Pan Africa NewsThe Newsletter of the Committee for the Careand Conservation of Chimpanzees, and the Mahale
Wildlife Conservation Society
ISSN 1884-751X (print), 1884-7528 (online) mahale.main.jp/PAN/

JUNE 2011						P. A. N. EDITORIAL STAFF
Chief Editor:
Kazuhiko Hosaka, Kamakura Womenʼs University, Japan
Deputy Chief Editor:
Michio Nakamura, Kyoto University, Japan
Associate Editors:
Christophe Boesch, Max-Planck Institute, Germany
Jane Goodall, Jane Goodall Institute, USA
Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Kyoto University, Japan
William C. McGrew, University of Cambridge, UKJohn C. Mitani, University of Michigan, USA
Vernon Reynolds, Budongo Forest Project, UK
Yukimaru Sugiyama, Kyoto University, Japan
Richard W. Wrangham, Harvard University, USA
Takeshi Furuichi, Kyoto University, Japan
Editorial Secretaries:
Noriko Itoh, Kyoto University, Japan
Koichiro Zamma, Great Ape Research Institute, Hayashibara, Japan
Agumi Inaba, Japan Monkey Centre, Japan
Instructions for Authors:
Pan Africa News publishes articles, notes, reviews, forums,
news, essays, book reviews, letters to editor, and classifiedads (restricted to non-profit organizations) on any aspectof conservation and research regarding chimpanzees (Pantroglodytes) and bilias (Pan paniscus). Contributors arerequested to write in English and the papers except forums,
reviews and essays should usually be 1,500 words or less.
Articles and notes will be peer-reviewed by at least one
appropriate expert on request of the PAN editorial staff.
Manuscripts should be formatted as DOC or RTF files andsubmitted by e-mail to: pan.editor@gmail.com
Photos and figures should be formatted as JPEG or GIF files
and sent separately by e-mail attachments.
PAN is published twice a year in June and December. Deadline
for manuscripts is one month before publication (i.e. the endsof May and November).

<OBITUARY>

Professor Toshisada Nishida:
Chief Editor of Pan Africa News
Kazuhiko Hosaka
Faculty of Child Studies, Kamakura Women’s University,Japan(E-mail: hosaka@kamakura-u.ac.jp)

Dr. Toshisada Nishida, Professor Emeritus of Kyoto
University and Executive Director of the Japan Monkey

VOL. 18, NO. 1

Contents<OBITUARY>
Professor Toshisada Nishida: Chief Editor of Pan
Africa News
Kazuhiko Hosaka			
1<TRIBUTE>
Jane Goodall				3<ARTICLE>
A Wild Chimpanzee Uses a Stick to Disable a Snare at
Bossou, Guinea
Yukimaru Sugiyama & Tatyana Humle		
3<NOTE>A Chimpanzee Bed Found at Tubila, 20 km from
Lilanshimba Habitat
Hideshi Ogawa, Midori Yoshikawa & Mapinduzi
Mbalamwezi				5<NOTE>
Mahale Chimpanzees Start to Eat Oil Palm
Koichiro Zamma, Mai Nakashima & Abdala
Ramadhani				6<NOTE>
Immigration of a Large Number of Adolescent Female
Chimpanzees into the Mahale M Group
Takashi Hayakawa, Mai Nakashima & Michio
Nakamura			
8<NEWS>Bush Fire Control Using Arbors in Green Corridor
Project at Bossou
Naruki Morimura, Gaku Ohashi, Aly Gaspard
Soumah & Tetsuro Matsuzawa		
10<BOOK INFO>The Chimpanzees of Bossou and Nimba		
12

Centre, passed away in Kyoto on 7 June, 2011. He was
70 years old. For the last five years of his life, he fought
against rectal cancer and pursued his professional life as a
primatologist to the very end.
Prof. Nishida was best-known for his pioneering research on the wild chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains,
Tanzania. The project, now called ‘Mahale Mountains
Chimpanzee Research Project’ (MMCRP), is the secondoldest ape field study, preceded only by Dr. Jane Goodall’s
Gombe project. When only a 24-year-old graduate student, Prof. Nishida was dispatched to Mahale in 1965 as1

2

Pan Africa News, 18(1), June 2011

He also served as President of International
Primatological Society (1996–2000), Presidentof Primate Society of Japan (2001–2005), andEditor-in-Chief of the scientific journal, Primates(2004–2011).
He won the Jane Goodall Award (1990), theLeakey Prize (2008), the International Primatolog­
ical Society Lifetime Achievement Award (2008),
and the Chunichi Cultural Prize (2010).
Pan Africa News (PAN) was launched in 1994
by Prof. Nishida, who agreed with Dr. Goodall’s
advice that field-workers studying wild Pan species at various field sites in Africa needed a forum
in which to exchange early scientific findings anduseful information about conservation. I remember
the initial days, in which I discussed the role ofMoshi Hamisi (Left), Prof. Nishida (Center), and Rashidi Kitopeni
PAN with him and Dr. Linda A. Turner, who edited(Right). At Kansyana, on 27 August 2009. Photo by Kazuhiko Hosaka.
the first issue. In 1997, Prof. Nishida set up the editorial board and launched the peer-review systempart of the late Prof. Junichiro Itani’s grand-scale projectfor
thisjournal and served as its Chief Editor until his
to investigate the wild chimpanzees of western Tanzania.
He succeeded in habituating the Mahale chimpanzees by death.
On 30 January, 2011, Prof. Nishida, who was facgiving them sugarcane and banana (Food provisioning
ing the final stage of his illness, called in Dr. Michio
was abandoned in the mid-1980s).
In 1968, he published the first empirical report1 on Nakamura, Associate Professor of Kyoto University, andchimpanzee social structure and introduced his idea of the me, in order to talk about handing over his work. He asked‘unit-group’ (also referred to as ‘community’ by many re- Dr. Nakamura to act as the new organizer of MMCRP,
searchers), in which chimpanzees interact with each other adding that we should continue our long-term study ofMahale chimpanzees for at least a century. Then he asked
on the basis of stable membership in closed structure.
Joined by many excellent field-workers, such as the me to take over his duties as co-chairman of MWCS andlate Profs. Kenji Kawanaka and Shigeo Uehara, Prof. Chief Editor of PAN.
After that day, he shifted his attention to the publicaNishida contributed substantially to primatology in thetionof his last book6. He stressed that this would be hisinternational arena by publishing so many peer-reviewed
articles about chimpanzees that I cannot go deep into first English-language book about Mahale chimpanzees
detail here (but see other obituaries coming soon in sev- for general readers, although he had written many books
eral primatological journals). He also edited academic for the Japanese public. His work was well-known to priprimatology books in English 2–4. For the last decade, he matologists, but less so to the international general public.
was enthusiastic about video-recording chimpanzee be- Thanks to the generous dedication of Prof. William C.
havior, which yielded a definitive ethogram of the Mahale McGrew, University of Cambridge, the book will appear
at the end of 2011.
chimpanzees5.
He was involved with higher education at the Univer­In addition, he devoted much energy to conservation. Together with the late Prof. Itani, he organized a sity of Tokyo (18 years) and Kyoto University (15 years).
campaign to make Mahale a protected area. Their efforts Under his supervision, many biological anthropologists
were realized in 1985, when Mahale was designated as a and primatologists were trained and are pursuing theircareers in various disciplines, as well as chimpanzee
national park of Tanzania.
In 1994, he collaborated with Prof. Hosea Kayumbo, research.
To be frank, it is hard for me to accept the reality
University of Dar es Salaam, to found the ‘Mahale
Wildlife Conservation Society’ (MWCS), and he served of his death, owing to still-vivid memories of his final
as its co-chairman. He not only made efforts to conserve journey to Mahale, when he observed his beloved chimwildlife within the park but also endeavored to initi- panzees in the forest for the last time (I accompanied
ate community-based conservation in villages north of him there in August 2009). Personal recollections of his
the park. Believing that education of local children and legendary accomplishments in the field will be gathered
improvement of public hygiene are vital to wildlife con- and shared among his friends and colleagues in a futureservation, he negotiated with the Embassy of Japan in special issue of PAN.
Tanzania for Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects andsuccessfully built Katumbi Primary School (2003) and REFERENCES
1. Nishida T 1968. The social group of wild chimpanzees in
Katumbi Dispensary (2011).
the Mahali Mountains. Primates 9:167–224.
He extended his passion for great ape conservation on
2. Nishida T (ed) 1990. The Chimpanzees of the Mahale
a global scale. In 2001, he was appointed one of the five
Mountains: Sexual and Life History Strategies. University
UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) Specialof Tokyo Press, Tokyo.
Envoys for Great Apes and later served as a GRASP (Great
3. Nishida T, McGrew WC, Marler P, Pickford M, de Waal
Apes Survival Project) patron.
FBM (eds) 1992. Topics in Primatology, Vol.1 Human

Pan Africa News, 18(1), June 2011
Origins. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo.
4. McGrew WC, Marchant LF, Nishida T (eds) 1996. Great
Apes Societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
5. Nishida T, Zamma K, Matsusaka T, Inaba A, McGrew
WC 2010. Chimpanzee Behavior in the Wild. An AudioVisual Encyclopedia. Springer, Tokyo.
6. Nishida T in press (to be published in 31 Dec, 2011).
The Chimpanzees of the Lakeshore: Natural History
and Culture at Mahale. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.

3<ARTICLE>

A Wild Chimpanzee Uses a
Stick to Disable a Snare at
Bossou, Guinea
Yukimaru Sugiyama1 & Tatyana
Humle2
1 Tokai-Gakuen University, Japan
2 School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent,
UK(E-mail: hqvg62yd@qc.commufa.jp)

TributeJune 12th 2011
I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of Dr.
Toshisada Nishida. I have known Toshi for overforty years and his name will always be associated forme with the chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains.
His careful research has provided us with a rich
picture of the way of life and the personalities of thesechimpanzees.
Toshi was tireless in the field, logging up
thousands of hours of direct observation and building
up a dynamic team of researchers, so that the work
could be maintained throughout the year, on an
ongoing basis. These researchers studied different
aspects of chimpanzee social life and ecology. All of
this information has been shared not only in Japanese,with Japanese scientists, but also, in English, madeavailable to primatologists around the world. He also
initiated “Pan Africa News”, a forum that encouraged
all chimpanzee researchers to contribute short articles
about their scientific and conservation work , so thatit brought together information from many different
places and disciplines.
The death of Dr. Toshisada Nishida marks amilestone in the long history of Japanese primatology.
He made a huge contribution to our understandingof chimpanzees during his lifetime, and he inspired
many young people to follow in his footsteps, not onlyin Mahale, but in other parts of Africa. But it is not
only Toshi the scientist who will be missed. I also shallmiss Toshi as a friend; I shall miss all the marvellous
gatherings and small dinners that he organized where
people could relax and share chimpanzee stories in an
informal setting. Indeed, I find it difficult to imagine
Japan without him. My deepest sympathies go out tohis family and to all his many friends.

Jane Goodall*Editorial Note: We asked Dr. Jane Goodall to pay tribute to “Toshi Nishida”, one of her long-time friends whoshared an interest in the wild chimpanzees of the lakeshore
of Tanganyika. She responded quickly, although she was
fully occupied with her lecture tour of Australia. We express our deepest gratitude for her kindness and generosity.

INTRODUCTION

Using sticks as a tool is common among wild chimpanzees1. Chimpanzees in their natural habitat use stick
tools to serve a variety of purposes, for example termite
fishing 2 , ant dipping 3, pestle pounding4, algae scooping5, honey dipping6, probing and exploring tree holes
for animal prey or water. The majority of these tool-use
behaviors are targeted at food resources, i.e. social insects
or their products. But sticks are also sometimes used indefense; they may be brandished as clubs7 or hurled as
missiles8 at snakes, predators or humans.
We describe here an episode whereby a young adultmale chimpanzee employed a stick to disable the trap
mechanism of a self-locking wire snare. This case supplements other examples of stick-tool in the context ofdefense which principally involve aimed or unaimed
throwing of a stick towards a threatening life form. Thisepisode reflects the flexible ability of wild chimpanzees to
respond to threatening inanimate human-made object.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) community of Bossou, Guinea, inhabits primary and secondary
forests surrounding the village. These chimpanzees arehabituated to observers and has ranged in size between 12
and 23 individuals since 19769. Bossou chimpanzees were
provisioned for three months from the end of 1989 to theearly 199010 and for one to 3 weeks annually during thefollowing decade for the purposes of field experiments11.
Provisioned foods were mainly oil-palm (Elaeis guineensis) nuts which were collected within the core-area ofchimpanzees. The described event was witnessed in 2005,
when community membership was at its lowest with 12
individuals. The community comprised then three adultmales and the youngest, 14 year old Yolo (YL), was thealpha male of the community at the time.
The villagers of Bossou have long used wire snares
to protect their cultivated fields from animal pests such as
rodents, especially cane rats (Thryonomys swinderianus)
and for capturing small mammalian prey for meat. At theend of 1989, the use of snares was officially prohibited in
the chimpanzees’ core area after a juvenile female chimpanzee, named Yunro, had her left leg severely maimed
by a wire snare. She was unable to locomote properly for
years thereafter. Nevertheless, some villagers continued
to set snares in the forest to trap cane rats and other small
animals for subsistence purposes.

4
RESULTS

On August 16th, 2005 at 3:09 pm, YL was grinningand uttered a loud and high pitched bark or scream. The
other chimpanzees, five females and juveniles, present
in the party suddenly froze and gazed in the directionthat YL was staring. He slowly approached the snare andpicked up a dead branch about 30 cm long. He stirreda pile of fallen leaves and slapped the ground with the
stick. About 40 cm away there was a young tree 2.5 mtall which had clearly been bent and secured in placewith a plastic cord tied to the end. The cord then ran to
the ground. Food is usually laid onto a fragile platform
typically comprised of small horizontal sticks covered
with leaves; when the animal steps on the platform, thelatter collapses and unleashes the snare. A metal wire
snare then grips the animal and tightens as it aims to flee.
Except for the bent-over sapling and cord, other partsof the snare were unnoticeable and well camouflaged.
Screaming loudly, YL repeatedly stirred the fallen leaves
in front of the bent-over sapling but the stick failed to trigger the snare’s mechanism; the stick used was too short to
attain the concealed wire.
After 2 min, one of our local guides approached YL
to get a better view of the snare. YL then gave up attacking the snare and slowly walked away leaving the stickbehind. The other chimpanzees continued to look at thesnare for a moment but soon followed him one by one.
The chimpanzee party began to travel and did not returnto the area during the remaining several hours that they
were observed that day. The snare was left undamaged
and intact.
We observed no other available stick or dead branchon the ground nearby although there were many small
trees and branches in the vicinity. If YL had broken off abranch of more than 1 m in length, he could have successfully disabled the snare from a safe distance.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

We already know that at least some adult male chimpanzees at Bossou understand that snares are dangerous,
particularly to juveniles and infants. Over the years, wehave witnessed several attempts to disable snares whenever they are encountered12. In the present episode YL,
the 14 year old alpha ranking male, readily recognized thesnare comprised of the bent-over tree sapling tied witha plastic cord and a wire. His first response was to utter
an alarm call, <wraa>, which quickly informed the otherchimpanzees of his party about the existence of danger.
He then employed a stick as a tool in an attempt to disable
the trap. However, he was clearly afraid of approaching
any closer to the unnaturally bent tree even though previous episodes have demonstrated that some older adultmale chimpanzees will place pressure on the bent-oversapling to trigger the snare. In this case the wire snare
and platform were very well camouflaged; YL’s inability
to precisely determine the location of the wire possiblycompelled him to be more cautious and rely on a stick todisable the snare. Alternatively, it is also possible that YL
was less experienced at the time than other older males of
the community in deactivating snares and was therefore
more fearful and more restrained in his approach.

Pan Africa News, 18(1), June 2011
In the previously observed episodes12, males were notalways successful in their attempts at disabling encountered snares. In the described case, YL used a stick to‘attack’ the snare but it was too short to trigger the snare
from a safe distance. YL was then disturbed and failed
to potentially select another stick of sufficient length or
break off a branch to make a longer tool to effectively accomplish the task.
Nevertheless, this episode clearly reveals that someof the chimpanzees within the Bossou community areclearly aware of the dangers posed by snares and thatthese inanimate objects need be destroyed, particularly toprotect juveniles and infants, who may be naïve to snares’
potential harmful consequences. We have never witnessed
YL or any other chimpanzee since then use a stick to disable a snare. This behavior may represent an innovation
which has not been transmitted possibly due to its inefficacy compared with simply deactivating snares by handas typically recorded otherwise among a number of adultmales of this community.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The field work of YS in 2005 was financed by a research grant of Tokai-Gakuen University. We are grateful to
the Institut Nationale de la Recherche et Documentation de
Guinée (INRDG) and the Direction Nationale de la Recherche
Scientifique et Technologique (DNRST), Republique deGuinee, for their collaboration and providing us permission to
conduct field work at Bossou since 1976. Dr. Vanessa Hayes
kindly commented and revised the first version of this report.

REFERENCES

1. Whiten A, Goodall J, McGrew WC, Nishida T, Reynolds V,
Sugiyama Y, Tutin CEG, Wrangham RW, Boesch C 1999.
Cultures in chimpanzees. Nature 399:682–685.
2. Goodall J 1986. The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of
Behavior. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
3. McGrew WC 1992. Chimpanzee Material Culture:
Implications for Human Evolution. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.
4. Sugiyama Y 1994. Tool use by wild chimpanzees. Nature
367:327.
5. Matsuzawa T 1999. Communication and tool use in chimpanzees: cultural and social context. In: The Design ofAnimal Communication. Hauser M, Konishi M (eds), MIT
Press, Cambridge, pp. 645–671.
6. Boesch C, Boesch H 1990. Tool use and tool making inwild chimpanzees. Folia Primatol 54:1–15.
7. Albrecht H, Dunnett SC 1971. Chimpanzees in Western
Africa. Piper, Munich.
8. Sugiyama Y, Koman J 1979. Tool-using and making behavior in wild chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea. Primates
20:513–524.
9. Sugiyama Y, Koman J 1979. Social structure and dynamics of wild chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea. Primates
20:323–339.
10. Sugiyama Y, Fushimi T, Sakura O, Matsuzawa T 1993.
Hand preference and tool use in wild chimpanzees.
Primates 34:151–159.
11. Matsuzawa T 1994. Field experiments on use of stone
tools in the wild. In: Chimpanzee Cultures. Wrangham
RW, McG rew WC, de Wa al FBM (eds), Har vard
University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 351–370.
12. Ohashi G, Matsuzawa T 2010. Deactivation of snares bywild chimpanzees. Primates 52:1–5.

Pan Africa News, 18(1), June 2011

<NOTE>A Chimpanzee Bed Found at
Tubila, 20 km from Lilanshimba
HabitatHideshi Ogawa1, Midori Yoshikawa2,3& Mapinduzi Mbalamwezi
1 Chukyo University, Japan
2 United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tok yo
University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan
3 JSPS Research fellow(E-mail: hogawa@lets.chukyo-u.ac.jp)

INTRODUCTION

Some unit-groups (communities) of chimpanzees(Pan troglodytes) have huge home ranges in the savanna
woodland area of western Tanzania1. However, it is difficult to follow non-habituated chimpanzees to confirm
their home range. Although chimpanzee beds show the
distribution of chimpanzee habitats, researchers cannot
estimate the home range of each unit-group based on thelocation of beds when the home ranges of several unitgroups overlap, unless, for example, the identities of thebeds are examined by DNA analyses. If the unit-group
has no neighboring group, however, researchers can use
beds to estimate the home range of that unit group.
Here, we report the discovery of a chimpanzee bed at
Tubila, which was considered to be outside chimpanzee
habitat, and discuss home range use and possible geneflow of chimpanzees in the savanna woodland area.

RESULTS

Tubila is located in the Mkuti Forest Reserve (05°01′S,
30°06′E), 25 km north of the Malagarasi River, and 30 km
southeast of Kigoma City (Figure 1). There are several
patchy evergreen forests surrounded by deciduous miombo woodlands in Tubila. Anubis baboons (Papio anubis)

Figure 1. Locations of Tubila and Lilanshimba.

5and common duikers (Sylvicapra grimmia) inhabit Tubila,
but there was no previous information indicating thatchimpanzees inhabited the area before our finding.
When M. Mbalamwezi, a local research assistant forour savanna chimpanzee research project, passed Tubila
on 25 February, 2008, in the rainy season, he found achimpanzee bed in one of the evergreen forests. The bed
was at a height of approximately 20 m, and was madein a 30 m Julbernardia unijugata or Monopetalanthus
richardsiae tree (local name, Kabanba). The bed site
was 500 m north of the main road connecting the cities
of Kigoma and Uvinza. Most leaves in the bed were stillgreen, indicating that only several weeks had passed since
the bed was made. M. M. did not find any other chimpanzee traces such as hair or footprints around the bed.
M. M. and A. Alufuled, another research assistant,visited the site together on 10 March, 2009, and foundthat the framework of the bed remained in place. M. M.
visited the place once again in May 2010 and found thatthe bed was gone. Furthermore, on 31 July 2010, M. M.,
H. Ogawa, and M. Yoshikawa visited the location andwalked 4.5 km in and around the forest, but did not findany traces of chimpanzees.

DISCUSSION

T he nea re st ch i mpa n ze e habit at t o Tubila isLilanshimba, which is 20 km south of Tubila 2,3. One of
the chimpanzees from the Lilanshimba population might
have temporarily come to Tubila and stayed one night
there. It is possible that chimpanzees safely moved from
Lilanshimba to Tubila, because riverine and patchy evergreen forests and savanna woodlands are distributedin the area alongside small villages and cultivated fields.
The next nearest chimpanzee habitats are Kwitanga andGombe National Park4,5. However, Kwitanga is 45 km
north and Gombe is 60 km northwest of Tubila. Because
the area between them is occupied by villages, cultivatedf ields, and bare hills now, it
seems very difficult for Kwitanga
and Gombe chimpanzees to crossthat area. There was no information to indicate that a chimpanzee
had been recently captured andreleased near Tubila. Therefore,
the chimpanzee who made the
bed at Tubila was most likely to
be a member of the Lilanshimba
population.
In the Lilanshimba area,
32– 45 chimpanzees in one or
two unit-groups inhabited a 316
km 2 area (0.10–0.14 bed-building individuals/km 2) in 19952 .
However, Congolese ref ugee
camps were built there in 1997,
and their activities seriously damaged the chimpanzees and theirhabitat. As a result, only a few
chimpanzees remained in a 175
km 2 area (0.02 individuals/km 2)
in 20063. Although H. O. and M.

Pan Africa News, 18(1), June 20116
Y. confirmed that chimpanzees were surviving in the area
when chimpanzees were heard during a stay between 16
and 20 August, 2007, the local population in Lilanshimba
was facing extermination. After the Congolese refugees
left the refugee camps in 2009, however, local people near
Lilanshimba said that the original vegetation graduallybegan to recover, and some wild animals returned to thearea.
If the hypothesis that a Lilanshimba chimpanzee
made its way to Tubila is correct, the chimpanzee moved
at least 15 km from the north edge of the original habitat.
In addition, the 25 km distance between the bed and thesouth edge of the original home range shows that chimpanzees may have a huge annual home range in the savanna woodland area.
One of the longest records of one day movement bya chimpanzee is 10.7 km at Gombe5. The chimpanzee at
Tubila may not have walked 15 km in one day, as there aremany places in which a chimpanzee could have slept between Lilanshimba and Tubila. Food scarcity might havepromoted the long-range movement, because deforestation by Congolese refugees reduced feeding trees, and because fewer ripe fruits occur during the rainy season thanduring the dry season (Yoshikawa, unpublished data). It
is not surprising that only one bed was found, because
chimpanzees disperse into small parties during the rainyseason in this area.
On the other hand, however, the chimpanzee at Tubila
might have been in progress of possible transfer to anotherunit-group, although sex of the chimpanzee is unknown.
Such long-distance dispersal may still be occurring, potentially producing gene flow between isolated populations in the savanna woodland area, western Tanzania.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Mr. Alex Alufuled and other local research
assistants, Dr. G. Idani, Dr. M. Koganezawa, Mr. T. Nemoto,and Dr. J. Moore. This study was permitted by COSTECH
and TAWIRI, and financially supported by a Grant-in-Aid
for Scientific Research (C) from MEXT (22570223) and
AS-HOPE.

REFERENCES

1. Kano T 1972. Distribution and adaptation of the chimpanzee on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. Kyoto Univ
Afr Stud 7:37–129.
2. K a no T, Ogawa H, Asato R , Ka namor i M 1999.
Distribution and density of wild chimpanzees on thenorthwestern bank of the Malagarasi River, Tanzania.
Primate Res 15:153–162.
3. Ogawa H, Sakamaki T, Idani G 2006. The influence ofCongolese refugees on chimpanzees in the Lilanshimba
area, Tanzania. Pan Afr News 13:21–22.
4. Ndimuligo SA 2008. Assessment of Chimpanzee (Pantroglodytes) Population and Habitat in Kwitanga Forest,
Western Tanzania. Master’s dissertation, University of
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
5. Wrangham RW 1975. The Behavioural Ecology of
Chimpanzees in Gombe National Park Tanzania. Ph.D.
Dissertation, Cambridge University, Cambridge.

<NOTE>

Mahale Chimpanzees Start to
Eat Oil Palm
Koichiro Zamma1,3, Mai
Nakashima2,3 & Abdala Ramadhani3
1 Great Ape Research Institute, Hayashibara Biochemical
Laboratories, Inc., Japan
2 Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Japan
3 Mahale Mountains Chimpanzee Research Project(E-mail: zamma@gari.jp)

INTRODUCTION

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is a cultural food ofwild chimpanzees1. The Gombe chimpanzees in Tanzania
eat the pericarp of its fruit, the pith of its fronds, its flowers, and its wood 2. The Bossou chimpanzees in Guinea
eat its pericarp, the base of its fronds, and its wood aswell as its nut kernel (accessing it using stone hammers
and anvils)3 and its apical meristem (by pounding it witha pestle-like leaf-petiole)4. In contrast, the Semliki chimpanzees in Uganda appear not to eat any part of the oil
palm5. Researchers have observed the Mahale chimpanzees in Tanzania since the 1960s and have not observed
these chimpanzees eating any part of the oil palm6,7, but
in 2010 they started to eat the pith of the oil palm. This
paper presents two observations of oil palm eating anddiscusses the triggers for this behavior.

METHODS

We studied the chimpanzees in Mahale Mountains
National Park, Tanzania 8, from July 7 to December 4,2010 (MN), and from December 5, 2010, to January 18,
2011 (KZ). AR supported MN and KZ as a field assistant.
We observed M group chimpanzees (total observation
time of MN is 410.9 hr and that of KZ is 184.5 hr) but
were not focused specifically on oil palm-eating behavior.
We used the ad libitum sampling method9 when chimpanzees were eating parts of the oil palm.

OBSERVATIONS

Case 1
On August 23, 2010, MN and AR followed Darwin,
an adult male, who joined a party with 15 individuals. At
09:56, some chimpanzees fought in a bush, and at 10:22,
Darwin walked from the bush to an observation trail. MN
and AR followed him, and AR cut a frond of oil palm thatwas in the way with a machete.
At 10:25, Mitsue, a 9-year-old female, and Michio, a14-year-old male and a brother of Mitsue, came from thebush to the observation trail. Michio started to groom
Darwin, and Mitsue picked up the cut frond and transported it on her back (Figure 1). The frond was 160 cm
long and was cut at one end. At 10:27, Mitsue lay down on
the frond, and then broke the stem of the frond, stripped
the rind from the frond with her teeth and hand, split thepith of the frond, and chewed the pith (Figure 2). At 10:31,
Mitsue was still chewing the wadge, but Darwin andMichio did not appear to be interested in her behavior. At
10:36, she split the pith again and chewed it for about 40

Pan Africa News, 18(1), June 2011

Figure 1. Mitsue transports an oil palm
frond cut by a human.

7

Figure 2. Mitsue lies down on the oilpalm frond and chews its pith.

seconds. Then she lay down on the ground.
At 10:40, Mitsue got up and transported the frond on
her back. Then she placed it on her neck, walked about
2 m, and sat on the ground hugging it. At 10:48, Darwin,
Michio, and Mitsue moved and left the remaining frond
on the ground.
Case 2On January 15, 2011, KZ and AR observed a party
consisting of 10 chimpanzees including Mitsue (four adultfemales, one adult male, one young female, one young
male, two infant females, and one infant male). Four
tourists with a park ranger and a tourist guide were also
watching them. At 10:43, another two tourists with a park
ranger and a tourist guide appeared after the preceding
tourist group left. After 20 minutes, the park ranger cut
several mature oil-palm fronds with a machete to makeway for the approaching chimpanzees.
At 11:17, Mitsue picked up and transported a piece ofthe frond cut by the ranger. The piece was 90 cm long andwas cut at both ends. Mitsue sat on the ground and licked
the end that was wet with sap. At 11:26, she stripped therind from the frond with her teeth and hand, split its pith,and chewed the pith. Two infant females, Lilim (three
years old) and CY08 (two years old), approached andwatched Mitsue chewing the wadge of pith. At 11:29,
Lilim started to split the pith of the frond held by Mitsue.
Mitsue continued chewing her wadge and allowed Lilim
to take it, but CY08 snatched the fragment of pith split by
Lilim (Figure 3). CY08 climbed a tree, put the pith into
her mouth, and chewed it. At 11:30, Mitsue split the pithagain and chewed it. Lilim approached Mitsue and tried totake the pith from her again, but Mitsue would not allow
her to take it.
At 11:33, the party left the area and the wadge remained on the ground (Figure 4). KZ tasted another pieceof frond cut from the same area; it was insipid.

Figure 3. CY08 (right) takes a pieceof oil palm frond pith. Mitsue (left)
keeps the oil palm frond.

baboons (Papio cynocephalus) and red-tailed monkeys(Cercopithecus ascanius), which are common diurnalmonkeys in Mahale. Thus, the oil palms in Mahale are
edible, and the Mahale chimpanzees have the opportunity
to learn to eat parts of the oil palm from other species, butthey have not previously been observed doing so.
No animals or humans in the Mahale Mountains havebeen observed eating the pith of the oil palm, so Mitsue
may be a pioneer. Chimpanzees in Gombe and Bossou
have been observed eating the pith of the oil-palm frond,
but they used a different feeding technique than that usedby the Mahale chimpanzees. The Bossou chimpanzees
pull or break a young soft frond from and eat its base on

Figure 4. Wadge remained on the ground.

DISCUSSION

Local people living near Mahale eat some parts of
the oil palm. They make cooking oil from the pericarp,
make alcohol from the tree’s sap, and eat the kernel of theoil palm. The local people use stone hammers and anvils,
and these tools with cracked nuts and kernels, which wereused by local people, were observed in the home range ofthe M group of chimpanzees in 2000 (KZ personal observation, Figure 5) and in 1996 (W. C. McGrew personalcommunication). The pericarp is also eaten by yellow

Figure 5. A stone hammer and anvil used by local people
in the home range of the M-group. Cracked nuts and thekernels are scattered around the anvil. This picture wastaken in 2000.

Pan Africa News, 18(1), June 20118
the top of oil palm tree or on the ground (G. Ohashi personal communication). The Gombe chimpanzees also eat
young fronds using their hands and mouth (S. Kamenya
personal communication). In contrast, the Mahale chimpanzees do not climb the oil palm tree or pull out fronds.
Mitsue was observed picking up fronds from the groundafter they were cut by humans; neither Gombe or Bossou
chimpanzees have been observed eating the pith of afrond cut by a human (S. Kamenya and G. Ohashi personal communication).
Table 1. Items transported by Mitsue during 18 days ofobservation from December 5, 2010, to January 18, 2011.

Item
Fruit of Pycnanthus angolensis
Fruit of Saba comorensis
Pod of Parkia filicoidea
Stem of Ampelocissus cavicaulis vine
Stem of Cissus oliveri vine
Herb
BranchBranch of Lecaniodiscus fraxinifolius
Fragment of deadwood
Piece of bark
Feather of Guineafowl (Guttera
pucherani)10
Frond of oil palm
Total

Edible
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
N
N
N
N
N
N

N
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

*

1
14

*: case 2

It is remarkable that human activity inspired chimpanzees to try a new food item even though it was unintentional. People working in Mahale must cut many plantsthat are in the way, but chimpanzees do not pay particularattention to most cut plants even when they are edible.
Mitsue was unusually curious especially about objects
and picked up various items from the ground regardless ofwhether they were edible (Table 1). The cut frond might
have just been one of these items to transport, and she
may have discovered incidentally that it was edible.
A cut frond of an oil palm is uninteresting to most of
chimpanzees, but after Mitsue began to pay attention toit, infant females also started to take notice of it. Most of
novel behavioral patterns have not spread to many otherindividuals7, so it is difficult to predict whether this novel
food item will become a cultural food for the Mahale
chimpanzees. A follow-up survey will be required.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank TAWIRI, TANAPA and COSTECH for permission to do the field research, and MMNP and MMWRC
for logistic support. We also thank Dr. William C. McGrew,
Dr. Shadrack Kamenya and Dr. Gaku Ohashi for valuablecomments and Dr. Toshisada Nishida for his kind support.
This study was financially supported by the Grant-in-Aid for
Scientific Research (A) (#19255008 to T. Nishida) and ITPHOPE (Primate Origins of Human Evolution) program of
JSPS.

REFERENCES

1. McGrew WC 1992. Chimpanzee Material Culture.

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
2. Wrangham RW 1975. The Behavioural Ecology of
Chimpanzees in Gombe National Park. Ph.D. Thesis,
University of Cambridge, Cambridge.
3. Sugiyama Y, Koman J 1987. A preliminary list of chimpanzees’ alimentation at Bossou, Guinea. Primates
28:133–147.
4. Yamakoshi G, Sugiyama Y 1995. Pestle-pounding behavior of wild chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea: a newly
observed tool-using behavior. Primates 36:489–500.
5. McGrew WC, Marchant LF, Payne C, Webster T, Hunt K
2010. Chimpanzees at Semliki ignore oil palms. Pan Afr
News 17:19–21.
6. Nishida T, Wrangham RW, Goodall J, Uehara S 1983.
Local differences in plant-feeding habits of chimpanzees
between the Mahale Mountains and Gombe National
Park, Tanzania. J Hum Evol 12:467–480.
7. Nishida T, Matsusaka T, McGrew WC 2009. Emergence,
propagation or disappearance of novel behavioral patterns in the habituated chimpanzees of Mahale: a review.
Primates 50:23–36.
8. Nishida T 1990. A quarter century of research in the
Mahale Mountains: an overview. In: The Chimpanzeesof the Mahale Mountains, Nishida T (ed), Univ. of Tokyo
Press, Tokyo, pp. 3–35.
9. Altmann J 1974. Observational study of behavior: sampling methods. Behaviour 49:227–267.
10. Nakamura M 2009. Aesthete in the forest? A female chimpanzee at Mahale collected and carried guineafowl feathers. Pan Afr News 16:17–19.

<NOTE>

Immigration of a Large
Number of Adolescent Female
Chimpanzees into the Mahale
M GroupTakashi Hayakawa1, Mai
Nakashima2 & Michio Nakamura2
1 Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan
2 Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Japan(E-mail: hayatak@pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp)

INTRODUCTION

Female chimpanzees usually transfer between unitgroups on reaching sexual maturity1. All chimpanzees
in the Mahale M group have been identified since 19802.
Following this date, the maximum number of normal
adolescent female immigrations into the M group was 3
per year (Ref. 2, Table 1). Larger number of immigrants
was only observed when several adult females transferred
into the M group in the course of the K group extinction 2.
However, in 2010, an extraordinarily large number ofadolescent females transferred into the M group. Thus, wereport here the episodes that occurred when we first observed these females. We also discuss the possible reasons
why such a large number of immigrations occurred.

OBSERVATIONSIn 2010, 5 adolescent females immigrated into thePan Africa News, 18(1), June 20119

M group. This number is extraordinarily large comparedto the annual level of immigration over the last 20 years(Table 1). The 5 chimpanzees were named after completing recognition of their faces and characteristics (Figure
1).
Table 1. Annual number of newly immigrated adolescentfemales into the M group between 1991 and 2010. The
possible immigration of orphans was excluded here. Alldata came from the long-term data shared by the Mahale
Mountains Chimpanzee Research Project. *This study.

Year

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00

No. immigrants

1

Year

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

No. immigrants

1

1
1

3
1

2
0

0
1

0
2

2
0

1
1

0
0

0
5*

The first immigrant, Yuna, was first observed byNakamura in the northern part of the M group’s range
at about noon on January 11, 2010. Yuna’s sexual skinshowed full swelling. She was groomed by an adolescentfemale, Xantip. Half an hour later, the party, including
Yuna, moved further north, and observations ceased forthe remainder of that day. Since then, Yuna has remainedin the M group.
The second immigrant, Hadija, was first observedfor 2 hours by Nakamura in the southeastern part of the
M group’s range at about noon on June 23, 2010. Hadija’s
sexual skin showed full swelling. She was groomed by
the first immigrant, Yuna, one of the oldest adult females,
Calliope, 3 adult males, Fanana, Pimu, and Orion, andan adolescent male, Christmas. She only reciprocallygroomed Orion in the form of mutual grooming, and thencopulated with him. She also copulated with the oldest
male, Kalunde. She was observed on occasion in June andJuly, but disappeared after a sighting on August 5, 2010.
The third immigrant, Juju, was first observed byNakashima in the middle of the M group’s range at about
5 p.m. on September 4, 2010. Juju’s sexual skin was not
swelling much. She was sitting on a tree with 2 adolescentfemales, Xantip and Puffy, and a juvenile female, Zuhura.
When an adult female, Gwekulo, climbed the tree, the 3

young females threatened Juju, and Juju screamed. The
fuss caused charges by nearby males, while Gwekulo andthe other resident females left the site. Since Nakashima
was following Gwekulo on that day, the observation of
Juju was terminated. An hour later, Juju was found again
in a tree. An adult male, Primus, came and sat near her.
Then, the alpha male, Pimu, climbed the tree excitedly,chased Primus, and beat Juju. Subsequently, Juju copulated with an adult male, Orion, and then Orion and anadolescent male, Christmas, simultaneously groomed
her. When Primus rushed to the site, Orion immediately
left, but Christmas beat Juju. Overall, she was groomed
by Primus, Orion, and Christmas, but she groomed only
Yuna.
The fourth immigrant, Badiri, was first observed by
Hayakawa in the middle of the M group’s range at aboutnoon on November 15, 2010. Badiri’s sexual skin showed
full swelling. When Hayakawa followed a juvenile male,
Teddy, who was walking alone, Badiri was found accompanying the first immigrant, Yuna. Badiri left the location
when Teddy (and Hayakawa) came closer. On the morningof November 30, 2010, Hayakawa followed Badiri, whoseskin was not swelling much. When Badiri approached asmall party, which consisted of 2 adult females, Omo andUa, 2 adolescent males, Caesar and Emory, and Teddy,
she was attacked by Ua. Badiri screamed touching her
left nipple with the right hand. She continued to touchin this manner for several tens of seconds, although she
became quiet on the way. Afterwards, she was again seen
to touch her left nipple with the right hand for 10 seconds
while pant-hooting. An hour later, when she was travelling alone, she was threatened by an adolescent female,
Xantip.
The fifth immigrant, Rajua, was first observed by
Hayakawa in the middle of the M group’s range on themorning of December 3, 2010. Rajua’s sexual skin was
not swelling much. She was sitting on a tree close to a bed
where 2 former immigrants, Juju and Badiri, were sitting,while a few males were on the ground beneath. About 30
minutes later, the 3 immigrants were attacked by resident
adult females and dispersed. Subsequently, Hayakawa
followed Calliope. At 3 p.m., Calliope was eating
the fruit of Saba comorensis, and the 3 immigrants
came closer and ate the same type of fruit, nearby.
Twenty minutes later, the 3 immigrants groomed
Calliope. Juju and Badiri groomed Calliope’s back,while Rajua groomed Calliope’s back and rightleg. During grooming, an adult male, Alofu, camebeneath the tree. Juju and Badiri approached Alofu
once, but returned quickly. An hour later, Calliope
left alone. Although Calliope was followed andobserved until 7 p.m., she did not meet any immigrants again on that day.
Among the 5 immigrants in 2010, 4 remainedin the M group for at least a few months, but Hadija
has not been observed again.

DISCUSSION

Previous studies indicate that newly immi-

Figure 1. Immigrants in 2010, and the months of first observation. grated females are received in a friendly mannerPhotos by T. Hayakawa (Yuna and Badiri), M. Nakamura (Hadija),
by males but with hostility by resident females3.
and S. Inoue (Juju and Rajua).

10
Our observations of grooming and copulation with males
and attacks by females were concordant with this notion.
However, we also recorded attacks by males and friendly
behaviors with resident females. It should also be notedthat we observed affinitive relationships among the immigrants. Hadija, Juju, and Badiri were accompanied by
Yuna when first observed. Moreover, Juju, Badiri, andRajua fed with and groomed Calliope simultaneously.
One possibility is that these immigrants identified one another as just migrating into the M group, and thus readily
associated. Another possibility is that all or almost all ofthem had immigrated from the same natal group, and thus
already knew one another. However, since the M groupis the only currently habituated unit-group at Mahale, it
is difficult to determine more about the natal group(s) ofthem.
The M group once received many immigrants in thecourse of the K group extinction4. The unusually large
number of immigrants in 2010 might also be a result ofsimilar extinction of a nearby unit-group. However, it ispremature to conclude this, because at the time of the Kgroup extinction, not only adolescents but also up to 6 parous adult females per year immigrated into the M group2.
If group extinction is the case, the M group should also
receive many adult females in the near future.
Female immigration contributes to behavioral variations of the unit-group, which may or may not be directly
connected with genetic variations. In this respect, it isinteresting that Badiri pressed her nipple in an apparently habitual fashion. This behavior is known as “nipple
press,” which only a certain portion of Mahale chimpanzees do5, although the mechanism for this behavioral variation has not been investigated in detail. Immigrants often
have idiosyncratic habits, which are likely to be customsof their natal groups6,7. Therefore, it is interesting to see
how these immigrants and their different behavioral customs will cope with the existing M group customs.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was financially supported by JSPS (ITPHOPE to T. Hayakawa and M. Nakashima, and KAKENHI#21770262 to M. Nakamura). We thank COSTECH, TAWIRI,and TANAPA for permission to conduct this research at
Mahale. We are also grateful to K. Hosaka, S. Inoue, T.
Matsumoto, and other MMCRP members for the provision of
information about the Mahale M group.

REFERENCES

1. Nishida T, Kawanaka K 1972. Inter-unit-group relationships among wild chimpanzees of the Mahali Mountains.
Kyoto Univ Afr Stud 7:131–169.
2. Nishida T, Takasaki H, Takahata Y 1990. Demography
and reproductive profiles. In: The Chimpanzees of theMahale Mountains. Nishida T (ed), University of Tokyo
Press, Tokyo, pp. 63–97.
3. Nishida T 1989. Social interaction between resident
and immigrant female chimpanzees. In: Understanding
Chimpanzees. Heltne PG, Marquardt LA (eds), Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, pp. 68–89.
4. Nishida T, Hiraiwa-Hasegawa M, Hasegawa T, Takahata
Y 1985. Group extinction and female transfer in wild
chimpanzees in the Mahale National Park, Tanzania. Z
Tierpsychol 67:284–301.
5. Nishida T, Matsusaka T, McGrew WC 2009. Emergence,

Pan Africa News, 18(1), June 2011
propagation or disappearance of novel behavioral patterns in the habituated chimpanzees of Mahale: a review.
Primates 50:23–36.
6. Sakamaki T 1998. First record of algae-feeding by a female chimpanzee at Mahale. Pan Afr News 5:1–3.
7. Nakamura M, Itoh N 2005. Notes on the behavior of a
newly immigrated female chimpanzee to the Mahale M
group. Pan Afr News 12:20–22.

<NEWS>Bush Fire Control Using Arbors
in Green Corridor Project at
BossouNaruki Morimura1, Gaku Ohashi2,
Aly Gaspard Soumah3 & Tetsuro
Matsuzawa4
1 Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Japan
2 Japan Monkey Centre, Japan
3 In st it ut de Recherche Environne mentale de Bossou ,Guinea4 Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan(E-mail: nmorimura@wrc.kyoto-u.ac.jp)

A group of chimpanzees live near Bossou in Guinea,
West Africa. Bossou is a village located west of the
Nimba Mountains, the only World Natural Heritagesite (UNESCO/MAB) in Guinea. Bossou chimpanzees
are well known to use a variety of different tools thathave been studied in details over the past 35 years1. The
number of chimpanzees in Bossou community are stable,counting 19 individuals on average (range: 16 –22) from1976 to 2003, but we have lost five chimpanzees due to
flu-like epidemic in November 20032,3. The number ofBossou chimpanzees are now 12, stabilized over the past
three years. No female chimpanzees immigrated since
the beginning of field study. The Green Corridor Project4,
a tree plantation effort has begun in 1997 as a 4 km
long expanse across the savanna area separating Bossou
from Nimba Mountains 5,6. The project is expected topromote individual interchange between the Bossou andNimba groups as part of the conservation effort of wild
chimpanzees.
Since our initial efforts 8 years ago, some forest tree
species, such as Uapaca heudelotii, have survived wellwhen planted in the savanna7. We have also piloted a workof sapling nursery using chimpanzees’ feces. Saplings
grown from feces secreted by chimpanzees, commonly
known as seed dispersal, were planted in savanna.
Naturally, the germinating rate of seeds increases, whenseeds pass through the intestine of a chimpanzee. We applied seed dispersion in natural ecosystem into a plantation. We have taken care of saplings in a tree nursery with
sufficient humidity and filtered sunlight. After the saplings grown up to over 50 cm high, we have transported
them into the savanna. Unfortunately, the saplings were
exposed to strong sunshine in the savanna, and then someof them died within a few days. To protect the fragile
saplings, we have planted them in manioc field or covered

Pan Africa News, 18(1), June 201111

Figure 1. Local workers in Bossou take care of arbors in
the corridor.

Figure 2. Bush fire expanded again into the corridor area
on February 7th, 2011.

the saplings by HEXATUBE (Phytoculture Control corp.)
to reach better success rate. With this effort, we managed
to protect saplings from drought and strong sunshine insavanna.
We found that young trees should be grown undersimilar condition as the nursery condition after transportation to the savanna. We have set out arbors to coversaplings to minimize damage caused by solar insolationin the savanna. The arbors that are about 1.8 m in height
were constructed from natural materials such as bamboos as columns, leaf stalks of Raffia as beams, and palm
leaves as roof. The arbors provide shadow over the sapling during strong sunshine, while the arbors mold gradually as days go by. We began this new protocol employing three arbors and transplanted 25 Uapaca heudelotti
saplings under each of them (i.e., 75 saplings in total) in
20078. We have constructed 23 arbors until September
2008.
Moreover, we set a 10-m-wide and 4-km-long firebreak gap area by removing dry vegetation as a corridor
system, because the arbors are highly susceptible to bush
fire, especially in dry season. Local people at Bossou andSeringbara patrolled and took care of the corridor area
(Figure 1). However, bush fire occurred outside of the corridor expended and burned 11 out of 23 arbors on January
20th, 2009. Fortunately we have managed to recover up
to 27 arbors in the corridor, after the bushfire. We also cut
the grass intensively in the area of 3 to 5 m around arbors
and at maintenance pass in dry season, from January until
March 2011.
On February 7th, 2011, bush fire entered into thecorridor again by skipping a 10-m-wide firebreak due tostrong wind (Figure 2). A post-survey estimated that thefire burned about one-third of the corridor area. At thesame time, the survey found that the arbors in the corridor had no damage at all from the fire. The bush firesurrounded eight arbors at least, and then stopped besides
them. The reason is that the grass was cut in the corridor.
We had also taken away all dried grass and dead woods
around arbors before the bush fire occurred. Even if fire
intensified when windy, the wind passed over a few lying
dry materials on the ground around arbors, preventing
blaze. As the result showed, the fire got weak and stopped

in front of the arbors. Green patches of young trees atarbors looked like islands on burnt remains of savanna(Figure 3).
Our experience proved that the arbors with sufficient
care played a similar role as the firebreak. The bush fire
stopped at the line of the arbors and passed over them.
While a 10-m-wide firebreak is effective to prevent direct
expansion of bush fire to reach the corridor, it is also difficult to sweep dry material through long distances in orderto keep the firebreak clean from debris. It is not very realistic to prevent getting the bush fire into the corridor completely, but it should be controlled to minimize damage toyoung trees and arbors. Daily care of cutting the grass isnecessary to keep the lookout on all the areas surrounding arbors and/or planted trees sufficiently. The more weconstruct and take care of the arbors with sufficient care,such as cutting the grass, the corridor area will have moreresistance to the bush fire.
Saplings can grow up in savanna. Some of young
trees became over 4 m high after removing arbors. Oncethe roots of the saplings deeply inside the ground, theygrow up to be a young tree, an arbor is no longer necessary for the tree to survive under such severe conditionsin the savanna. Grown trees shadow other saplings beneath them, which takes more time to grow under the

Figure 3. The post-survey found that the bush fire
stopped at a line of arbors and at its maintenance passwith sufficient care of cutting the grass.

12
filtered sunlight. When the height of young trees reaches
the roof of the arbors, we take away all molded remainsof columns, beams, and roof. Those natural materials are
possibly sustainable resources in a course of natural ecosystem. In 2011, we have a plan to plant 20,000 saplingsin to the corridors with the support by Toyota Foundation.
Green Corridor Project has entered into a new phase byintroducing the arbors procedure in larger scale of ourtree plantation.

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by MEXT-20002001
to TM. The current project is also funded by the HOPE project(21-010, AS-22-023) of Primate Research Institute of Kyoto
University to NM, the Toyota Environmental Activities Grant
Program (G2010-009) of Toyota Motor Corporation to TM,
and the Environment Research and Technology Development
Fund (D-1007) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan to
TM. Thanks are also due to the Guinean authorities, Dr. Gnan
Clotaire Maomy from the DNRST. We thank the contributions for promoting this project such as Bouna Zogbila, Remy
Touré, and Diri Bamba. We are also grateful for the effort ofcolleagues who contributed this project during various stages;
Drs. Yukimaru Sugiyama, Gen Yamakoshi, Tatyana Humle,
and Nicolas Granier. Thanks are given to Mr. Michael Seres
for insightful comments related to an earlier version of themanuscript.

References

1. Mat su z awa T, Hu m le T, Sug iya ma Y 2011. T he
Chimpanzees of Bossou and Nimba. Springer, Tokyo.
2. Biro D, Humle T, Koops K, Sousa C, Hayashi M,
Matsuzawa T 2010. Chimpanzee mothers at Bossou,
Guinea carry the mummified remains of their dead infants. Curr Biol 20:R351–R352.
3. Humle T 2011. The 2003 epidemic of a flu-like respiratory disease at Bossou. In: The Chimpanzees of Bossou
and Nimba. Matsuzawa T, Humle T, Sugiyama Y (eds)
Springer, Tokyo, pp. 325–334.
4. Matsuzawa T, Kourouma M 2008. The Green Corridor
Project: long-term research and conservation in Bossou,
Guinea. In: Science and Conservation in African Forests:
the Benefits of Long-Term Research. Wrangham R, Ross
E (eds), Cambridge Univ Press, New York, pp. 201–212.
5. Matsuzawa T, Ohashi G, Humle T, Granier N, Kourouma
M, Soumah AG 2011. Green Corridor Project: planting
trees in the savanna between Bossou and Nimba. In: The
Chimpanzees of Bossou and Nimba. Matsuzawa T, Humle
T, Sugiyama Y (eds), Springer, Tokyo, pp. 361–370.
6. Hirata S, Morimura N, Matsuzawa T 1998. Green passage
plan (tree-planting project) and environmental education
using documentary videos at Bossou: a progress report.
Pan Afr News 5:18–20.
7. Matsuzawa T 2007. Assessment of the planted trees inGreen Corridor Project. Pan Afr News 14:27–29.
8. Ohashi G, Hasegawa R, Kourouma M, Matsuzawa T
2008. Arbors and cuttings: new trials for green corridor
project at Bossou-Nimba. Pan Afr News 15:20–23.

ANNOUNCEMENT
URL for Pan Africa News has changed. Please visit the
new web page and update your bookmark.

http://mahale.main.jp/PAN/

Pan Africa News, 18(1), June 2011

<BOOK INFO>

Edited by Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Tatyana Humle & Yukimaru
Sugiyama

The Chimpanzees of Bossou
and Nimba
The chimpanzees ofBossou in Guinea, WestAf r ica , for m a u n iquecom mu nit y which displays an exceptional arrayof tool use behaviors andbehavioral adaptations
to coexistence with humans. This communityof Pan troglodytes verus
h a s c o nt r i b u t e d m o r ethan three decades of data
to the f ield of cult ural
primatology, especiallychimpanzees’ flexible useof stones to crack open
nuts and of per ishable
tools during foraging activities. The book highlights the
special contribution of the long-term research at Bossou
and more recent studies in surrounding areas, particularlyin the Nimba Mountains and the forest of Diécké, to ourunderstanding of wild chimpanzees’ tool use, cognitive
development, lithic technology and culture. This compilation of research principally strives to uncover thecomplexity of the mind and behavioral flexibility of ourclosest living relatives. This work also reveals the necessity for ongoing efforts to conserve chimpanzees in theregion. Chimpanzees have shed more light on our evolutionary origins than any other extant species in the world,
yet their numbers in the wild are rapidly declining. In thatsense, the Bossou chimpanzees and their neighbors clearly embody an invaluable cultural heritage for humanity as
a whole.
465 pages
Springer
Published 2011
Hardcover 149,95€
ISBN: 978-4-431-53920-9

Pan Africa News, Vol. 18, No.1
Published in June, 2011
Address: c/o Human Evolution Studies,
Dept. of Zoology, Faculty of Science,
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ISSN: 1884-751X (Print), 1884-7528 (Online)