Introduction

Since 1968 there have been 40 colobus kills recorded in the predation file. The Colobus can be broken down into the following age/sex classes:

I would like to take this opportunity to relate several observations that are pertinent to this predation [on Day 21]. These were found in the predation file: observations from colobus kills only were taken.

Previous Observations

(1) August 9, 1970: H. Bauer: “I find Humphrey, Leakey, and Mike on the ground, holding a young female adult red colobus. Baboons here, but they disappear. The monkey is alive; it is moving its eyes around and struggling feebly. Chimps have just torn open the belly and started to eat the viscera. Five minutes later it was dead.“

(2) June 25, 1971: D. Bygott: “Humphrey goes up in a tree; Willy Wally is already up there, going after a mother colobus with a ventral infant. The infant is a bit less than 1/2 the size of the mother. Humphrey looks calm with hair down, not moving very fast as he approaches the monkey. He goes to grab it, but misses as it climbs into another tree. He and Willy Wally follow the colobus into the tree, and then into another tree.

Humphrey gets close, reaches up with both hands, and takes the infant from the mother. There is a very brief struggle and Humphrey pulls it free – immediately bites it in the neck or head. The mother doesn’t try to flee – she jumps around, and scratches, but no one tries to get her. The limp infant is now the center of attention.“

(3) November 16, 1973: W. McGrew: “Satan appears to be focusing on one mother-infant pair. The infant is not young and clings ventral. The mother-infant pair avoids an initial Satan charge; then Satan leaps, but this time he pulls them both down in mid-air in a sort of rugby tackle. The mother wriggles free and flees, literally leaving Satan holding the baby. The mother vocalizes.

Satan precariously balances in the upper canopy – holding the infant in both hands. He bites the back of its neck, possibly twisting it simultaneously, killing it instantly. Estimate infant lived less than five seconds after being caught. Mother vocalizes loudly immediately after the catch, but I pay no more attention to her as I concentrate on Satan.“

(4) March 19, 1974: C. Busse: “Evered chases a mother–infant pair, but doesn’t get closer than 5 m. Then he chases and grabs the mother who bites him on the wrist. Evered screams and tears the infant from the ventral position and runs off.“

[Note: During the hunt on March 19th, the chimps caught three colobus monkeys. Humphrey caught one, and he was swarmed by other chimps trying to get some meat. Evered and Jomeo each caught a monkey; but they each managed to run off with their kills and they were not seen again that day.]

(5) January 14, 1974: J. Crocker: “Jomeo and Sherry pull an adult female to the ground. Jomeo bites a small hole in the neck of the struggling animal as Goblin approaches the two brothers who hold the colobus on the ground. Figan has been observed to approach from the Kasakela stream. Jomeo holds and tears at the legs, Sherry at the shoulders, and Goblin leans over the body and drinks blood from the neck hole for about a minute.

This is at 1129. The colobus is very much alive as loud squeals are heard, and there is continued struggling. Both Jomeo and Sherry feed on the limbs as Goblin sucks from the neck – colobus stretches on her back. At 1131 Figan appears and begins pulling at the limbs, but avoids as Jomeo runs off with the body. It is definitely dead in a couple of minutes.“

[ Note: Curt was with John Crocker on this follow and also witnessed the gruesome event (also involving Goblin). It was Curt’s first ever chimpanzee follow after arriving at Gombe three days earlier.]

(6) January 27, 1974: C. Busse: “1624: Figan grabs an adult female colobus and dangles the screaming monkey from the neck. Figan makes no effort to slam or kill or eat the squeaking monkey. Faben screams with full-open-grin nearby and Figan and Faben scream while looking at the victim. 1630: the monkey is still alive as many chimps come (Mike, Winkle, Satan, Miff, Gigi). 1636: the monkey is still alive. 1639: the monkey is dead as chimps feed from the stomach.“

Relevance to Day 21

The above observations seem to have some relevance to this predation. Somehow Gigi got the baby: either she ripped it off the mother, or she got it from one of the males in an ensuing struggle. Somehow the mother got to the ground; either the males or Gigi brought her to the ground in a manner described in observation number (5), or she came to the ground to try to retrieve her infant. When found, Faben was screaming and food- grunting with a full-open-grin and excitement, similar to that observed in observation number (6).

For some reason, the chimps Figan and Faben did not kill the mother. Faben walked off and Figan never joined. One or the other, or both, could have brought the mother to the ground. But they decided not to. They did not steal the baby from Gigi. They paid no interest to the whimpering mother while Goblin took 20 minutes to kill it.

Goblin was observed at first to bite into the neck, perhaps similar to where he drank blood from the colobus as described in observation number (5). The kill of the baby was quick – less than three minutes and Gigi seemed to be quite calm, wadging leaves when we arrived. There was no sign of a head when we discovered that Gigi was feeding on the baby some eight minutes after the kill. She seemed to kill it or get the dead infant very quickly.

It seems that in the majority of infant colobus kills that the infant is ripped from the mother’s body and little interest is shown in the mother. Perhaps this mother fought back and angered Faben and Goblin to the extent that they pinned it down. Chimps certainly have been seen to eat adult female colobus, so it isn’t as if they caught something that they never eat. Perhaps Ndugu Hilali came up with the right answer to this complicated and bizarre mystery: some days chimps like meat, and some days they don’t after they have killed a prey.

New Findings

Several interesting events that happened that haven’t been recorded before in the predation file are the following:

(1) To the best of my knowledge, the chimps have not killed and abandoned so much meat. There are cases (such as January 14, 1974, where Sparrow got most of the meat when the males left or got their own pieces) when carcasses are left to the other chimps present. Faben did not seem to want the mother colobus (though he begged from Figan for pieces of the baby) and so that might be the reason why he left Goblin to the kill, rather than kill it himself. Goblin perhaps got carried away in excitement. He seemed to get mad at the colobus when it struggled and whimpered, and would bash his head with his fists and would bite furiously into its left side of the head.

(2) Gigi‘s meat was not stolen from her. Figan stole Athena‘s bushbuck and Evered stole Gigi‘s colobus. Perhaps Figan and Faben did not want much meat; they did seem to enjoy a little meat that they did get from Gigi. The reason why perhaps Figan did not attack and steal the meat from Gigi is the fact that she is fully swollen. Figan has been very patient with her, waiting for her often in trees, etc. Perhaps he did not want to blow his relationship with her (?). Very anthropomorphic, I realize. Anyway, Figan and Faben waited for over 2 1/2 hours for her to finish after they had finished their meat at 1000.

(3) This was the longest time in which a chimp had been seen to kill a colobus. It took Goblin from 0923 to 0943 to kill the animal. He is not a very efficient killer to say the least. He bit at its head and throat and stamped on it and punched its head. But he also chewed the toes, knee, and elbow, and dragged it in frustration. In Busse‘s observation number (6) there was a 15 minute interval between capture and kill. But there did not seem to be such active interest in killing the animal, as exhibited by Goblin.

(4) I am sure that is it has been reported sometime, but it was interesting to note that Goblin and Gigi both inspected the mother’s bottom, and also groomed her. Gigi lip- smacked and groomed some skin as she would a leaf.

Certainly a strange predation. The above statements are given only to stimulate your own questions and answers, and I leave it up to others to interpret this seemingly uninterpretable observation.