Anup Shah & Fiona Rogers
FACE to FACE
With the Great Apes
INTRODUCTION 7
EASTERN CHIMPANZEES 11
The struggle for power among the males
BONOBOS 33
Apes from another world
MOUNTAIN GORILLA 45
Buddhists in the forest
SUMATRAN ORANGUTANS 59
Changes in character and personality
EASTERN CHIMPANZEES 75
Variations in the female personality
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 172
THE AUTHORS 173
WESTERN LOWLAND GORILLAS 93
Makumba’s family
WESTERN CHIMPANZEES 109
Portraits of 12 individuals
BORNEO ORANGUTANS 125
Intelligence in the forest
EASTERN CHIMPANZEES 145
Early signs of character in the young
CONCLUSION 166
Lessons from apes
EASTERN CHIMPANZEES
THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER AMONG THE MALES
Following the end of the rainy season in late April, Gombe Forest was lush and green, the undergrowth thick and dark. We were back in Gombe for the tenth time, tracking and spending time with the chimpanzees. On the first day we took a familiar trail up a steep side of a river valley, and came across Ferdinand, the undisputed leader of the chimpanzee community. He was sitting on the trail ahead of us, and behind him we could just see a large group of chimpanzees. Ferdinand was feeding on a vine, stripping it with his teeth to get at the
soft, juicy flesh inside. He did a double take upon spotting us, but then relaxed and continued feeding. The other chimpanzees saw us too and momentarily acknowledged our presence. It felt nice to be recognized and then ignored.
The Kasekela Chimpanzee Community in Gombe National Park, situated on the eastern shore of the vast Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania, is world-famous, having been studied continuously since 1960. To get there we fly from London to Dar es Salaam, stay overnight, take a flight to Kigoma and from theare a boat to Gombe. Since we stay at a small, almost derelict cottage on the shores of Lake Tanganyika when in Gombe, we have to first spend a day in the town of Kigoma buying supplies, including drinking water.
FAUSTINO A 22-year-old male with an air of bravado about him; when he was an adolescent he had already started climbing the male hierarchy, aided by the presence of two high-ranking brothers, and was a potential leader-in-the-making with considerable status. Confident but moody, he could also be gentle and affectionate. The girls adored him.
When in the forest with the chimpanzees on this trip, we noticed that their behavior towards each of us was different. They clearly recognized our gender and adapted their behavior accordingly. When passing us on a trail, they gave me a wide berth, showing a little uncertainty, as
SAMPSON A 16-year-old male. When Sampson was very young his mother, Sandi, was extremely nervous about letting him mix socially. She eventually relented, however, and gradually he began to assert his independence, breaking away from his mother and beginning to roam with the other males. His is a coming-of-age story.
FUDGE A 17-year-old male and current leader, Fudge was downbeat and serious as a kid and hardly ever played. However, he grew in confidence and seemed very self-assured as an adult. He was adored by the kids, loved by females, and respected by the other males. We especially remember his fierce, penetrating stare.
FRODO A 34-year-old powerful former alpha male who became physically diminished when he was dethroned. Afterwards he interacted less with the males and more with the females and the young. In the end he was just a sick old man who suffered a lingering death.
FIZI A young male, just emerging from adolescence. He had pent-up energy which he spent charging around, but the adult females had seen this many times before and took no notice of his bravado.
MOUNTAIN GORILLA
BUDDHISTS IN THE FOREST
Our journey to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to photograph mountain gorillas started with a plane to Kigali Airport in neighboring Rwanda. From the airport, we travelled by car to the border town of Gisenyi. A few hours into our car journey, we rounded a long, descending curve and saw the Virunga Volcanoes reveal themselves one by one, shoulder to shoulder, from west to east, towering over the landscape like solemn sentinels. At the border, we left the car, crossed from Rwanda into the DRC on foot, and then got into another car and drove from the sprawl that is the city of Goma to our destination: Bukima Tented Camp, high up in the Virunga Mountains. The setting of the camp is breathtaking. On a clear night
we could see a dull red glow in the sky, as if the setting sun had decided not to set after all; this, in fact, was the pulsating glow of the red-hot lava pouring out from the active volcano Nyaragongo. During the day we had excellent views of Mount Mikeno, a dramatic 14,500-foot-tall volcano, with its sheer rock face like a raised granite spike. The landscape here makes you feel quite insignificant.
From 1958 to 1960, zoologist George Schaller and his wife Kay Morgan camped on the slope of Mikeno at a meadow called Kabara to study mountain gorillas, undertaking the very first academic study of these charismatic apes. They were followed here a few years later by Dian Fossey, an American novice who nevertheless carried out groundbreaking research before political instability forced her into a hurried departure from her study site; continued insurgency then compelled her to abandon the DRC project altogether and resume it in Rwanda.
NYAKAMWE A highly curious young female who would stare at us for long stretches of time.
Eight gorilla families accustomed to human visitors live in the DRC portion of the Virunga Mountains. When we were there, four were
HUMBA · JUVENILE A highly curious, independent and bold six-year-old male.
Jacki was a 16-year-old female who came across as being smart and devious – as someone who had the ability to work out how to get what she wanted.
JACKI
MINA An aggressive 34-year-old female who looked angry all the time and reminded us of a paranoid human.
EASTERN CHIMPANZEES
VARIATIONS IN THE FEMALE PERSONALITY
Quite quickly into our very first trip to Gombe National Park in Tanzania, set up to protect wild chimpanzees, both of us had become engrossed in the lives of these apes. They unintentionally draw you into their world, and we received the gift of their acceptance – on their terms of course. We were with them for a total of 12 months spread over six years, and acceptance meant that we were ignored, and being ignored meant we were no threat. Being with them, however, was hard work. There are trails through the forest, but the chimpanzees seldom use them for long. They go where fancy takes them,
SANDI A 37-year-old high-ranking female and the eldest surviving offspring of Sparrow. In her youth, Sandi was very close to her mother and quite nervous within large groups; as an adult, she came across as a quiet and competent personality and was an attentive mother herself.
moving easily through thick tangles of rich undergrowth. To keep up, we sometimes had to crawl on all fours, occasionally wriggling forward on our bellies. Thorns caught our clothes and hair and scratched our skin. Vines curled around our ankles, and as we struggled to pull free we would catch glimpses of fast-moving chimpanzee shapes vanishing ahead of us. At other times, when the going was just too tough, we had to try to anticipate where they were going and attempt to get there by more human-friendly routes. Sometimes we were lucky, at other times we got it completely wrong. It was all worth it, though, for the priceless encounters it earned us with a wealth of chimpanzee personalities. Looking back, it is remarkable how readily we were accepted by the female chimpanzees who were accompanied by offspring. Single females, however, were shy and elusive, only relaxed when they were in a social setting. We can single out eight females from whom we learned about the diversity of female chimpanzee personalities and how, despite being dominated by the males, they exercised choice when it mattered.
MOSOKO Eight-year-old female Mosoko. She looked a lot like her mother, with the same high cheekbones and a broad face, and struck us as someone who was in the shadow of her dominant mother but trying to come out on her own. Masoko did indeed leave the group soon after we departed, presumably to look for another gorilla group within which to settle.
An elusive adult female. She flitted in and out of sight, as if saying that getting to know her would happen on her terms.
MONTY
Face to Face with Great Apes
At eye level with our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, apes evoke a profound connection in many people due to their striking similarity to us humans. Face to Face, an exceptional coffee-table book by Anup Shah and Fiona Rogers, captures this very emotion. The renowned nature photographers present captivating close-up shots of chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and bonobos within their natural habitats. Through extensive periods of cohabitation, the photographers have created over 60 captivating and unparalleled portraits, portraying the apes as sentient beings.