Our mornings are spent hiking up the Mahale mountains and watching the chimps of Group M going about their daily life. Soon, we almost feel part of the colony and the main actors of that real life soap opera become familiar faces to us.
Primus, the recently deposed Alpha-male who is playing peacemaker to try and regain his position. Fanana, the vicious ex-Alpha, who got deposed (and punished) by a coalition of chimps fed up with his tyrannical rule. Alofu, another ex-Alpha, the wise leader who ruled by persuasion and inspiration rather than force. Orion and Christmas, two mischievous chimps who love to scare their human cousins by mock-charging them. And the kingmaker, old, machiavellian Kalunde, who seems to engineer the power transitions through guile and manipulation.
It takes us a while to overcome our instinctive fear of the wild. Before we ever see the chimps, we hear their blood-curdling cries echoing through the jungle. Their mock-charges can be terrifying. A black ball of fury hurtling down the hill towards us, all fire and brimstone, shaking trees, pulling on lianas and brushing so close against us that we are nearly knocked off our feet.
