We arrived in Kibale National Park in the rain, surrounded by thick green jungle. We sat under thatched roofs and drank an array of mediocre beverages (the watermelon juice, tea and coffee all tasted mostly like water). We hoped the rain would subside in time for our chimpanzee trek the next day.
We got to the ranger station early the next morning where we were split into groups of 6, matched with a guide, and sent in search of the chimps. We were the only people without a tour company car so we set off on foot while everyone else drove. Turned out to be a fortunate accident, as we spotted a group of 20 chimpanzees about an hour into our walk.
Their humanness was overwhelming.
We got to the ranger station early the next morning where we were split into groups of 6, matched with a guide, and sent in search of the chimps. We were the only people without a tour company car so we set off on foot while everyone else drove. Turned out to be a fortunate accident, as we spotted a group of 20 chimpanzees about an hour into our walk.
Their humanness was overwhelming.
Chimps share 98.7% of our DNA. They sleep when we sleep, they can eat what we eat, they hide from the rain like we do. This group including newborns, children and adults. We stood 5 feet away, watching them. The children swung from the branches - they would climb to the top of the vines, then slide down and hit the ground, only to do it all over again seconds later. Nearby a mother held her infant tight to her chest to nurse and a small child groomed an older male in an act of affection. Another chimp picked tics off another’s butt and ate them. Some of the older chimps laid on a big fat branch, sunning themselves warm after the rain.
Tom and Sue got too close to one chimp resting on the branches in the tree above them and he began shaking the branches so leaves would fall. When they still didn’t move, he jumped on a branch so it broke off and fell to the ground next to them. The warning was clear. We decided it was Tom, not Sue, that he was warning. I found an older male chimp off to the side and we locked eyes. We stared straight at each other and I held his gaze. He was pleading to me, “Help! Get me out of this costume!”
Everyone talks about how similar we are to chimps. But I’d like to note that we really aren't all that similar. We don’t swing from trees. We don’t root around in each other’s hair, grooming each other and digging for bugs. Twenty percent of our diet isn’t comprised of insects (though perhaps it should be, and perhaps it will be in a few decades). And maybe we haven’t entirely diverged yet, but we’re at least in the process of defeating our alpha male domination.
