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Chimp Habituation in Tongo

By Radu Dumitraşcu/The Forgotten Parks, Frankfurt Zoological Society

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“Habituate” is a common word used around Virunga, but many of our readers don’t know what this word means or how the habituation process works. Simply put, the word means getting wild animals used to being around people. Virunga, for instance, has habituated gorillas and non-habituated gorillas. The chimpanzees of Tongo (west of park headquarters) have been hunted for the past two decades, making the habituation process that began a year ago quite difficult.

“At the beginning of the habituation process, they were so scared of us. When they saw us they would run away as fast as they could without making any noise or without communicating with each other, “ explains Alexis Mutakirwa , our Chimpanzee Habituation Officer. “All they wanted was to get away from us.”

Habituation of an animal is a psychological process that involves frequent and prolonged exposure to people. Initially, habituating chimpanzees had been used for research, but The Forgotten Parks began the process to enable chimp tourism in Tongo, a potentially significant source of revenue for the park and conservation in Virunga.

Alexis and Radu discussing chimp habituation in Tongo.

A Little History
Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) first habituated the chimps in Tongo in the late 1980’s. During that time, there was no other area where chimpanzees had been habituated for tourism without the use of artificial inducement, such as food or reproduced chimpanzee calls. Although chimp habituation is much easier to do when it involves providing food, FZS did not employ this tactic as it could lead to behavioral change and it establishes a rapport between chimpanzees and humans that is based on dependency.

For three years chimp tourism in Tongo was vibrant and functional with revenue benefiting both the park and the community around Tongo.  However, in 1993, civil unrest came to the DRC and forced FZS to pull out of Tongo for two decades, putting a halt to chimp tourism.

BILLBOARD IN TONGO: “Together we protect the chimps and the forest”

Starting Over with Chimp Habituation
In September 2009 Frankfurt Zoological Society was able to return to Tongo and Alexis and his team of trekkers re-initiated the chimp habituation process starting with the re-opening of 80 km of trails in the dense Tongo forest to allow easy access to the chimps. The trails cut the entire forest from north to south and east to west; trails are about 200 meters apart. Alexis and his team then conducted a thorough animal census in the forest and they found about 30 chimpanzees, almost half of the number of chimps that were first habituated in the 1980’s. The civil wars, instability, and poaching took a toll on the chimp population.

In June 2010, the actual re-habituation process started. Waking up before sunset, Alexis and his team would go into the forest being careful to be extremely silent as they approached the chimps. Once they reached the chimps, they would surround them, covering the entire area where the animals had nested for the night. They used specific sounds and submission gestures. The trekkers did this every day for an entire year. Gradually the chimps became more familiar with human presence and at one point stopped running away.

“We noticed that some of the older chimps remained calm when we approached them. They were the same chimps that were habituated in late 1980’s. The younger ones saw that and adopted the same behavior. This definitely made our work easier,” explains Alexis.

In April 2011 Alexis and his team began to take people other than trekkers into the forest so they could get used to all types of people with different skin color. The chimps are now fully habituated, comfortable with human presence and are now ready to welcome tourists. The trekkers will continue to monitor the health of the chimpanzees and educate the local people of the importance of having this community of chimps in the Tongo forest.

The chimp habituation project is part of The Forgotten Parks initiative. Chimp conservation and chimp tourism can benefit both the local population and the park’s wildlife. The Forgotten Parks strives to prove the importance of wildlife as a natural resource and decrease the population’s dependency on the forest. This initiative reflects FZS’ comprehensive approach to nature conservation; we nurture a harmonious and mutually beneficial relationship between the forgotten parks of the DRC and its people.

Frankfurt Zoological Society is a partner of Virunga National Park, working on several projects including habituating chimpanzees in Tongo, and assisting displaced pygmies living near the southeastern boundary of the park.

By Radu Dumitraşcu/Frankfurt Zoological Society

I left the pygmy camp outside the eastern border of Virunga National Park, touched by the singing and dancing of these forgotten people of North Kivu. But above all, I left feeling a sense of urgency. The pygmies had made a simple request: they wanted blankets and kitchen pots. They needed much more.

The pygmies are currently living in improvised tents.

They tell me that pygmies were the first inhabitants of this land, but now they live in improvised tents, without access to social services, making a meager living through sporadic day jobs here and there. The roofs of their tents can’t stop the rain from pouring inside and nights get pretty chilly around here.

A pygmy tent.

The wars and political instability of the past few decades have put these people at the bottom of the priority list in Congo. Frankfurt Zoological Society has identified about 1,250 Batwa pygmies who illegally occupy land near the Mikeno gorilla sector of Virunga.

As part of the Forgotten Parks initiative, Frankfurt Zoological Society has acquired land for these people to legally live on. With funding from the World Bank, we will build houses for the Batwa pygmy community, as well as health posts and schools; these facilities will serve both the pygmy community as well as the Bantu (non-pygmy Congolese).  We currently support pygmy children with the provision of school equipment and uniforms. Their teachers tell us they are doing well in school.

Pygmy school children

We are currently working with partner pygmy NGOs to help pygmies find their new position in Congolese mainstream society, while also being sensitive to cultural differences. We will provide them with training in agriculture, bee-keeping, and small-animal rearing. In a year’s time they will have a brand new cultural centre where their folklore, traditions, dances and songs will be preserved, and where visitors will be able to experience first hand an ancient culture, generating revenue to the community.  More importantly, it will boost their morale and their sense of self-value as a distinct ethnic group in the DRC.

Pygmies dance for Radu.

Fostering healthy communities that surround the park can only benefit Virunga; decreasing forest dependency will help towards the protection and conservation of the park. This initiative reflects FZS and Virunga’s comprehensive approach to nature conservation; it is about people as well as wildlife.

For additional information please contact Radu at  radu at fzs.org

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