Day 21: Group Kills Mother and Infant Colobus Monkeys
| Date: | July 20, 1974 |
| Start: | 06:50 (nest) |
| Finish: | 19:15 (nest) |
| Duration: | 12 hr. 25 min. |
| Observers: | David Riss and Emilie van Zinnicq Bergmann-Riss |
David’s Report. Interesting Events:
(1) Colobus Mother-Infant Kill (see Predation Report)
Adult female red colobus monkey in Mitumba Valley, Gombe National Park, 2024, fifty years after the Figan Follow (photo by Curt Busse).
- (A) Figan, Faben, Gigi, Goblin actively chase and hunt colobus in Linda for 10 minutes.
- (B) We arrive two minutes after many screams to find Gigi with baby infant red colobus (eating head); and Goblin with Faben holding a live adult female on the ground, with Figan within 5 m branching (sex) for Gigi.
- (C) Three minutes later, Faben leaves Goblin with alive, struggling colobus, and sits within 3m with Figan.
- (D) Goblin over the next 20 minutes kills slowly the colobus by biting into left side of head and beating its head with his fist and occasional stamps. Figan and Faben ignore.
- (E) Gigi finally mates with Figan, and Figan gets a piece of the baby, which Gigi has left in her tree; Faben begs a little.
- (F) Goblin abandons colobus as soon as it is dead. He did bite and chew on a finger before it was dead, and another after it was dead. Gigi and Goblin later inspected and groomed the dead mother.
- (G) Gigi takes 2 ½ hours to eat the baby, very slowly. Figan and Faben mainly sit and rest within 5 m of her during this. Goblin goes off for a short time to feed.
- (H) The chimps abandon the beautiful looking mother in the woods without moving it after it was dead.
Goblin (aka “The Great Gobbers”) eating mnziganziga (lamb’s tail). 
(2) Figan‘s continued interest in Gigi (B=1) and how she influences travel.
Figan, Faben, Gigi, and Goblin (who have been traveling together often for the past week) were nested high up in Linda, near KK4. They started off slowly with two Figan/ Gigi intromissions within the first 1/2 hour. They traveled slowly and silently north to feed on mshai. They then descended into a Linda korongo, heading south again, and started on budyankende around 0900. They heard colobus, but seemed to ignore them, but they had it in their direction.
At 0910 they started to actively take interest in the colobus and would look at the traveling group that came within 50 m of them. They all charged north again on the ground, catching up with the troop. Goblin and Gigi included. Soon, they were all in trees, and suddenly there was a kill that is described in the Predation Report.
Goblin resting.
After many hours of sitting, the chimps finally resumed their southward budyankende feeding at 1230. They groomed for a while overlooking Kasakela and moved off to Rocky Peak for mnazi and mshai. They traveled into KK6 to feed on ngazi and then they ran into another red colobus troop but showed little interest in them. They traveled to Camp and met up with Mike at the muguiza outside of Camp (northwest): the drumming tree. They met Passion nearby and traveled to the mnazi trees at the treeline of the southern forest where they met Patti and Sherry. Satan drummed at the stream around 1900 and they arrived at 1910. They all nested around 1915.
