Kakombe Waterfall
“This enchanting waterfall holds a special place in Dr. Jane Goodall’s heart: Over the last 60 years, every time she returns to Gombe, she visits this beloved spot for renewal and connection with nature.” (The Jane Goodall Institute, Facebook, May 5, 2024)
Early in her studies, Dr. Jane observed chimpanzees performing rain displays or “dances” during heavy downpours. An agitated chimp — typically an adult male — would charge, sway, shake branches, drag branches, and stamp the ground as if entranced or enraged by the power of the storm.1
These same behaviors were later observed along streambeds and at waterfalls. In 1969, Harold Bauer saw an adult male chimp display or “dance” at a waterfall. This observation was cited as a possible instance of a non-human animal demonstrating a sense of wonder,2 a view championed by Dr. Jane (below). Waterfall displays are spectacular albeit uncommon. During their combined ~1,600 hours observing adult male chimps at Gombe, Curt and David witnessed a grand total of four displays at the Kakombe waterfall.
The Kakombe waterfall, approximately 65 feet tall, as it looked in July, 2024, fifty years after the Figan Follow (photo by Curt Busse). 
Curt’s (out of focus) photo of Figan displaying at the base of the Kakombe waterfall (National Geographic, May, 1979, p. 601. © National Geographic Society).3
“When the chimpanzees approach [the waterfall], they hear this roaring sound and you see the hair stand a little on end and then they move a bit quicker. When they get there they’ll rhythmically sway, often upright, picking up big rocks and throwing them for maybe 10 minutes, sometimes climbing up the vines at the side and swinging out into the spray and they’re right down in the water, which normally they avoid. Afterwards you will see them sitting on a rock actually in the stream looking up watching the water with their eyes as it falls down and then watching it going away. I can’t help feeling that this waterfall display, or dance, is perhaps triggered by feelings of awe, wonder that we feel.” — Dr. Jane, “Waterfall Displays,” YouTube video, January 6, 2011.
On Day 30, Figan swings from vines and rappels high along the northern cliff of the waterfall for five minutes before descending and continuing his display along the base of the waterfall and the streambed.
Kakombe Stream
Figan’s hair is puffed out following a minute-long display along the Kakombe stream on Day 23.
Blurry photo of Figan, also on Day 23.
Mkenke Waterfall
Anne Pusey stands near the base of the Mkenke waterfall, the tallest waterfall in Gombe National Park, at approximately 85 feet.
About 15 yards from the top of the waterfall is a bat cave, site of an intrepid expedition by several students in 1974.
Molly Brecht and Anne Pusey at the base of the Mkenke waterfall.
Mkenke Stream
Juma Mkukwe stands along the Mkenke stream some 100 yards below the waterfall.
This is near the location where Kasakela chimps had viciously attacked Kahama male Dé a few months earlier.
Kasakela Waterfall
Kasakela is a relatively small valley wedged between the larger Kakombe and Linda valleys. The waterfall has a vertical drop of about 50 feet, but in the dry season it has no running water. During the Figan Follow, the chimps sometimes traveled between Kakombe and Linda valleys by passing near the top of the Kasakela waterfall. The photos below are of Mike and Figan along the edge.
Mike stands at the top of the (dry) waterfall.
Mike.
Mike.
Mike.
Figan sits in a tree beyond the edge of the waterfall.
Looking straight down from the top of the Kasakela waterfall/cliff.
- One morning in February, 1974, Curt was getting drenched while watching Figan perform a wild rain dance during a torrential downpour. Without warning, Figan charged at Curt from behind, knocked his legs from under him, and dragged him twenty feet downslope by the ankle. No harm, no foul. (Figan weighed 90 pounds; Curt 180). During eight months, this was Curt’s only physical contact with a chimpanzee. ↩︎
- Melvin Konner, The Dawn of Wonder, in Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin (1988, vol. 62, p 14). ↩︎
- According to the National Geographic Support web site (Article Number: 000001234) as of at least January, 2024: “National Geographic is no longer licensing images, art, text or video to third parties. If you are interested in using content seen in a National Geographic product for your project, please contact the original content creator about possible usage permissions.” ↩︎