Italian
Embark on a journey through the majestic Bugondo Forest in Uganda, discovering chimpanzees, blue monkeys, colobus monkeys, snakes, chameleons, butterflies, and other creatures in their natural habitat… what surprises await us?
We leave our lodge still in darkness aboard a 4×4 heading to the Bugondo forest. The clear sky gives us the sight of splendid constellations. At these latitudes, it feels like we can touch the stars with our hands! The rainy season is not over, and just a few hours ago, a very strong storm hit, but in the Tropics, good weather comes in a flash. Around 6 o’clock, the sun appears on the horizon. Here is a new dawn. The ochre-colored dirt road winds through a lush and extraordinary forest. The sky turns pink. Due to last night’s rain, a thin layer of fog rises, slowly dissipating, allowing the sun’s rays to illuminate the jungle around us, making the green leaves of the large trees, still wet, shine.
We stop to observe the magnificence of the unspoiled nature that surrounds us. By the side of the road, a chameleon moves slowly, turning into an intense green color as soon as it reaches tufts of grass. Not far away, in the middle of the road, hundreds of butterflies flutter near a water puddle.
Let’s continue our journey and cross through some villages where everyone is on the move. Students in their uniforms are heading to school, street vendors with baskets of wonderful fresh fruits, mainly bananas, pineapples, avocados, are positioned along the road under the large “coral trees” that are in bloom. They will supply the many buses moving back and forth across the country. They greet us warmly with big smiles, calling us mzungu (white person). In our long journey, we have been able to see that Uganda is indeed a wonderful country just like the people who live there. Not by chance did Winston Churchill call it the “Pearl of Africa” … “Uganda is a fairy tale. The scenery is different, the climate is different and most of all, the people are different from anything elsewhere to be seen in the whole range of Africa… concentrate on Uganda! It is the Pearl of Africa!’”.
A few more kilometers and we will reach the entrance to Bugondo Forest National Park. We leave the off-road vehicle and complete the customary formalities, the guides organize a briefing on the excursion we will be taking. They recommend following them without leaving the trail and make sure we are wearing waterproof jackets for the forest’s humidity and possible rain, as well as gaiters to protect us from the ants that may be encountered in the thick undergrowth.
Let’s go. Two guides, one in front of us and two at the back of the line. They are all very professional and skilled, connected to each other with portable radios. This reassures me. As a precaution, I have a GPS with me to mark the route because orienting oneself is not an easy task! Just a hundred meters and we are immediately among gigantic trees in the heart of a real jungle. This tropical rainforest, with an impressive concentration of massive mahogany trees that exceed 60 meters, is one of the largest in East Africa, with a unique biodiversity: over 400 plant species, 300 bird species, 250 butterfly species, numerous primates such as the red-tailed monkey, the blue monkey, the black and white colobus, in addition to the extraordinary chimpanzees. There is no shortage of numerous reptiles including the Gabon viper and pythons.
We walk silently in single file. The scent of the forest is intense, the song of the birds resounding. Then the guide stops and invites us to smell a particular, pungent and strong odor… “it’s the smell of the Gabon viper, one of the most venomous snakes in the world, which can be sensed from afar… be careful as you walk.” We resume our path, which opens with difficulty in the midst of an even denser vegetation and among gigantic tree trunks from which many lianas hang, having climbed in search of light. Numerous large fallen branches force us to make continuous detours. The light is scarce, but every now and then the sun’s rays make their way through the spaces left free by the foliage, illuminating the undergrowth of ferns, small trees, and thorny bushes. Unfazed, the birds continue with their incredible concert. The guides whisper that they have spotted the chimpanzees.
The emotion is strong because they are extraordinary animals and being able to observe them in their natural and wild habitat is something wonderful. But let’s see who these splendid animals are… “The common chimpanzee and the bonobo are the only living species of the genus Pan (primates of the hominid family)… they belong to an evolutionary branch collateral to the human species, sharing a common ancestor with it about 5-7 million years ago and being the living species phylogenetically and genetically closest to it. In fact, the chimpanzee’s DNA corresponds to that of humans to a percentage ranging around 97-98%… Chimpanzees are on average between 80 and 130 cm tall on all fours and weigh 35–45 kg for females and 45–65 kg for males. Males are larger than females, and when they stand on their hind legs, they can reach up to 160 cm in height, while the females generally do not exceed 130 cm.
Chimpanzees, like humans, are omnivorous, although predominantly vegetarian. In addition to fruits, they also feed on seeds, flowers, buds, stems, pith (vegetable), bark, and resin. Chimpanzees supplement their diet with honey, insects, snails, spiders, scorpions, birds and their eggs, and sometimes small mammals, including other primates. It is estimated that meat makes up 3% of their total diet. Red colobus monkeys are at the top of their list of preferred mammalian prey… Like many other monkeys, their arms are longer and stronger than their legs, making them much stronger than they appear. From experiments conducted, it is evident that a chimpanzee is 4 to 7 times stronger than an adult man. In a test from 1924, a 75 kg man lifted 90 kg with one hand, a male chimpanzee of 75 kg lifted 390 kg, and a 61 kg female moved 550 kg… It is a common belief that chimpanzees are the most intelligent animals after humans… In the wild, they are capable of using tools, such as a twig to insert into a termite mound to capture insects, or stones to throw at a potential predator.”[1]
We hear the noise of leaves rustling but we can’t see anything. It’s raining lightly and the occasional thunder drowns out any other noise from the forest. One of the guides communicated via radio that there is a group of chimpanzees about fifty meters away from us.
Moving around in this forest is not an easy task. Finally, we arrive under a gigantic mahogany tree and among the leaves, very high up, we catch a glimpse of a chimpanzee. It is lying on some vines and yawning. Then suddenly, loud screams. It’s the chimpanzees communicating with each other. Taking pictures is not easy because the animals are constantly moving and high up, covered by dense foliage, and to make matters worse, the strong humidity clouds the lenses. The scene comes alive, the cries grow louder. The pack is on the move and a beautiful specimen crosses the trail in front of us, then quickly climbs up like lightning on large vines.
The guide tells us that the pack has spotted a possible prey, a colobus primate. We are witnessing a hunting scene. The guide explains to us what is happening. The pack acts in an extremely coordinated way, each chimpanzee has specific roles. The beaters go down to the ground to close off any possible escape routes on the ground, then there are the drivers who drive the prey towards the hunters, some of whom hide on possible escape routes to then strike as soon as the prey is in sight. The hunters quickly reach the tops of the tall trees by climbing rapidly up trunks and vines and then jumping from one branch to another, until they surround the prey. The commotion is intense. We struggle from time to time to see and film these extraordinary animals. The hunt continues. We also move quickly following our very skilled guide even though it’s not easy. We have left the trail to reach the tree where the hunt is ongoing and we are amidst brambles and thorns.
Arriving under a large mahogany tree, I manage to catch a glimpse of a big male with the freshly caught prey between its teeth. The hunt was successful! The beaters also climb up, and up there, in the dense vegetation, they share the prey with the hunters. As the pack moves away, calm returns.
Let’s resume our journey to return before it gets dark. The guides smile at us happily, glad to have helped give us an extraordinary experience.
Tired, wet, covered in mud but with great enthusiasm, we continue our journey in this wonderful country. Where to? We will find out together in the next episode!
Carlo Franchini
[1] Source: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_troglodytes#cite_note-museum-17
