a Haumania
leaf…which I had to discard because she also shited on it…evil primates…
Then all the individuals started to go out of their nests, and looked
around, apparently without much idea of what to do. While Ben, one of
the adult males, started dragging branches all over the place, I spotted
Zed, a subadult male whom I was gonna focal the whole morning. After
some time resting on the ground, the party started moving towards the
first feeding tree of the day, but Zed had other plans and went to find
his own bopfumo (a tree of the Tiliaceae family with tasty sour red
fruit, a member of the genus Grewia). Nina, an adult female decided to
follow him and had a couple of copulations before started feeding. The
rest of the party didn't take long to join them. While some females gged
(genitor-genital rubbings, version bonoba de la tijera, vamos), Zed
looked for a good spot in which Ben, his brother, let him alone. Uma,
another adult female, after displace him a couple of times, decided to
groom him briefly. So much activity! I thought. For most of the male
bonobos, an average day is pretty solitary, often in the periphery and
with no much social interactions, but of course, depends on the male,
the party among other variables.
After a good breakfast, the bonobos decided to go to a nice clearance
made by a fallen tree and groom for a couple of hours. While Zed and his
mother gromed in the company of the other adults, I enjoyed watching at
intervals how is younger brother and a juvenile female played up and
down the trunk. At some point, the group vocalized and soon after, Rio,
another female of the community joined the party as started promptly to
be groom by Ben.
When the grooming bout was over, it was time to rest and pee, so we were
ready and alert to collect our precious samples. The shift was almost
over when the bonobos moved to another feeding tree and the hand over
came while Zed played with his younger brother close to their mother.
Time for the humans to go grooming, feeding and socialize.
