With Heavy Hearts: Rest in Power Dawna Wallis (aka 'Snorticus')

It is with a very heavy heart that we post today to pay tribute to Dawna Wallis (aka Chimp&See citizen scientist "@Snorticus") who we recently found out passed away on June 13 2019.

Dawna was one of our long time participants and her enthusiasm and kindness were infectious! In fact, one of our PanAf scientist had even written to her about doing field work as she was so observant and keen at Chimp&See.

Thank you so much Dawna for all the chimp collages you shared, all the chimps you helped identify, all the great chimp names you gave and all the fun discussions we had about wildlife, you will be so very dearly missed. We wish your family all the best and send our deepest condolences to them.

Below, a few of the tributes to Dawna we have received:

"What sad news indeed, and what a shock. Dawna was so helpful to me during my early days with C&S and her sense of humour often made me smile. Please convey my sympathies to her family. "
-Jane aka @Batfan

"That is such sad news. Please pass on my condolences and best wishes to Dawna's husband and family."
-Fiona aka @puddock

 "I'm shocked and very sad. I very much liked Dawna's subtle power of observation, her humor and her entire presence."
-Lucia aka @Luca-chimp

"That is so very sad... I don't know what C&S would have done without her contributions, and it definitely would have missed out on many laughs. We were blessed to have her."
-Kris aka @ksigler

 "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. Dawna always voiced her independent opinion when it came to chimp matching. She did not let other people's opinions take over to what she actually saw. I learned from her lots about how different light, shadows, and colors can make a chimp look like. She discussed again and again how the way a video / image was taken and then presented influences what we believe to see and that you really need to focus on every detail (especially the ears - one of her specialities) and not shrug it off for a seemingly harmonious sum of the parts.
But most of all, she was an appreciated voice and friend on twitter with opinions about the world - and chimpanzee conservation."
-Anja aka @AnLand

"I am so so sorry to read those lines. Deeply shocking and sad indeed.Although I weren't that close with her, she seemed like a very nice person, passionate about everything she worked on."
-Zuzi aka @yshish

"It is a shocking and very sad news. I knew her less than others. However, I remember Dawna as such a helpful, and very kind lady.
She will be deeply missed."
-Flavie aka @Orohena

"I am very sad and shocked. I will miss Dawna's smart and friendly nature very much. She also leaves a large gap at Chimp&See."
-Heike aka @HeikeW

"I am terribly sorry. I do not know what to say, I am in shock. I am really sorry."
-Paula aka @PauDG

"Oh no, this is so sad, I'm deeply shocked! I liked her very much, her humor, her power of observation, her intelligence, her sense of justice, her lovely character. I enjoyed very much to communicate with her also on facebook. I will carry her in my heart."
-Heidi aka @Boleyn

“Dear Dawna, you have been a wonderful companion in this amazing journey of species conservation, who always understood the meaning of the words ´team work´. I will be greatly missing you. My thoughts are with your family and friends during this difficult time. See you somewhere, wherever there are animals to protect around <3 “
-Nuria aka @NuriaM

"What sad news 😢. I thought I had not seen her around much, but assumed it might be due to her waiting for the relaunch. Thank you for telling me. She will definitely be missed."
-Laura aka @LauraKLynn 

Also, a big thank you to our moderator Heidi/@Boleyn for checking in on Dawna when she noticed that Dawna was not commenting anymore at Chimp&See. We are so very grateful to Heidi, and our other mods, for creating such a caring community at Chimp&See and notifying the rest of us of Dawna's passing, as well as collecting the kind thoughts you have read above.

One of many examples of Dawna's incredible detective work:

They both have odd 'butterfly' shaped nostrils. Big ears sit high on the head.

Infant has pale fingers & ear folds in especially big ear, dark line in middle of the curved brows

Similar profiles, similar shape left ear positioned high on the head:

long nipple on females & pale fingers on infant

Inclusive chimpanzee conservation

"Thanks to a pair of great primatologists we had the chance to highlight chimpanzee conservation in a recent letter published today in Science. Check out the important discussion about culture, conservation and of course chimps!" - Ammie Kalan

Read the letter and the PanAf response here: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/364/6445/1040.2.full.pdf

Chimp&See v2.0 update!

We are almost done incorporating all the comments from Beta Testing into the new Chimp&See!

For now, when you go to ChimpandSee.org, you will see our place holder page, but we will be back soon, better than ever!

In the mean time, you can still join us on Talk for chimp matching and other video discussions until we relaunch!

Novelty Response of Wild African Apes to Camera Traps

Another new paper from Ammie Kalan and collaborators including data from the PanAf and Chimp& See's animal selfie's miniproject!! :) Thanks to all the citizen scientists who helped hashtag camera reaction videos !!!

Novelty Response of Wild African Apes to Camera Traps (Current Biology)

And watch some best of videos HERE

Highlights
• Bonobos and gorillas had stronger looking impulses compared to chimpanzees
• Young apes looked longest at camera traps compared to mature individuals
• Presence of a research site or conspecifics reduced the duration of looking
• Both social and environmental factors affect great ape curiosity in the wild

Abstract
Temperament and personality research in humans and nonhuman animals measures behavioral variation in individual, population, or species-specific traits with implications for survival and fitness, such as social status, foraging, and mating success. Curiosity and risk-taking tendencies have been studied extensively across taxa by measuring boldness and exploration responses to experimental novelty exposure. Here, we conduct a natural field experiment using wildlife monitoring technology to test variation in the reaction of wild great apes (43 groups of naive chimpanzees, bonobos, and western gorillas across 14 field sites in Africa) to a novel object, the camera trap. Bonobo and gorilla groups demonstrated a stronger looking impulse toward the camera trap device compared to chimpanzees, suggesting higher visual attention and curiosity. Bonobos were also more likely to show alarm and other fearful behaviors, although such neophobic (and conversely, neophilic) responses were generally rare. Among all three species, individuals looked at cameras longer when they were young, were associating with fewer individuals, and did not live near a long-term research site. Overall, these findings partially validate results from great ape novelty paradigms in captivity. We further suggest that species-typical leadership styles and social and environmental effects, including familiarity with humans, best explain novelty responses of wild great apes. In sum, this study illustrates the feasibility of large-scale field experiments and the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors in shaping animal curiosity.

Press release:
Wild African ape reactions to novel camera traps

Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity

photo: Liran Samuni

We are so super proud to announce the publication of our latest PanAf paper "Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity" We hope it helps spur the call-to-action for conserving chimps and their behaviours across their range! 

Abstract:
Chimpanzees possess a large number of behavioral and cultural traits among non-human species. The ‘disturbance hypothesis’ predicts that human impact depletes resources and disrupts social learning processes necessary for behavioral and cultural transmission. We used an unprecedented data set of 144 chimpanzee communities, with information on 31 behaviors, to show that chimpanzees inhabiting areas with high human impact have a mean probability of occurrence reduced by 88%, across all behaviors, compared to low impact areas. This behavioral diversity loss was evident irrespective of the grouping or categorization of behaviors. Therefore, human impact may not only be associated with the loss of populations and genetic diversity, but also affects how animals behave. Our results support the view that ‘culturally significant units’ should be integrated into wildlife conservation.

Paper: 
Kühl HS, Boesch C, Kulik L, Haas F, Arandjelovic M, Dieguez P, Bocksberger G, McElreath MB, Agbor A, Angedakin S, Ayimisin EA, Bailey E, Barubiyo D, Bessone M, Brazzola G, Chancellor R, Cohen H, Coupland C, Danquah E, Deschner T, Diotoh O, Dowd D, Dunn A, Egbe VE, Eshuis H, Fernandez Rumen, Ginath Y, Goedmakers A, Granjon AC, Head J, Hedwig D, Hermans V, Imong I, Jeffery KJ, Jones S, Junker J, Kadam P, Kambere M, Kambi M, Kienast I, Kujirakwinja D, Langergraber K, Lapuente J, Larson B, Lee K, Leinert V, Llana M, Maretti G, Marrocoli S, Mbi TJ, Meier AC, Morgan B, Morgan D, Mulindahabi F, Murai M, Neil E, Niyigaba P, Ormsby LJ, Pacheco L, Piel A, Preece J, Regnaut S, Rundus A, Sanz C, van Schijndel J, Sommer V, Stewart F, Tagg N, Vendras E, Vergnes V, Welsh A, Wessling EG, Willie J, Wittig RM, Yurkiw K, Zuberbuehler K, Kalan AK (2019) Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity. Science. doi: 10.1126/science.aau4532


Press: 

• We Are Destroying Chimpanzee Cultures (Ed Yong, The Atlantic)
• Humans are wiping out chimpanzee cultures (Gretchen Vogel, Science magazine)
• Human encroachment threatens chimpanzee culture (Sujata Gupta, Science News)
• Dr. Ammie Kalan on the BBC live!
• Chimps varied ‘culture’ matters for conservation, study says (Christina Larson, Associated Press)
• MPI Press Release English
• MPI Press Release Deutsch
• ...and more

Video Abstract:

Year of the pig – let’s talk about hogs!

According to the Chinese (Lunar) calendar and starting today, 2019 is the Year of the Pig. We will take this opportunity to have a look the hogs (pigs) at Chimp&See as we’ve just realized, we have never really talked about them before and don’t have a formal guide (yet!).

Chimp&See features four different hog species with some great video footage. They all have large body sizes, a wedge-shaped big head and the signature out-turned huge canine tusks in common. But a closer look at fur, adaptations, and also location of occurrence shows striking differences.

A short video guide from our camera trap footage - and more details below.

Giant forest hogs (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni) can be seen in all African forest habitats. As the name suggest, they are the biggest African hog, heavily build with a big, sturdy head and broad, naked face. They have often rather spare dark fur with the lighter orangey-brown skin shining through. Variation in coat length and density and in different lighting situations let them appear in a wide range from light-brown and hairless to almost black with a thick fur. Male giant forest hogs can have enormously swollen preorbital glands (shown in the screenshot below) that are considered as a type of scent glands, but could also have anti-pathogenic effects.

A giant forest hog with enormously swollen preorbital glands.

Red river hogs (Potamochoerus porcus) can be seen often and in big groups at almost every West and Central African site. Their shiny red coat is short and very well visible in the forest. A clear blonde dorsal crest is usually seen. The faces are dark with white cheek tufts; the ears have adorably looking light tassels.

Red river hog

Bushpigs (Potamochoerus larvatus) have the coolest and most diverse color morphs of all African wild pigs. Their coat color ranges from black / brown / gray to red and blondish and is accentuated by white applications at the face and towards the dorsal crest. They have also these cute ear tassels, usually in black. Although subspecies are identified, the color diversity is seen in single groups of these animals. The fur is quite long and looks shaggy, especially after a good rain. Bushpigs are the smallest of the four species and are found at our Eastern sites, like Restless Star and Green Snowflake. More towards central Africa – where they meet the red river hog home range – a zone of interbreeding between these two closely related species can occur.

The multi-colored bushpig

The warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) lives predominantly in arid savannah habitat like at our West African site Dry Lake. It is most easily distinguishable from the other hogs because of its unique body build. The warthog body is more barrel-shaped due to the lack of subcutaneous adipose tissue and the legs are longer. In addition, warthogs fancy a mane that reaches from the head down to the spine. Because of their long legs and a rather short neck, we often see them kneeling down to feed or drink.

A warthog dropped to its knees to feed.

A detailed field guide for hogs and other ungulates will be part of the new Chimp&See interface to be launched soon.

For everyone celebrating the Chinese New Year, all fans of hogs, and just everyone – we wish you a happy and successful 2019. Come over to Chimp&See to check out camera trap video footage from Africa’s wildlife!

Forget me not 🌼

I´m afraid this one is not going to be the most didactic text I will write. It´s not even going to be about elephants, chimps or animal welfare actions. In fact, this is about passion, friendship, fellowship, self-confidence and finding my own way.

It was only five years ago when I received a link telling: “hey, this might be something for you 😉 “. It was Ingo from Africa sending me a link from the PanAf team asking for help to code videos recorded by camera traps located all over the chimpanzee natural range in Africa - sounds familiar?

Right at that time I was experiencing quite a frustrating professional moment in Germany, you know, when you feel like “I love being a mother, I love my kids, I know I do a great job…but I need to feel professionally complete”. So this was the right moment…the big moment! I still remember when I got the videos to be coded and a short letter from Mimi saying:

    “Dear Nuria, thank you so much for your help coding videos for our project! Welcome to the PanAf team!”.

Welcome! PanAf team!!!! YAY!!!! Can you believe it? I had no idea what I had to do or even if I was qualified to do it, but I knew that I wanted to do it and that I was going to do all my best, about that I was absolutely sure!!

I´m going to tell you a secret: ever since I was a child I wanted to be like Dian Fossey. Remember the film “Gorillas in the mist” when she introduces herself to the professor who searches for volunteers to do gorilla censuses in Africa? after he asks her what she knew about Gorillas she replies: nothing, but I can count”. Isn´t it great? That´s exactly what I believe it´s all about: it´s about wanting to, about having passion for what you do…and if you work with all your heart and put all your dedication and trust in what you do, the knowledge will come easy.

I´m not going to lie, this wasn´t always an easy pathway. In fact, I felt very unsure, overwhelmed and scared at times, which I think made me a stronger woman now. But you know what? When you have the best working team of the entire world, what can go wrong? Even though I have been working remotely, my team/friends have always made me feel that I belonged to the group, and that they considered me as a part of the project. Now I´ve grown as a person and as a professional, and they incredibly helped me with this.

I already had had my experience as an ecologist, but never in my whole years of University and later jobs had I learnt so much about wildlife, ecology, conservation…and of course working remotely helped me catch up on computer things, from writing to reading formal emails properly (oh God, I didn´t even know what ASAP in an email meant!!)…and have a look at me now, I am a blogger!💪

Then came C&S. C&S…I owe you guys soooo much! You won´t believe it. From each and every of you I have learnt how to coordinate a team, how to work tidily, how to be patient and rigorous. And how to be humble and always bear in mind that it´s absolutely fine if I make mistakes. And this specially I owe to Mimi, who has been so empathic and encouraging even when I did crap. These last five years have been the greatest, most rewarding professional years in my life, and at that point of my life I wasn´t expecting that; what a beautiful surprise, my job, my love, my passion…my life.

Although I think of all the possibilities that will for sure come now for me and that I´m ready for a new and exciting phase in my life, I feel tremendously sad for leaving and can´t help my tears from falling while I write this.  I´m going to miss you guys, all of you! I and the PanAf team have so much to thank you all volunteers! You have been doing an awesome job. We can never thank you guys enough in the name of conservation. In this crazy world with so many ecological challenges in sight, what we did for species protection has no price, really, and I am f… proud of us!

I hope our paths will cross again, at some point, at some place…

                                                                          Hey, we did a great job together 😊

       

Germany, 2016

Spain, 2019