Archive for the ‘Chimpanzees’ Category
Hello every one,I have a great pleasure to introduce the O.A.N monitoring team to you so that you know them. These people must make a long walk in the thick mountainous equatorial forest of Ruwenzori, climbing up steep slopes through thick greenish forest ever vigilant, hoping for a glimpse,at a very least of the the chimps. The hike is strenuous, so frequent stops are needed to catch one’s breath . But I do appreciate the great job these people are doing and go through every day.
One of the aspects of the environment on which the monitoring team carry out their daily activities The first one to introduce will be Mr Philemon,he is within the bush tracking chimps in the mountainous area tracking the chimps ,as we were not likely to meet them , as usually as far as they still wild. He is showing me one of the fruits on which the great apes were foraging on. Mr Philemon and his team are used to meet these great apes during his daily routine activities, the problem is he does not have any camera, otherwise he could be providing all of you with a lot of pictures of the great apes.
Such good initiatives of having local people involved in conservation will ultimately lead to the effective conservation of one of the world’s most incredible habitat.
Me with all the monitoring team tracking chimps,they are used to the mountainous zone and have got high speed,they do fascinate me by their speed at which they climb the sloping area but unfortunately we saw another more indirect evidence testifying the presence of the great ape in the area, the fresh chimp’s dung as shown below on the picture:
To locate chimps during the night time, we listen to screams from the mountain.
In the area where I have not yet surveyed, Rangers have been there for patrol in the Kasindi area bordering with the Republic of Uganda. Rangers have reported to me that during their stays in the mountain they have heard screams of chimpanzee from the mountain. Unfortunately for them they could not go further because a Ugandan army the U.P.D.F invaded the area. More than 200 soldiers crossed the border and entered in D.R.C in the mountainous area, and the Rangers patrol was not able to progress in the area. So they went back to their patrol post in Lubiliha. SO a Monitoring Team should be sent quickly. It is more like an emergency. Their main duty will be to track the chimps everyday and keep a record about their movement, their location and feeding pattern including a food record. The team also needs to record about the population size of the group they meet with in the forest and their structure, also to identify the threats.
Friends of Nature (OAN - Organization des Amis de la Nature) people have got a nice monitoring team. They are mountainous people. They know very well the Ruwenzori mountain. Myself I do admire these characters. Even if it rains while excursion in the mountainous forest, with cold breeze and cloudy atmosphere, they are ready to go ahead.
What is so unfortunate for these Friends of Nature, they do not have any adequate equipment to work with in such rough environment, even rations to eat before going for monitoring duty they do not have it. Every one have to eat from his home, and thus reduce their efficiency on the field. Dear brothers in Conservation. The last 3 posts are some of the evidences what I have recorded during my 3 days field visit in the mountainous area. On these pictures you have seen the pristine mountainous forest of Ruwenzori which is the home of chimps. I hope you enjoy your reading.
The DR Congo flag is behind me
The Ruwenzori area has so much potential and there is plenty of food for these primates. Everywhere you go there is ripe fruits which are a source of food for chimps, as you can see this tree loaded with ripe fruits.
Food for chimps
They like to stay around and eat their fill. They enjoy to drink the content of these particular fruits mostly as nowadays we are facing a rain season in this particular area, so chimps are harvesting, Near these trees overloaded with ripe fruit you will found many nests.
Another tree loaded with fruits, this constitutes one of the vivid evidences showing that there is availability of food in the area
During the dry season generally there is scarcity of food in the mountainous area. Chimps then move to the villagers’ farms in a fragmented group of 3 or 4 to raid bananas or local brew from villagers. This can create human wildlife conflict. Dry season here is going to take place in February up to 15th of March.
So many illegal activities are taking place in the area of the Ruwenzori mountains, as we realise it in my previous post. During my recent field visit in the area it was impossible to cover all the Ruwenzori area - it is120km long I have been only Mwenda area under control of O.A.N as sample, where we encountered so many illegal activities - activities which are not compatible with conservation because they disturb the habitat and the chimpanzees themselves inside their natural environment. That’s why it has been so difficult for my team to see and to meet these great apes, but so many evidences have been observed in the field such as Nest of chimpanzees.
As you know chimpanzees build nests in which they spend their night or when taking rest during the day time.
This is the environment in which chimps live. The two white houses you see on this picture are a ranger post and an entrance gate for people who climb the mountain. Note the pristine forest. Please we are not allowed to leave this beautiful and unique ecosystem with a lot of potentiality under threat. We tracked chimpanzees for about 5 hours. We were tired, sweating and hungry with our legs unable to carry us any further. At some point we had to use our hands to prevent us rolling down hill.
It is not easy to track down chimpanzees, in a mountainous area. You should have to behave like a chimps, to follow their tracks. I do not know if you are getting the clear picture of the situation. Imagine what its look like in a mountainous area with steep hills. It was difficult to meet with chimps!
More than twenty nest of chimpanzee were seen in the sampled area, but if we investigate in deep really i believe we must found many nest. As I said the chimps have been frustrated. This particular area has been used for more than 20 years since 1986 for military operational purposes conducted by the Ugandan army when they were tracking A.D.F /NALU rebels who are hostile to the actual Ugandan regime. Once upon a time they were taking refuge in this chimpanzee habitat- poaching, timber harvesting, land clearing and the like, so when human beings approach they run away and take refuge in patches of a riverine forest found in an inaccessible gorge. It is a kind of defense mechanism that they have developed in order to survive from different threats of different kinds.
As you can realise on this picture, the team working with me in the monitoring department. Observe the picture carefully, some of them are wearing sandals. Also the monitoring team should be putting on clothes which blend with the environment, the best one is green color, because the whitish or reddish one scare the animals. So on this visit we only saw foot prints. Nests were observed, which is a good indicator showing that really they are in the area.
I will post more about the availability of food and the vocal communication of chimpanzees in a few days!
The Ruwenzori mountain chimpanzees are facing a lot of threats, because so many illegal activities are taking place in the area,and you should know that people face considerable challenges that are triggered by poverty,political instability so in order to satisfy their basic day to day needs, people don’t have other alternatives,most of the people do get their daily bread using hand hoe farming activities,burning agriculture, so imagine what can be their life standard, some people with bad will in order to make quick money they prefer to conduct illegals activities which are not so friendly to the environment,during my preliminary field survey in the area the following illegal activities were identified: -logging activities
-illegal and unplanned fire caused by burning agriculture
-Poaching activities both with guns and dogs,snare
-Deforestation -Timber harvesting During my visit in the area one of the local chief whom i found full involved in timber harvesting activities told me that, some months back he was an activist in the O.A.N association, then after he did not get any benefit from protecting chimpanzees in Mwenda that why in order to survive , he has been oblige to leave the association and to start logging and harvesting timber in the area,unfortunately different activities which are taking place in the area are not compatible with the conservation of fauna and Flora.
The Chimpanzees conservation Project in The Ruwenzori mountains. The Ruwenzori mountain is called also the mountain of the moon,it is located in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, it marks the boundary between the Republic of Uganda and the Democratic Republic Of Congo, it is the third African highest mountain with 5119 meters of altitude, but the first highest mountain in Central Africa, its particularity is that it is located in the middle of the Equator, with ice on the top of its summits.
This mountain is home of chimpanzees and others primates such as white and black colobus monkeys, Olive Baboons, Blue monkeys. These primates are found between 1300 m of altitude and 2650 m of altitude. This mountain is one of the hot spots as far as biodiversity is concerned and one of the many tourist attractions in DRC. Protected areas in Africa have seen their buffer zone disappear because human activities are encroaching the boundary of the national park. But in the Ruwenzori area, still between the boundary of the national Park and the human settlement there is an existing buffer zone, a beautiful and pristine forest which is home of chimpanzees. During the dry season when there is not enough food available within the forest, these primates raid on crops from villagers farms,visit their breweries where they drink local brew made by local communities, raids on sugar canne farms, banana farms, creating them human wildlife conflicts in the area.
O.A.N. office in Mwenda So in the area, there is a village called Mwenda, its is a Protestant mission, local community people have organized themselves in an association called [ O.A.N], it is a French word,which stand for Organization Des Amis de la Nature, translating in English, it means,[Friends of Nature Organization..],and they have assigned themselves the following mission: -To ensure long term conservation of the Ruwenzori ecosystem and welfare of Ruwenzori chimpanzees Population - To reduce conflict between chimpanzees and human being or farmers around the wildlife communities reserve -To identify areas where human and wildlife are living in conflict -To stop land degradation of the Ruwenzori mountain
-To stop deforestation, logging activities, hunting, poaching activities from soldiers based in the area.
-To involve local communities living along side the mountainous area to protect the pristine mountainous forest and to maintain its biodiversity, genetic resources,natural process and cultural value in the mountain of the moon ecosystem, also to educate local people about the importance of conserving the chimpanzees, because on the long run the Ruwenzori ecosystem can be used in a sustainable way, and local communities are the ones who are going to benefit from different activities which will be taking place inside and around the mountains
In this picture I am in the middle with local villagers -As you know The O.A.N is just a pilot project, because chimpanzees are widely spread along the Ruwenzori mountain, they are so many, so our vision is to extend the conservation of the chimpanzees found in Ruwenzori, make a network of chimpanzees conservation association in all the villagers surrounding the Ruwenzori ecosystem on the Congolese side. Dear brothers conservationists, and friends of Nature, what I would like to tell you is that, we are starting this project on the grass route. Local communities are willing to conserve this Ruwenzori ecosystem, but we do not have any mean,even the office itself is in rough conditions. Rations for monitoring team in order to get reliable data from the field is not available, field equipments such as rain coats the color should blend with the environment, boats,G.P.S,Knife for field activities, tents,camera for field in order to be sending you the actual state of these great apes from the field and others evidences from the real field. Monitoring People get injured when conducting field activities, but we do not have medicine to treat them, so when back from the field if one of our fellow has been injured, we just send him at his home without any assistance, which is not so good, I do think also about the motivation of this monitoring team. They are 20 villagers who have volunteered to do the job and already they are present on the field , monitoring chimpanzees but if they are not motivated they will be discouraged soon. Monitoring activities in a mountainous area is not an easy task.
For myself Wambale I am the one who is providing technical advise to the association,the headquarter where I am based is 12 km from where I have implemented the pilot project, but i am telling you the true, even to reach Mwenda is a big challenges for me. We should know and note that wildlife exist in limited quantity and are exhaustible, the ability to maintain them depend in great measure on how they are managed, so I hope that this message will give you a general idea of what is going on in the Ruwenzori Mountain on the Congolese side, under control of the The Northern sector of the Virunga National Park/Mutsora station. I would like to thank Sherri S. for her kind donation. My first one!!!! |
|
