I've never been homesick in my entire life until this Christmas Eve.
A horrible Christmas. I never wanna choose science over family on Christmas again.
I don't know if Santa Clause doesn't come to Guinea or if I've just been bad this year. I'd say there's a 75% chance that both of those guesses are right.
But let's move on!!
My momma told me I should talk more about the chimpanzees. Less Beyonce, more chimps. Got it!
First let's talk about how we did not evolve from chimps. We share a common ancestor with chimps- just like we share a common ancestor with the ant I just flicked off my shirt (gently).
Also, chimpanzees are not monkeys. Chimps, gorillas, orangutans, and humans are all apes. Monkeys are those cute little babies with tails. Apes don't have tails. Monkeys and apes are both primates. I'm quizzing all of you when I get back.
The chimps here crack nuts with stones. That's the whole point of this field site. We consider this non-human tool use. The chimp will pick two stones- one to use as a hammer and one to use as a hard surface to crack on. Aka- an anvil. So, once the chimpy has grabbed her hammer and anvil, she will crack nuts! We watch them all crack nuts from behind the palm frond wall I mentioned in an earlier post. Last time I counted, a grown male chimp ate 52 nuts in one sitting!
As soon as the chimps are full, they leave us. That's when we start waiting for them to be hungry again. However, it is not guaranteed that the group will return! The chimps eat all kinds of other food around here, including figs, leaves, and maybe even meat! Meat is rare though... So I definitely don't have my hopes up about getting to see that.
Chimpanzees are cavemen, like I've said before. They like to grunt and hit each other as well as nap and use stone tools. The 7 year old likes to throw rocks at other chimps. I think those are all very cavemen-like activities.
Before recently, there hasn't been much crazy social behavior. However, starting yesterday, there has been a lot of drama! GUESS WHY. It's really exciting! One of the old ladies is in estrus now!!!!!! This is actually really weird to see because the lady is very, very old. She is about 45 or 50. She's had 10 kids. But, to each his own!
So with this estrus, comes drama. Like I said. The two boys were running around today hooting an hollering. The others are just trying to stay out of the way. Like me. The lady can't even help causing such a ruckus because the boys can SEE that she is fertile. It's not like they heard through the grapevine that Jire was ovulating. They can SEE it and KNOW! How embarrassing, lol. A female chimp's rump will become pink and swollen when she enters this stage in her cycle. The boys find this pinkness very attractive!! The boys will sniff and poke and follow a pink female around. Meanwhile I KNOW Jire is saying, "Jeje, STOP- I'm your mother! Plus I've already had enough of you wild children! Give me a break, boys!"
The boys try to show how strong they are by running, jumping, shaking branches, and picking up heavy items. Boys are so weird.
Luckily for me and not for Jire, she is only at the very beginning stages of the whole ordeal. She has a few more days to go... And these coming days will be even more fun! Draaaammaaaa. "These are the Days of Her Estrus"
When the chimps sleep on their backs they hold one foot with one hand, ok? I don't know why. It's very cute.
I like watching them groom each other. It makes me wanna be groomed. It's sweet! This chimp group is basically just a dysfunctional human family; they fight and yell at each other, but if Foaf sees that Jeje has an ant on him, he's gonna help him get it off. That's the foundation of family.
Yesterday we watched the chimps climb in a huge fig tree. HUGE fig tree. The tree was bigger than any I saw in Brazil. And, it was hanging off the side of this mountain we're on! The sky was blue and crystal clear. Guinean Christmas music from the village was blaring in the background. It blew my mind that those heavy apes could climb so high in that tree. It blew my mind that those 50 year old ladies could climb that high too! I'm currently picturing my grandmas sitting up there on those branches eating figs... Omg. "NANNY! MOMMIE! HOLD ON! THE HELICOPTER IS ON ITS WAY!"
The sight was beautiful. Unlike the little kitty monkeys I was struggling to keep my eyes on high in the trees this summer, these massive pitch-black apes were incredibly easy to spot in the tree tops. Especially against that sky. Idk, it was just a cool sight.
I feel so spoiled for being upset all day yesterday after getting to see that... I can't help it... I wanted to feast with my family too! Christmas!
You can email me things if you want to. Lyoung40@uga.edu
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