Monkeys on a sugar rush.

Aren’t they cute, not on a sugar rush!

When we drop off the wake up calls we definitely don’t intend it for the Vervet monkeys. That’s why we have a monkey proof box on the front deck to cover the sugar and biscuits. When the wildlife starts to eat human food it’s not only unhealthy for them but creates bad habits and can cause aggression.

Does anyone want bacon and sausage with those eggs

Our regular camp visitors decided to join us for breakfast again. It’s good to see that the resident Leopard has not taken one of the younger warthogs. At three they are nearly big enough to fend for themselves but prefer hanging out with mum and Grandma.

These feet are made for climbing.

I love close up shots of Chimpanzee hands and feet. The hands closely resemble humans but the feet are quite different. The opposable big toe enables Chimps to hang on with their feet and stretch out to pluck tasty fruit at the end of the branch.

 Bonobo's foot.

Can the Maasai swim?

Not all the staff at Greystoke grew up on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Robert John, one of our guides and Godfrey Jumbe, our waiter, are Maasai who before working in Mahale have never had an opportunity to learn to swim.

Hannah Dieker took it upon herself to give the guys a lesson and I must admit they definitely improved, as in they don’t sink straight to the bottom anymore!

 Robert, just swim over to the Democratic Republic of Congo and back.

Hannah will have to come back to finish what she has started!

The fish get kissed.

We normally eat the Kuhe not kiss them.

 Luana Landolt catches sashimi for the bar.

Chimpanzee play with a dead baby baboon

While tracking the Chimpanzees yesterday our guests came across a dead baby baboon lying in the middle of the path. Five minutes after passing the baboon, Bonobo, a large 30 year old male Chimp walked passed with the baby baboon in his mouth. Interestingly because he did not kill the baboon he sat playing with the dead carcass instead of eating it. Mwiga and Filbert our guides thought the baboon may have died of disease and Chimps will only eat meat that they have caught themselves.

 Kevin Creed kindly donated this great photo.

Your only as old as you feel.

Another amazing group of guests have just departed Greystoke Mahale. The Kings, Krakow’s, Hagar’s and Taylor’s are friends from Texas and South Africa who have traveled together on more than one occasion.

A few records were broken when Eli Krakow at 12 and Valarie Taylor at 80 both managed to climb over 500m up to see the Chimpanzees. On the second day the Chimpanzees decided to keep feeding high up the mountain and Frank King and Kelby Hagar were the only ones keen to give it a go. What would normally take guests 6 or 7 hours took the guys only 3.

Valarie we take our hats off to you.

Valarie and Will Taylor

Hamza and Valarie.

The Fish Eagle

George Assousa aka the Fish Eagle saw the Chimpanzees on his first day at Greystoke. George then told me that he loved fishing and would it possible to fish instead of trekking for the Chimps. I was happy to oblige and assigned Mwiga our guide to take George out fishing every morning when the lake is calm and the fishing good.

George is a natural fisherman, he caught enough fish on his first morning to supply the guests with fresh sashimi and also Tai fish curry for dinner. Mwiga soon gave George the nick name ‘the Fish Eagle’ and for the next 3 nights George kept the sashimi flowing to the delight of the guests.

The Fish Eagle and Mwiga catch another big Kuhe.

Chimps in Camp for the first time this season.

A family of Chimps from the M Community walked through camp yesterday evening and climbed the big Fig tree at the back of camp.

Abi is an experienced mother and at 29 she knows the forest well. Her memories of the big fig tree at Greystoke camp has enticed her leave the main community high in the mountain and make the journey for this prized fruit. At 7 Azam her son is always in tow and Abi’s baby at 1 is still clinging to mum.

 Azam sits at the top of the tree stuffing figs into his mouth. Look at that full belly.

Abi's baby is too young to eat figs, instead she clings to mum and checks out the view.

The new girl in town.

Did you know that Chimpanzee's are territorial? A male Chimpanzee will never leave his home territory which is around 15 square miles. Interestingly once a female reaches sexual maturity at the age of 13 she will usually cross into a neighboring community’s territory and be accepted. In this way the gene pool is kept healthy and the female avoids her brothers making sexual advances. If a guy walks into the next door neighbors territory he will be killed as soon as he is spotted.

Juju has just moved from another community and its surprising how quickly she has become used to us. It’s as if the other members of the M community have told her not to worry about those tall apes that walk on 2 legs.

How cute is this baby!

Of the 10 infants under 3, Christina’s boy is the only baby who did not look 100% healthy. He is now 6 months and the last time we saw him 2 weeks ago he looked very skinny and weak.

Our guests caught up with over 20 Chimpanzees yesterday and Alex and Susan Waite managed to get these great shots of Christina and her baby. The good news is he looks much better.

 We know Christina is a good mother, she already has two children, Christmas (16) and Xantip (11)

 Unfortunately Christina lost her last baby to influenza back in 2006. We are all praying that this baby grows up to be a health Chimpanzee.