Did you know that female chimps initiate sex with the males? The female see a male with an erection and in five seconds or so the job is done, the female is off to find another erection and the male is left to tidy himself with some leaves. Chimps do things differently than gorillas or baboons. Females mate with any and all males and female juveniles move off to other groups to avoid incest. Male babies are still at extreme risk but female babies are welcomed. We saw this, and more, on our day-long habituation trek with Toti’s group of chimps. All hail Toti – on the left, to the right is Black. Toti is magnificent, the undisputed boss of his 200-member group.

Here in Kibale chimps have been habituated since 1992 and tracking them all day is good for their continued habituation.  Jared, our Bantu guide, has been with the chimps since the park was gazetted and prior to that he hunted food in the forest. There is little he doesn’t know. The three of us, me, Jim and Lisa from Portland Maine, are lucky to have him. Jared cautions us that Toti can get physical. We aren’t allowed to get more than 20 meters from the chimps but no one tells the chimps how close they can get to us – as we will find out.

It is bright and clear at 6:30am and if nothing else, it’s an excellent walk in the woods. Soon we meet the first few chimps of the tribe. From the tree tops where they built their nightly nests, they come down to relax, groom and socialize. Almost instantly we are surrounded – not by chimps but by other chimp watchers – at least 18 people plus their guides and guards. What have we gotten into? The mad rush to photograph every chimp makes for a mob scene and one by one we back off to the perimeter with Jared. It is astonishing that the chimps don’t mind the mob. These people only have one hour with the chimps, similar to gorilla trekking. An hour with chimps is not like an hour in church – the chimp hour goes much faster.

Jared motions us to follow him – “let’s track this cool guy” he says of Black, one of the mature males. Presently we leave all the other people behind and it is just us and the chimps and the forest. Black climbs a tree – how does a creature that big sit on such a tiny branch? – and begins calling to his friends. Chimps have 52 vocalizations, all of them are loud and wild. Some calls appear obvious such as when the small male left behind began crying loudly, like a kid lost in the mall. He was quickly answered by the tribe and found his way to them. Black’s calls attract a female, the two mate and then, just as Jared predicted, the others show up. We sit down in their midst and watch them play and groom and we all converse about evolution, fidelity, chimps and humans. Why not, we have enough vocalization for that.

But Toti wants some action and he rouses the others into a frenzy by rushing about and hooting. Other chimps join him, surrounding us, then Toti leads a charge right at the four of us. Now what did Jared say to do when this happens? Oh, yeah, stand up and stand still. But this puffed-up primate is hurling himself at us as fast as he can – which is pretty f’n fast – and it is all we can do to breath. Toti swings past Jim and slaps him on the thigh, the rest of the chimps rush past and we all take a breath. “He is just showing off” Jared says. It was deeply impressive, especially when Toti did it again, this time slapping Lisa. I was starting to feel left out. Jim said he’d show me how it felt but it’s not the same thing.

As the day goes on rain starts bucketing down. The chimps go into another frenzy, howling and screaming. They don’t care for the rain (yes, they live in a rain forest, but many people who live in snow don’t like it, right?) We try to wait it out but it is clear that we have no chance, we are soaked and the chimps are in hiding. The trail is a river of mud. Time to declare the habituation over. On the way out, slogging through rain and the wet mud we meet the last group of hourly visitors, just starting out for the chimps. Hope they had a good time. We certainly did. If you go, do the all-day habituation. You will not be disappointed.