From her perch in Gombe Stream Goodall had a view of Lake Tanganyika 8 feeding in trees or passing in groups below Early in her study the wary chimpanzees kept their distance But that day as Goodall later reported her heart missed several beats when a small group of chimps appeared on a hilltop very suddenly and very close She recognized one of them from an earlier encounter He was a large male with a lustrous black coat and a distinctive silvery beard The other two chimps hurried past her but the bearded male stopped approximately ten paces away turned and looked at her With what Goodall described as an expression of intense curiosity
9 turning his head from side to side the chimp studied her for several minutes before scampering off to join the others Several days later Goodall encountered the same male in the forest He passed within a few yards of the conspicuous spot where she had chosen to sit along a well worn path This time the chimp did not pause or look at her but she was beginning to feel she might be on the verge of making a real connection The chimp appeared to be comfortable presenting himself to her Encouraged Goodall increased her efforts to approach the chimps Every day she would rise at dawn and dress in drab colored clothes Then always staying in view she would move to where she anticipated the chimps would be If she heard chimps approaching she would sit and pretend she was not interested in them so they would not perceive her as a threat Also to minimize the chance of threatening the chimps she picked leaves pretended to chew them self groomed and pawed at the ground imitating gestures and sounds she had observed in the chimps Goodall took detailed notes about the behaviors she observed and the foods the chimps ate She noted and attempted to imitate the many different sounds she heard coming from the chimps She tried to understand different vocalizations and to associate and match certain behaviors to
Chimp Salad specific sounds She was able to identify grunts of pleasure while they were feeding or grooming and what she called pant hoots Wild chimps spend almost half of every day eating and Gombe provides a wide variety of food for them to eat Goodall found that chimps dine on termites and other insects as well as palm nuts fruit eggs berries and meat mainly monkeys bush pig bushbuck and other small mammals They also eat large quantities of vegetation often alternating bites of leaves with whatever else they're eating of excitement or warning In the early stages of her research making sense of chimp vocalizations was still very difficult 10 REDEFINING HUMAN Weeks passed and Goodall noticed the silver bearded male ambling or romping nearby with increasing frequency during her daily rambles It happened far too often to be mere accident Occasionally the chimp would look at her but mostly he only altered his path to pass within a few paces of her before he disappeared into the tall grass and forest vegetation Goodall began to notice other chimps examining her as well watching from high tree branches or peeping from behind leafy bushes Only the gray bearded chimp regularly approached close enough for her to see and describe his individual features and gestures Then in October almost at the end of her allotted time at Gombe Goodall witnessed a startling scene Early one morning
she heard loud screams and breaking branches in a tree nearby She moved closer and saw three chimps eating sharing what she described as something that looked pink She could not see what the chimps were eating but from the noisy and panicked behavior of bush pigs under the tree she concluded that the chimps had caught and killed a piglet Goodall's observation confirmed what scientists had theorized chimpanzees were carnivorous and predatory She was the first to record that wild chimps not only eat meat but Coordinated Hunting also share it willingly This social behavior had never Early on Goodall believed chimps capture of prey was individual and been observed or recorded accidental a result of finding a bush in any primate other pig or baboon babies on the ground for instance Eventually however she than humans observed that when hunting certain prey such as monkeys chimps actually work A week later Goodall together in a highly coordinated effort to capture and then eat and often share the made another even meat She described one monkey hunt more startling discovery this way Before starting to hunt in earnest That morning she once the chimpanzees often spend time again happened upon the on the ground gazing up into the canopy or walking below as the silver chinned chimp whom monkeys leap above them It seems she called David Graybeard in they are assessing the situation the availability of suitable victims her notes He was sitting atop particularly mother infant pairs a termite mound engrossed and small juveniles where they are located and probably the arboreal in an activity David saw tree pathways along which the monkeys would be able to escape 11
