by Ian Gilby: Frodo is Fifi’s second son, and was
born on June 30, 1976. Frodo was a mischievous youngster, and
often threw rocks at chimps and people alike. Frodo grew into
the largest chimp in the history of the Gombe chimpanzee project,
weighing in at roughly 115 pounds. Frodo has used his size to
his advantage, and with his impressive displays and violent
attacks, quickly advanced in the male dominance hierarchy. In
1997, when many of the Gombe chimpanzees suffered from an outbreak
of sarcoptic mange, Frodo remained healthy and strong. His older
brother, Freud, the alpha male, was significantly weakened by
the disease, and on October 2, 1997, Frodo dominated his brother
and became the highest ranking male. It was not unusual to see
him being groomed by three or four chimps at once! He rarely
groomed them back.
Frodo is very fond of meat, and despite his large size, is
very agile as he leaps through the canopy after colobus monkeys.
He deflects the defensive efforts of the male colobus monkeys,
punching them or flinging them to the ground as he chases the
mothers and juveniles. If he is unsuccessful during a hunt,
he often steals a carcass from a successful hunter, or intimidates
them into sharing a large piece with him.
Frodo’s violent tendencies have made him a rather unpopular
character, both among the researchers and the chimps. One day
in September, 1999, Frodo performed a series of extremely impressive
charging displays during which he attacked several other chimps,
and sent them all screaming to the tops of trees. When he was
finished, he immediately sat down and demanded to be groomed.
Several chimps begrudgingly groomed him for a few minutes, and
he refused to return the favor. He fell asleep, and the group
moved off. When he awoke, he was completely alone, and began
pant-hooting. There was no answer. It seemed as if the other
chimps were tired of him, and although they were still close
by, no-one answered his calls. Frodo sat for several minutes,
pant-hooting forlornly, until someone finally answered. Frodo
charged off into the valley, and repeated his display and attack
performance.
Emily writes:
Frodo’s alpha status seemed unshakable until he fell ill
in December of 2002 when a mysterious condition began affecting
many males. When Frodo became ill, he was almost unrecognizable
due to extreme weight loss. Not surprisingly, he was unable
to remain dominant over other, healthy males. As a result, Frodo
spent his time traveling and feeding alone. However, Frodo was
one of the lucky ones, maybe because he is such an exceptionally
big and strong male. He has been slowly recovering, and began
traveling with the group again in 2004. Now Frodo has almost
completely regained his size and strength. He is even back up
to some of his old antics. We will be watching to see if he
attempts to regain his alpha status.
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