Anyone who knows me knows that I do not excel when it comes to spatial memory and that my Garmin GPS is my best friend while I am driving. That’s why it’s amazing to work with people who can retrace their steps in the thicket that all looks so similar to me. It’s enough to make you start singing “Macho Man” (my apologies for any length of time that song gets stuck in your head).

I was practicing collecting data on Tanga and her kids Tom and Tabora when I placed my data sheets in my pants pocket because Magombe and I had to follow the chimpanzees through the thick undergrowth. After catching up to them I realized that my data sheet had fallen out of my pocket somewhere in the forest. Regardless of the fact that we had just walked and crawled in a zig-zag pattern for the last ten minutes through thick vegetation, Magombe was able to retrace our exact steps and found my data sheet. I was stunned and incredibly thankful. Next time I will be sure to keep my data sheets zipped up in my pack. And who knows, after six months of hiking through the forest I might be better able to navigate through jungle called Chicago.

Matt Heintz