Habituation is the way of bringing closer of wild animals to the humans for the purpose of either research or tourism without showing nervousness to the animal. After a certain period of time, the animals become used to the humans and can perform their day-to-day activities normally. Some of the animals that can be habituated are primates such as chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys and others. However, habituation is not a one or two days’ process and continues gradually depending on the targeted species.

In this paper we present to you our experience as primatologists within the Budongo landscape where we participated in the habituation of two chimpanzee communities namely; Sonso and Waibira. Different time periods were taken during the habituation of these two communities i.e. 15 and 10 years respectively. However, the waibira community was habituated much faster due to the immigrants from the Sonso community that were already habituated. These were mainly females such as Bahati, Keti, Nora and Monica. (In chimpanzee behavior, only females migrate)

It is important to note that males are much faster to habituate than females due to the fact the males vocalize a lot and are less fearful, hence are much easier to track down and follow quickening the procedure.

Methods of Habituation

Before applying the methods of habituation, one should first think of the location or territory of the community so as to fulfill the purpose for habituation ie for research, the community should be far away from the human population to avoid disturbances in the natural way of life of the chimpanzees, while for tourism the community should be easily accessible.

Habituation as a process can be done in different ways such as:

1. Using their vocalization

In the first place, you enter the forest, sit and listen to the calls of the chimps and then walk towards the direction where the calls are coming from while at the same time you map the potential feeding trees, observe fresh nests and fresh fecal samples as such will tell the presence of chimps.

The already mapped feeding trees are frequently visited because chimps will always visit these trees while they are having fruits. Some of the trees mapped during the habituation process include Ficus mucuso (FM), Ficus sur(Fsu), Ficus exasperate (Fe), Ficus natalensis(Fn), Ficus variifolia(Fvr), Broussonetia papyrifera (Bpy), and many others. An example in point is Duane (Dn) from the Sonso community was frequently seen feeding on Fsu & Fm. These figs have really contributed towards the habituation process.

2. Nesting & De-nesting

Habituation as a process requires spending long hours of contact with the intended species and as such you need to apply the nesting and de nesting procedure with the case of chimps. Nesting is the process of following the chimps from morning until they go to sleep, while de nesting is getting in contact with the chimps before they are out of the nest. This as a method helps to easily locate the chimps and increase the contact hours which in turn boosts the process of habituation.

3. Human vocalization

Similar to nesting and de nesting, human vocalization also involves long contact hours with the chimps. This method portrays to the chimps the presence of human gestures like minimal hand movement and facial expressions so that the chimpanzees get familiar with the presence of human beings around.

For the case of the 2 communities within the Budongo central forest, these were the dominant methods used for habituation. These methods were done repetitively for the lengths of period mentioned previously (15 years for Sonso & 10 years for Waibira) until it was declared that a community is fully habituated.

Past Experience of Habituation in Budongo.

You should note that the chimp communities fully habituated in Budongo central forest reserve are entirely for research purposes. Therefore, we present to you our past experience in habituating the Sonso and Waibira communities.

First and foremost, chimps are immediately given names depending on the characteristics of a particular individual, given names after researchers, members of staff at Budongo Conservation Field Station (BCFS) or just given names randomly. These names are thereafter coded ie in Sonso community chimps are given two letter codes for example KL for Kalema, FK for Frank among others, while in Waibira, three letter codes are used for example BEN and OMW for Ben & Omwana respectively. Different coding styles were used for easy identity. Naming is done for easy follow up of individuals and also to quicken data collection / research.

In Sonso community, naming was done around 1990 for about 8 months and research started 2month later within the same year. However, naming still continues until today. For the Waibira community, naming was quite easier because some habituated chimps had migrated from Sonso and this happened around 2011.The naming started around June 2011 and just like Sonso, naming continues up to today. However, research in Waibira started immediately.

Habituation was improved by introducing nesting and de-nesting of individuals which enhanced contact hours with the chimps. Later focal follows were used to improve the habituation of shy/ nervous individuals.

Challenges Faced During the Habituation Process of The 2 Communities

· Out of the many chimps encountered in both communities, an average of about 80% for both communities were habituated. The rest of the individuals were not habituated because of their behavior: some chimpanzees were naturally shy & nervous thus habituation was not done for all the chimps.

· Bad weather was also a very major hindrance to the habituation process. Thunderstorms and heavy rains would limit the contact of the field personnel with the chimpanzees hence reducing the pace of habituation.

· New immigrants within the different communities also slowed down the habituation process. This was much more evident for immigrants that were from communities not previously habituated.

· Peripheral individuals, living at the boarder of the territory also were hinderance to the habituation process ie they were not easy to find and this greatly increased the time for habituation. For example, in the Sonso community, individuals like Anna and Mukwano are known to be peripheral individuals while Santa and Chapati are the two individuals known to be peripheral in Waibira community.

Conclusion

Throughout the years up to date, the number of chimpanzees in both communities has increased and decreased due to a variety of factors such as snare traps, diseases, infanticide among others. Therefore, at present, the Sonso community has a total number of 77 habituated chimpanzees while the Waibira community has a total of 107 habituated chimpanzees.

This doesn’t mean that all the chimps in the different communities are seen on a particular day, but at least they are seen within the period of 3 months.