Nomad Tanzania: Hot off the press!

Check out the coverage The Business Year gives Nomad in their upcoming book about Tanzania.

Welcome to our new home!

Greystoke Mahale is proud to welcome our new camp managers: Matt Crowley-Miano and Parker Campbell.  The chimps, this time of year, are spreading out in small groups at times and making trips into our camp to raid our fig tree.  It's a beautiful time of year in Mahale.  The sashimi is fresh, and the sunsets are gorgeous.   

Leopard cub(s?)!!!!

It is quite difficult to see the clear evidence in these photos and for that we apologise. There were very few of these prints remaining because their path crossed with the path of a supply boat being offloaded early this morning. It was then that we found the leopard tracks with accompanying tracks i.e. a cub!

The gestation period for leopards is 90-105 days. These prints are pretty small; cubs can walk from two weeks but don't usually come out of the den to learn to hunt until 2 months. We think ther den must be very close!

It was impossible to tell if the tracks were from more than 1 cub (a litter is usually 2 or 3), but we sincerely hope so as fewer than 50% of leopard cubs reach the age of 1 year, therfore it would better the odds significantly!

You can see the cub print on the left above the word 'left', and the mamma cub's print on the right of this photo.

We really hope to keep seeing this mamma leopard with accompanying tracks for some time to come, and of course, not just the tracks - we recently had one guest who had a motion-detecting camera in use overnight. We knew the leopards were around thanks to the askari's nightwatch. Sadly the camera didn't 'capture' any leopards, despite setting up the camera in the places where we thought it most likely to spot them. As soon as we have any evidence beyond prints, be sure you will hear about it!

Stinky Mushrooms

This is a Netted Stinkhorn, Dictyophora duplicata. Also known as the Skirted Stinkhorn or Veiled Stinkhorn, this mushroom takes its name from that lacy fringe that hangs down from the cap. In this case the fringe is particularly long.

As you can guess from this blog post's title, this mushroom really smells terrible.  When spotted on the jungle pathway between the managers' room and Banda 7, it was detectable from quite a few meters away. It’s way of propagating is by attracting insects who are drawn to the gooey cap which is covered in a sticky, sweet layer that the insects feed on, within which are the mushroom’s spores. 
Their spores can’t be carried on the wind, as with most mushrooms, so it relies entirely on insects, primarily flies and butterflies to procreate.

Unlike most fungi, which have a root-like network, stinkhorns begin life as an egg. The fruiting body begins at"egg" stage, from which the phallic body emerges over the course of just a few hours. The growth of a stinkhorn from egg to full length is incredibly fast- less than a day. It was spotted at 3pm and there was no evidence the next morning at first light, in our case. For a lifecycle video see this YouTube video: Netted Stinkhorn Mushroom

Some members of this group of mushroom are considered a delicacy; in China it’s considered an aphrodisiac, eaten at "egg" stage or after maturity once the cap has been removed. They are even cultivated and sold in shops, fresh or dry! For us the smell was too off-putting to consider trying to eat it, and don’t worry, that’s not where any of the mushrooms on the menu are sourced!

Mahale All Stars

With one good month to go before the end of this season in Greystoke Mahale, we’d like to have a quick look back on some of the real stars that the M group produced this season. 

Primus Time

Undoubtedly the big breakthrough of this season; Primus (25 yrs) crowned himself Alpha male in September last year. Initially based on a fragile alliance without full support of the high ranking females, the past 6 months he has increasingly become a respected Alpha male. Mistake not! Primus’ daily task isn’t small as he’s leading a group of 60 individuals through their 37 sq km home range in search of food. 

Primus, just after he became Alpha in September 2012.

Both physically big and strong, our take is that Primus will remain in his position for some time to come. However, competition from other males is present and it won’t be an easy position to maintain as he will be challenged. As you might be so lucky to trek the Mahale Mts, Primus is easy to spot by both his physical size, brownish face and the white dot on his bottom lip. 

Primus last week as we met with him just out of camp.

Michio – Mr lips

Meet Michio (17 yrs) - one of our absolute favorites. Michio is a low ranking male chimpanzee that is not even close to the likes of the real biggies such as Primus, Alofu, Darwin and Orion. But Michio’s charm is in his calmness and in his inquisitive behavior. 

Michio checking out who that other chimpanzee really is...

Featuring in the camp’s most spectacular video of the year – the chimp and the mirror - Michio’s reaction to our camp mirror was one never to forget! 

Michio - charming as always - having trouble keeping his mouth closed.

But there is more. Michio feels at ease with humans. He sometimes comfortably moves within the 10 meter range and makes a many heart beat faster. Last November, when we observed the M group eating mangoes from our tree in Greystoke camp, Michio approached the group to wait for his turn to get to the fruits. Together with our guests were observing the scene from the steps of the toilet building when Michio walked up to us within a meter. He had decided to wait for his turn together with us. Quietly he sat down on the step next to us, feeling totally at ease. 

Michio sitting at Greystoke toilet entrance, after we moved away a little from Michio's cozyness...

Michio is also well known for his hanging bottom lip. Certainly looking forward to see more this man soon!

Orion – The short fused one

Nr 5 in the group, Orion (23 yrs), belongs to the crème de la crème of de M unit and he likes showing it. Although Primus undoubtedly is his superior, Orion too is impressive if it comes to physics. 

Orion, as he chews away on freshly picked mango fruit.

He is the chimpanzee that loves power displays - in particular showing them to humans. Wildly crushing through the trees and jumping from vines to branches, when this chimpanzee is on a rage towards you standing your ground suddenly becomes very exciting! 

Numerous hilarious moments we had with this short fused chimpanzee. But make no mistake – never does he touch – but lasting impressions for the mind he brings. For sure!

Ceasar & Teddy – Sweet as honey

Both young adults, Ceasar (14 yrs) and Teddy yrs (12 yrs) are the handsome guys of the group. Not close to being ranked as decisive individuals, their submission to Primus and the other higher ranking individuals is vital for their existence. 

Ceasar posing for the camera, with hands under his chin.

Growing slowly further into adult hood will show how much physics and importance they will gain.

But for now the two pink and cute faced ones have the looks that makes one wonder if they really aren’t human. 

Teddy - or Mr Pose - himself...

Not shy at all, it’s the positions that both males tend to take for pictures. Arms crossed, hand under the chin, slightly turned head - marvelous material!!

Jungle bells

Painted reed frogs come in many color variations and patterns and therefore it took us some time to identify this beauty of a frog. Though most species live in grasslands in sub saharan Africa there is also one group that is found in the forests of west and central Africa. 

And here it is...

A painted reed frog resting during the day.

Unlike most other frogs that prefer to hide during the day, the painted reed frog can be spotted in the open. Like this little fellow that we found sitting on a leaf behind one of the guest rooms.

Beautiful in its appearance, the frog has no neck that separates the head from its body. With an average size of approx 3 cm’s the frogs are small. Painted reed frogs mate during the rainy season and it’s during this time that males sing together in groups, calling from tall grasses, bushes or even trees. These frogs make for a beautiful African jungle sound, like the ringing of small bells – jungle bells. 

Painted reed frogs have no necks, as is easy to see here.

Small and attractive – it’s certainly noisy!

Nanny ship

This morning’s trek was fabulous. And not only because of the large number of chimpanzees that we saw. It was the group activity that we found to be so amusing!

Today Fatuma’s 2,5 year old daughter spend some quality learning time with her nanny of choice; Gwekulo. The single most popular nanny in the group, Gwekulo is liked by both babies and mothers. Sadly she has never been able to conceive children herself.

Gwekulo with Fatuma's baby sitting on the tree.

Now 50 years old, Gwekulo certainly tries to make up for that by teaching valuable life lessons to infants and spending plenty of time with them.

The lesson of this morning was how to impress other chimpanzees. This was done by pounding the back leg on the tree as loudly as possible. Although not totally visible on the picture, the scene was hilarious. As the baby tried to pound her little leg on the tree, Gwekulo watched her in satisfaction.

Fatuma's baby raising her right leg to start pounding the tree in order to impress others... 

The other lesson was pant hooting. Though chimpanzees panthoot for many reasons, this morning’s lesson focused on paying respect to higher ranking individuals. 

To the right Gwekulo is pant hooting in a submissive way. The baby is paying attention and trying vocalize too...

As alpha male Primus approached the group, Gwekulo showed how to panthoot as a form of subsmission.

Gwekulo moving forward towards Primus as she keep pant hooting.

With the baby paying attention to every detail, you can see how she makes the effort to move forward on the tree branch, trying to pant hoot in the meantime.

And after Gwekulo also Fatauma's baby move forward trying to show respect...

The scenes of this morning were totally amusing and very interesting to see - we hope to catch some more nanny ship lessons in the coming week.