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Beginning in the early 1970s, a team of men from villages around
Gombe National Park was trained to follow chimpanzees and record
data. Their work was critical from 1975 to 1987, when they were
the only researchers permitted to live and work in the park.
They are still responsible for collecting the long-term data
and this information forms the basis for the research that we
do at the Center.
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| Yahaya Alamasi, 2001 |
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| Eslom Mpongo, 2001 |
Between 1970 and 2000, individual chimpanzees were provisioned
with about 5 bananas every 10 days, so that they would visit
a central area regularly. This allowed observers to keep track
of all the chimpanzees in the community and find them for observation.
There was always one researcher at the feeding station from
dawn to dusk, recording the arrivals and behavior of chimpanzees
as they came to seek bananas. Two other researchers would select
a chimpanzee and follow it all day as it traveled up and down
the steep hills of the park. One tabulated group composition,
diet, and location on a map at 15-minute intervals. The other
wrote a longhand record in Swahili of the behavior of the focal
individual, and other major events in the group such as border
patrols, aggressive interactions and mating. Provisioning ceased
in 2000, but the daily follows still continue.
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| Eslom Mpongo with Chimp, 1973
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Some of the field researchers have worked at the Gombe Stream
Research Centre for close to 30 years. These include Hilali
Matama, Eslom Mpongo and Yahaya Alamasi. These men have spent
more time with free-living chimpanzees than anyone else in the
world, and they have an unmatched fund of knowledge about chimpanzee
behavior. The fortunes of Fifi, Frodo, and the others are topics
of conversation in the researchers' home villages, and this
understanding of chimpanzees by the local people undoubtedly
contributes greatly to their safety and long term conservation.
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