23 days... continued

Day number three was no less exciting, as me Julie and Alphonse the tracker set out to do the camera traps. At Yatouga we have 9 camera traps set out in the forest as part of a large mammal bio-monitoring project, which need checking (batteries, memory cards, and silica changed) every two weeks. They’re placed near animal trails, or points where the animals are known to cross the swamps, and we’re mainly looking out for capturing the elephants (and we capture A LOT of these), leopards (Panthera pardus), chimpanzees and gorilla, but in addition we also capture a whole host of other forest creatures, from duikers to squirrels to egrets.

Whilst out checking one camera, we heard a strange noise off in the forest, and turning to Alphonse to identify it, he said it was a leopard, quite close by. We didn’t think much of it, there’s no point trying to find it as leopards are near impossible to see in the forest (Chris has been here over a year and a half, and is yet to see one), and so we continued with the rest of the cameras. But then on the way back from checking the last camera for the day, Alphonse suddenly stops and crouches, pointing through the bushes. I follow suit, and look to see a leopard silently moving through the trees. We watch as it moves off, melting into the dappled light, its coat perfectly suited for blending into the shifting patches of shade. After spending two months in South Africa, I failed to see a single leopard, but by some stroke of amazing luck, I manage to see one in a much more challenging environment, and after just 3 days. Needless to say, spirits were high.

Over the next few weeks, as the days wore on, I was getting more and more concerned about my luggage, and despite the wealth of amazing experiences I encountered over this time, the thought of my luggage weighed heavy. Most of these experiences involved the Atananga group, being the most habituated and the group we set out to find each day. One such day, me Julie and the trackers found them, and we sat down to watch and record data. We had a pretty good view of Kamaya, and he was being his usual relaxed self, paying (or at least appearing to pay) no attention to us. Then we hear a noise in the bushes to the front of us. Peering at the spot where the noise came from we start to pick out the face of a little juvenile gorilla staring back. Hardly daring to breath, we keep watching, as the juvenile moves forward through the undergrowth, pulling and eating on the vegetation as he goes, until he comes to a stop about 10 meters from us, in full view. He sits there, watching and eating, then stands up on his back legs and ‘pok-pok-pok!’, giving us a tiny chest beat, in full imitation of his father but just in complete miniature. He repeats this a few times and then, deciding hes seen enough and his point was made, scrambles back through the undergrowth to his mother patiently waiting a little further back, and leaving us sat in awe at what we had just witnessed. It was an amazing sight I’ve been lucky enough to witness on multiple occasions.

As I said, being with the Atananga group is often your best chance to have some amazing contacts, and again one afternoon we were not disappointed. We had found the group, and were sat with them for a few hours, everything as normal. And then suddenly, from behind us we hear the 'pok-pok-pok!' of a chest beat ringing through the forest. With Atananga sitting in front of us, and an unknown silver back displaying behind us, things had started to get interesting. As we sat waiting to see what Atananga will do, we hear the pok-pok-pok again and again, getting closer and closer. All of were sat there, in stunned silence, but eventually Kayama simply decided he had had enough and upped and left. We all felt a little disappointed that nothing more had come it, and got up to start to follow the group. Just as we did this, we all turned to the left as we hear this padding through the forest, as if something big was running fast. And then all of a sudden, bursting from the bushes, this huge silver back gorilla crashes into a clearing, not 10 metre from us. All of us were completely stunned, and by the look on the gorillas face, he was as shocked to see us as we were to see him. After a pause of what must have been just a few seconds (it felt like minutes), he turned around whilst barking, and thundered off back into the forest, leaving us all to look at each other in amazement, and then burst out laughing.

After two weeks of being in Yatouga, the current tracker team was due to leave, and six new ones brought in. So whilst Chris and Julie went to the local pygmy village, I decamped over to Ozouga to help with the chimps. In Ozouga Anna and Flo (German and French, respectively, research assistants), and Yannick and Borance (local eco-guards), were working on the chimp habituation and chimpanzee tool use. The chimps here have an unusual social structure, which as yet still no one understands. It is unusual because they often go through cycles of being completely silent, making little to no vocalizations within the communities, unlike at all other known groups in Africa, where the chimps frequently vocalize. When I joined them, they were in the middle of one of these silent periods, and due to this it was incredibly difficult to see the chimps at all. In 10 days, I caught one fleeting glimpse. Due my time at Ozouga, I received the one piece of new I’d been waiting to hear, that finally, by some impossible way, my luggage had turned up, and more to the point, Freda was bringing it to the site for me. I was so happy, and everything just became so much better. I was free from worry, and after 23 days of living out of a 22 litre bag with a handful of clothes, I could finally start to fully appreciate this place for what it was.

Over and out!