Galatea
When we got there, all the chimps were in the playroom. Boyd was using the feeding puzzle, Tsotsi was grooming Soona, Sandali and Gombe were relaxing on one side of the room, Zwala and Zombi were on the other side, and Galatea was snoozing on one of the platforms in the middle. Sandali had many nasty wounds as a result of all the changes that had been happening in the group. As the lowest ranking male, he'd clearly been copping it. Tsotsi was walking strangely on one hand, and it turned out that he had a small wound on one of his knuckles. Soona had some injuries, but I think they were mostly the same ones she had two weeks ago. When I finally saw Zombi properly, I noticed that unlike when I last saw her, both her eyes were fully open.
Zombi and Zwala spent most of the time I was there grooming each other behind a large branch so I didn't really see them very much.
Boyd and Tsotsi groomed each other a lot as usual, but they were sometimes joined by Soona or Sandali or both of them. At one point Sandali was watching the two of them grooming and kept standing up as if he was deciding whether or not to join them. He looked quite nervous but eventually joined them and enthusiastically groomed Tsotsi.
Soona, Tsotsi and Boyd in the grooming group, Sandali is part of the group too, lying behind them (you can just see his arm)
Sandali looked very sorry for himself, and was limping from a large cut on his foot. Twice Galatea came over to him to groom his sore foor, which was really nice. Later, Soona spent quite a while grooming Sandali as well.
Galatea grooming Sandali's wound on his foot
Soona grooming Sandali
When the chimps (except for Soona) went outside for their treats during the keeper talk Gombe was in 'look-how-tough-I-am' mode. Almost whole time he was outside he had his hair bristled and he swaggered and strutted around. He got hold of a ball that someone had taken out from the playroom and after a bit of swaying in two legs and hooting he threw it at the school children who were listening to the keeper talk. Gombe then started intimidating Sandali, displaying at him at at one point jumping on him and giving him a smack. Sandali screamed and ran to Tsotsi and Boyd who were getting all excited by the whole thing. Not surprisingly, very soon it was just the males outside as the ladies had gone back in presumably for some peace! Gombe displayed at Sandali a couple more times, but not really getting violent, before finding another ball to throw at the people watching. he then went inside where he lay on his back, feet in the air, looking very pleased with himself!
Sandali acts submissively to Gombe
Later, something happening in the keeper area caught the chimps' attention and all the boys and Soona bristled up their hair and charged over. I found it interesting that Soona was the only female to go stomping over with the boys, while the others just looked over with mild interest. Soona seems to get on very well with the males, she seems to spend more time with them than the others.
Just before we were leaving, Galatea and Gombe both went outside. After wandering around on their own for a little while they groomed each other. It was nice to see because Galatea had spent most of the time I was there keeping herself to herself.
Gombe and the first ball
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