Living with chimpanzees
What happens when a chimpanzee spots their reflection in a window? On World Chimpanzee Day, Born Free’s colleague Dr Matthew McLennan reveals the reality of living alongside our closest living relative.
Isaac outside Manyindo’s house © Bulindi Chimpanzee and Community Project
When people think of chimpanzees, we might picture a troop gracefully strolling through pristine rainforest in remote areas of Africa. However, in reality, many populations live in human-dominated landscapes, directly alongside people, and their habitats are far from pristine. Born Free’s partner, the Bulindi Chimpanzee and Community Project (BCCP), recently recorded an event that brings the reality of living alongside chimpanzees into stark perspective. Their Project Director, Dr Matthew McLennan – a chimpanzee and community conservation expert, reports.
Dr Matthew McLennan
Sadly, ‘conflicts’ between local people and chimpanzees have become only too common throughout the Budongo-Bugoma corridor in Uganda. The unprotected corridor, set between two forest reserves, is home to around 300 chimpanzees. Here villagers share their daily environment with chimpanzees, who have learnt to enjoy agricultural foods. BCCP is helping communities in this region to develop humane solutions to coexist with chimpanzees.
Crops such as jackfruit, sugarcane, mangos, papaya, cocoa, maize, and banana are dominant items in the diet of all the chimpanzee communities monitored by BCCP. Most local villagers are poor and depend on farming to some extent for their livelihoods. Consequently, most complaints about chimpanzees revolve around their eating crops and the impacts this has on local livelihoods and food security.
In March 2024, a unique conflict situation emerged unexpectedly in a village called Mairirwe. A local landowner named Manyindo, whose home is situated only a few hundred metres from the main forest patch used by a group of chimpanzees known to BCCP, had recently began renovating his house. Among the renovations, he installed glass doors and windows for the first time. Due to improving household economies and living standards in rural Uganda, houses with glass windows and doors have become increasingly common in some villages in the Budongo-Bugoma corridor in recent years.
However, in Mairirwe, houses with glass doors and windows are still relatively uncommon. The new mirror-like glass on Manyindo’s home proved extremely enticing for Mairirwe’s small band of male chimpanzees, who discovered it while foraging in a nearby sugarcane field. Two adult males, Buck and Isaac, with an adolescent called Lewin, made repeated, daily visits to Manyindo’s home to stare at their reflections in the glass and threaten the perceived ‘intruding chimpanzees’, including banging on the glass, displaying wildly around the homestead, and breaking banana trees and other food crops in Manyindo’s compound.
Buck and Isaac displaying outside Manyindo’s house © Bulindi Chimpanzee and Community Project
Understandably, the family and other residents were alarmed by the chimpanzees’ behaviour. The Mairirwe chimpanzees are ordinarily wary of people and avoid close encounters. However, the males had become so riled up by their reflections they were extremely difficult to chase away.
In response to this quickly escalating situation, BCCP’s Education Team, together with the Chimpanzee Monitors, held a ‘sensitisation meeting’ with local residents. The team listened to concerns, explained why the chimpanzees were behaving this way, and offered practical safety advice – for example, children should be brought inside the house whenever chimpanzees arrive at the compound.
As a short-term measure, BCCP’s Chimpanzee Monitors helped Manyindo cover the glass door and windows with cloths and tarpaulin to prevent the chimpanzees from seeing their reflections. Initially, these had the desired effect – in following days the chimpanzees left after a few minutes. However, in April 2024, the male Isaac managed to pull away part of the covering. Moreover, as Manyindo pointed out, it is unrealistic to expect him to cover his house permanently with old sheets and tarpaulin!
To date, the conflict remains unresolved. However, we anticipate the novelty of seeing their reflections will eventually wear off. This has happened in past similar events in the area – the chimpanzees lost interest in visiting the homestead. Meanwhile, we will keep monitoring the situation closely and offer residents support and advice.
Manyindo’s house with windows covered © Bulindi Chimpanzee and Community Project
The complications of living alongside chimpanzees is a daily reality for many communities, yet it is also a testament to the tolerance people can show to potentially dangerous wildlife. Of course, for people living in countries such as the UK, any such wildlife – eg wolves, bears and elk – have often been eradicated. So, it can be hard to imagine what it is like to live alongside species like chimpanzees.
Thank you for supporting our vital work and taking time to consider the perspective of people living next to chimpanzees. With your support, we will do everything we can to help people to harmoniously coexist with wildlife in this increasingly human-dominated world! Please donate today to help Born Free to continue enabling people and wildlife to coexist.