Carson Murray, Sampson, Magombe and I were hiking through the forest searching for female chimpanzees with their kids when we came across four males (Ferdinand, Apollo Freud and Tubi) that were staring into the treetops. In the tree canopy we could hear the alarm calls of colobus monkeys. The four males just sat on the trail for about five minutes, and I began to wonder what would happen next. Then all of the sudden the males started to climb the trees in pursuit of the monkeys. I had my camera in hand in hopes of getting something on tape, but everything was so fast-moving and there were only brief moments of action in my field of view, so I was left with no footage.

There appeared to be some basic level of coordination as the males moved throughout the treetops—we watched the males spread out into different trees. The males made several attempts, but, unfortunately for the chimpanzees, they were unsuccessful with their hunt. This is far from the affiliative behavior of play that I will be studying but still an amazing experience as I am getting oriented to the forest and to the full range of chimpanzee behavior.

Matt Heintz