Madonna Tribute - Cast of Glee
Uganda Chapter 6: Chimps!
To see a complete set of pictures from this day, click here.
I'm really not sure that you can even call it vacation if every single day begins before 7am, but I'm learning to live with it. Today we're up at the crack of dawn because we're going chimp tracking.
Chimp tracking rules.
Firstly, we have an awesome group. It's Lis and I, two Brits (though, you know, I vacillate on my feelings about Brits. Joking. That was just a momentary breakdown in Heathrow. I love the Brits.), a tour guide from Zimbabwe named Andy and our tracking guide who's name is Jarrod. Jarrod is a GREAT tracker. He's the kind of tracker who's always first to the chimps and then everybody else just tracks Jarrod.
About half an hour in, we find a chimp group that actually includes two of the three alpha males in the pack. Let me tell you this, don't let anybody tell you that you can be in anything less than great shape if you want to chimp track. Chimps move. They move FAST. And generally speaking they don't want to hang out where you are all that long before they move. So basically you are speed walking or light jogging through a jungle (not on trails, mind you, so crap is hitting you in the face the whole time) to keep up with the chimps. But it's worth it.
Chimps in the wild are amazing. Firstly, yes, in zoos you can watch chimps climb trees and jump from branch to branch. But you can't see them climb trees that are 180 feet tall. That's a million times more spectacular than anything you can see in Disney's Wild Kingdom.
Secondly, chimps in the wild are just, well, bigger and more vibrant than zoo chimps.
But the most amazing thing that chimps in the wild do that they'd really have no reason to do in zoos is ... talk. Sure, you obviously see chimps doing call and response in a zoo, but in the wild, over distances of kilometers and miles, it's amazing to see the true communication going on. The chimps will vocalize to tell the other chimp groups where in the jungle they are and what they're doing. It will be perfectly quite, some chimps will be grooming each other, and suddenly they'll hear another group make a vocalization and they'll EXPLODE into talking. And they're literally saying "We're over here, and we're grooming." It's unbelievable to see them in a natural environment. You can't help coming out thinking that more habitat preservation and less zoos would be a fantastic thing.
It's hard to take pictures of the chimps since you can't use a flash, but we do get a few. The pictures don't really matter though. I only wish I could describe the experience better.
To see a complete set of pictures from this day, click here.
I'm really not sure that you can even call it vacation if every single day begins before 7am, but I'm learning to live with it. Today we're up at the crack of dawn because we're going chimp tracking.
Chimp tracking rules.
Firstly, we have an awesome group. It's Lis and I, two Brits (though, you know, I vacillate on my feelings about Brits. Joking. That was just a momentary breakdown in Heathrow. I love the Brits.), a tour guide from Zimbabwe named Andy and our tracking guide who's name is Jarrod. Jarrod is a GREAT tracker. He's the kind of tracker who's always first to the chimps and then everybody else just tracks Jarrod.
About half an hour in, we find a chimp group that actually includes two of the three alpha males in the pack. Let me tell you this, don't let anybody tell you that you can be in anything less than great shape if you want to chimp track. Chimps move. They move FAST. And generally speaking they don't want to hang out where you are all that long before they move. So basically you are speed walking or light jogging through a jungle (not on trails, mind you, so crap is hitting you in the face the whole time) to keep up with the chimps. But it's worth it.
Chimps in the wild are amazing. Firstly, yes, in zoos you can watch chimps climb trees and jump from branch to branch. But you can't see them climb trees that are 180 feet tall. That's a million times more spectacular than anything you can see in Disney's Wild Kingdom.
Secondly, chimps in the wild are just, well, bigger and more vibrant than zoo chimps.
But the most amazing thing that chimps in the wild do that they'd really have no reason to do in zoos is ... talk. Sure, you obviously see chimps doing call and response in a zoo, but in the wild, over distances of kilometers and miles, it's amazing to see the true communication going on. The chimps will vocalize to tell the other chimp groups where in the jungle they are and what they're doing. It will be perfectly quite, some chimps will be grooming each other, and suddenly they'll hear another group make a vocalization and they'll EXPLODE into talking. And they're literally saying "We're over here, and we're grooming." It's unbelievable to see them in a natural environment. You can't help coming out thinking that more habitat preservation and less zoos would be a fantastic thing.
It's hard to take pictures of the chimps since you can't use a flash, but we do get a few. The pictures don't really matter though. I only wish I could describe the experience better.
To see a complete set of pictures from this day, click here.
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