Chimp & See Talk

Snaring discussion - Male missing foot? -- Esme and Dodge

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    I really hope that I am seeing ghosts here, but I found this male with a strange gait and I think he is missing his left foot. ACP0004vb9 I am not sure about the other one, but I found another male with - what I think is - a missing right foot. ACP0004vc9 If a match (not to tell from this back view only), at least the left foot is fine.

    He (first video) has a badly damaged left ear, a narrow face and straighter bushy brows. Right ear not seen. Pronounced baldness and big, round nostrils. At least in the first video posted here, he looks in my opinion a bit thinner than males of his size.

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    Also, I would like to add that I found this all black honey badger (it is probably a separate subspecies, but I don’t know) missing his right forelimb. ACP0004v7t

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    I don’t know whether anything is known about poaching activities in Crimson Dew, but it is three cases now if these are caused by snares and not just terrible, isolated accidents. I think, we did not see that in the other sites until now.

    I also looked – because of this – into CDFem03 and her strange gait. Her foot seems to be present, but strangely deformed (bigger and flatter) as seen in ACP0005eer.

    Posted

  • Snorticus by Snorticus

    Hard to clearly see it in stop-frames but foot looks missing in the clip. Same with the black honey badger.

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    HI all, unfortunately we know that snaring and hunting is common at Crimson Dew as it is at many sites that contain chimpanzees.

    In case you are interested in supporting anti-snaring patrols there are 2 amazing organizations that work on this. They are the Ngogo Chimpanzee project http://ngogochimpanzeeproject.org/conservation/ and the Kibale Chimpanzee Project: https://kibalechimpanzees.wordpress.com/snare-removal-program/ Both of these organizations work together to remove snares in Kibale forest, Uganda (we will be posting video from there in the months to come)

    I unfortunately do not know any such organizations at Crimson Dew other than the National Park authority. There are some great organizations that work in the Crimson Dew part of West Africa fighting to protect chimpanzees including the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation and Flora and Fauna International.

    To add a small piece of happy news, check out what some inventive mountain gorillas were observed doing when they found a snare in Rwanda: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120719-young-gorillas-juvenile-traps-snares-rwanda-science-fossey/

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  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    I just realized that I am partly wrong here - and that makes the situation even more disturbing. Both feet in both individuals are looking strange. But I am sure that in the first one it is actually the left foot (and left ear), while in the other one it is for sure the right foot.

    Sorry, I got left and right wrong before and corrected the posting above. And yes, I am not sure whether the respective other foot is ok. I cannot see a foot as such.

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  • Quia by Quia moderator in response to MimiA's comment.

    Very sad to see all the effects of the snares. 😦 I'm hoping we don't have any discussions similar to previous areas where we're trying to match chimps by their missing ears, but instead their missing hands/feet. Ears and other small scars are at least from fighting among themselves, not humans.

    The story about the gorillas is great! As they say, the researchers don't want to intentionally teach them... but at the same time, the idea of gorillas clearing the forest of snares for their own safety is a beautiful image.

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  • Snorticus by Snorticus in response to MimiA's comment.

    Thanks for those links to positive human & animal efforts regarding snares. That helps off-set the sight of the damaged chimps here in Crimson Dew. So impressive and positive that some of the mountain gorilla youngsters have watched and learned to deal with some of the snares.

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  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    Here is another one. Missing right forearm and - in my opinion - the legs or at least one leg is too short. Especially in comparison with the female in the second video who is walking normal. ACP0004zng and ACP0004znh (and ACP0004zni exiting). The first male is hopping a bit too, but that might be due to a branch or so, I don't know. He is too fast. The second one seems to need a break.

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    I am also not sure what a field team member with a fire arm is doing there at 4 a.m. (Ok, there might be an explanation for this.) ACP0004zno, ACP0004zq4, ACP0004zq0 (daylight, field team?)

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  • jwidness by jwidness moderator

    I think the first chimp mentioned in this post (from ACP0004vb9) is almost certainly the sixth (!!!) chimp in line in the absolutely stunning video @AnLand found earlier today ACP0004zr0:

    enter image description here

    Same unique ear damage, same unnatural gait, lightly curved brows, light beard. I only wonder if perhaps it's a female? In fact, I'm somewhat considering the similarities to CDFem03 ( http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/boards/BCP000000k/discussions/DCP000095j). I also think perhaps s/he isn't missing the whole foot -- to me in ACP0004zr0 it looks like both feet are present, but maybe just held unnaturally. Like the toes are curled in and the foot appears smaller?

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  • jwidness by jwidness moderator

    Sorry to be a debbie downer here πŸ˜•, but I also think that the males from ACP0004vc9 and ACP0004zng aren't missing feet (see http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/boards/BCP000000k/discussions/DCP0000913). Personally, I think they're all Dodge and the strange gait is simply due to the missing arm.

    Posted

  • Snorticus by Snorticus

    ACP0004zng I think the pale soles of each foot can be seen as the chimp takes off. My impression was that the chimp was using the sideways hopping as a strategy to get down the hill faster using only three limbs to catch up with the first chimp. Don't know if it is Dodge though.

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  • AnLand by AnLand moderator in response to jwidness's comment.

    @jwidness: I hope that I am totally wrong here and waiting for the science team to say so and that Dodge (and that poor badger) is a single case of a missing limb. It is clear that Crimson Dew is a much more hilly ground than e.g. Muddy Frost and they are hopping up and down the hills quite fast and in a different manner than the slow walking we've seen elsewhere. So, yes, maybe we need to get used to that different gait caused by the landscape not some injuries. Nevertheless, in at least two of the individuals above I really do not see a foot in stop and go modus of the videos and the ground they are walking on is rather flat. It looks strange to me.

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  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    Here is an extremely good video of the lady with damaged ear. Yes, female. Yes, two feet. I will cross-post this to the other thread as well. ACP00054f3

    enter image description here

    Other thread: http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/boards/BCP000000k/discussions/DCP000095j

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator in response to AnLand's comment.

    Not the field team. Those are hunters 😦

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  • Snorticus by Snorticus in response to AnLand's comment.

    This is a good point that the hilly landscape would cause them to move in much different ways than the chimps in flat Muddy Frost and that should be taken into account.

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    The Ngogo chimp project had an exciting update on some of their anti snare work today I thought I would share: https://www.facebook.com/NgogoChimps/photos/a.360431887334189.86370.360408664003178/1008425605868144/

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  • jwidness by jwidness moderator in response to MimiA's comment.

    What a cliffhanger!

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  • PauDG by PauDG scientist, moderator

    Thanks @MimiA!

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    More updates on the snare removal from Ngogo today πŸ˜ƒ

    https://www.facebook.com/NgogoChimps/posts/1025570304153674

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  • Snorticus by Snorticus in response to MimiA's comment.

    Thanks, MimiA - I posted a link too in chat, couldn't remember where we discussed this - great update to Garrett's story!

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  • drobinso by drobinso

    That's wonderful! Thanks for sharing!

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  • PauDG by PauDG scientist, moderator

    Thanks all!

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  • jwidness by jwidness moderator in response to MimiA's comment.

    I heard one more update to Garrett's story: as expected, he hasn't regained function in his hand, but the wound has healed up and the chronic infection is gone πŸ˜ƒ

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  • PauDG by PauDG scientist, moderator

    Thanks for the update @jwidness!

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  • Snorticus by Snorticus in response to jwidness's comment.

    Good for poor Garrett, I bet he feels better now!

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    Kibale Snare Removal Project doing some great work on facebook today πŸ˜ƒ
    https://www.facebook.com/kibalechimpanzeeproject/videos/1055824637762616/

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  • Snorticus by Snorticus in response to MimiA's comment.

    Thanks for sharing that happy story!

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    A great new study out of Sebitoli (also Kibale, Uganda) came out today on how chimps adapt to their snaring injuries: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10764-016-9914-0

    Abstract:

    Many wild primates experience long-term limb disability, and their ability to cope with disability has implications for survival and fitness. We quantified the arboreal feeding and postural behaviors of adult chimpanzees to study the consequences of physical limb disabilities. We collected behavioral data for a total of 8 mo on chimpanzees at Sebitoli, Kibale National Park, Uganda, focusing on the time spent feeding, common feeding tree species, body postures, and substrate use. Of the 51 chimpanzees we observed, 16 (31%) exhibited limb anomalies, which varied in form and severity. Disabled chimpanzees climbed as high as chimpanzees without disabilities and did not differ from nondisabled chimpanzees in the amount they used feeding tree species. Adult chimpanzees with severe hand disability spent significantly more time feeding than nondisabled individuals. In addition, manually disabled adults did not suspend themselves from branches during feeding as frequently as nondisabled adults and used larger substrates for gripping and sitting than nondisabled adults. These results indicate that disabled individuals compensate to carry out feeding activities in trees.

    ref: Marie Cibot, Sabrina Krief, Justine Philippon, Pauline Couchoud, Andrew Seguya, Emmanuelle Pouydebat (2016) Feeding Consequences of Hand and Foot Disability in Wild Adult Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) IJP doi:10.1007/s10764-016-9914-0

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  • Snorticus by Snorticus in response to MimiA's comment.

    Encouraging (though unfortunate that it's necessary) that the data shows that they devise ways to cope. It seems like the little we've seen of injured chimps also shows them making do - I was very surprised to see Hannah running full out in ACP000cevq on only 3 feet!

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator in response to Snorticus's comment.

    i agree πŸ˜ƒ

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