# Gombe Chimpanzees and Okavango Baboons

> Photos, Stories, and Research


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## Pages

- [Gigi Lets Go](https://curtbusse.com/gigi-lets-go/): Gigi Lets Go! Fifty years after it happened, Jane Goodall greeted me with a smile and asked, “Weren’t you the student Gigi defecated upon?” I hadn’t seen that coming. Neither had I noticed the adult female chimpanzee Gigi, suffering from a bad case of diarrhea, perched on a branch directly above me back in 1974. Gigi eating magugunwa fruit in a tree along an upper hillside. The Setting. On July 21, 1974, Esilom Mpongo and I were following the alpha male Figan through the forests of Gombe. Not far from the research headquarters, we watched as Figan encountered Evered, the beta […]
- [Do Chimpanzees Hunt Cooperatively](https://curtbusse.com/do-chimpanzees-hunt-cooperatively/): Do Chimpanzees Hunt Cooperatively? Evidence from 64 Hunts at Gombe In the early 1970s, many scientists believed that chimpanzees hunted cooperatively and that meat primarily served social functions. During 1973 and 1974, however, the Gombe research team recorded an increasing number of successful hunts by solitary males. Drawing on 64 observed hunts by chimpanzee groups and solitary individuals, the 1978 publication “Do chimpanzees hunt cooperatively?” (this page, bottom) was the first report of wild chimpanzees successfully hunting red colobus monkeys entirely on their own. Historical Context In 1973, Geza Teleki published the landmark book The Predatory Behavior of Wild Chimpanzees, the […]
- [Six Chimpanzees Three Monkeys](https://curtbusse.com/six-chimpanzees-three-monkeys/): Six Chimpanzees, Three Monkeys, One Afternoon at Gombe A Lesson in Chimpanzee Hunting On the afternoon of March 19, 1974, I struggled through the dense forest of the upper Mkenke valley, unable to keep up with Yahaya Alamasi and the six chimpanzees we were following. When I finally caught up with them beside the stream, all six sat silently, staring into the canopy. Somewhere above us, hidden sixty to eighty feet overhead, red colobus monkeys barked alarm calls as branches crashed and leaves shook. In less than twenty minutes, three monkeys would be dead. It was only the second reported case […]
- [Looking Back Fifty Years](https://curtbusse.com/looking-back-fifty-years/): Looking Back Fifty Years I began my scientific career in 1974 as an undergraduate student helping Jane Goodall at Gombe National Park. Over the next twelve years, I studied wild chimpanzees and baboons as well as captive mangabeys and macaques — then left science for the computer industry. After growing disillusioned with university politics, I accepted a position with a Fortune 100 company. The decision was easy. Now, fifty years later and long retired, I find myself looking back on those years with a mixture of pride, gratitude, and a healthy dose of disbelief at some of the crazy things we […]
- [Okavango Research](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-research/): Baboon Research from the Okavango (1977-80) Predation February 14, 2026 Here is Curt’s paper on predation on baboons, published in Botswana Notes and Records. Infanticide March 27, 2026 Anthony Collins, Curt Busse, and Jane Goodall teamed up for this multi-site paper on infanticide in savanna baboons. Maps February 15, 2026 Maps and aerial photo of the baboon study area, including the home ranges of Camp Troop and White Island Troop.
- [Gombe Research](https://curtbusse.com/gombe-research/): Chimpanzee Research from Gombe (1974) The Figan Follow November, 2025 Read about Curt and David’s 50-day marathon follow of Figan at the Figan Follow web site Intergroup Conflict January, 2026 Here is the backstory to Jane’s landmark paper on chimpanzee intergroup conflict. View/download the PDF directly here. Do Chimpanzees Hunt Cooperatively? July, 2026 Chimpanzees typically hunt in groups for colobus monkeys. This paper reported that they also hunt when alone.
- [Okavango Stories](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-stories/): Stories from the Okavango (1977-80) When Science Goes Awry May 12, 2026 A tragic darting incident in the Okavango Delta led to unexpected discoveries about infanticide, paternity, and the hidden social dynamics of chacma baboons. Why Study Baboons on Foot? April 10, 2026 Learn why we abandoned the safety of our Land Rover and followed wild baboons on foot through the predator-rich Okavango Delta.
- [Gombe Stories](https://curtbusse.com/gombe-stories/): Stories from Gombe (1974) My First Night at Gombe January, 2026 Stepping off the water taxi at Gombe in January, 1974, I had no idea that three extraordinary events had unfolded on consecutive days just before my arrival. The Ghost in White Pants March 17, 2026 My first glimpse of the spiritual side of Jane Goodall came from her unexpected reaction to a ghost story told over dinner at her camp in Tanzania. Chimpanzee Hunting June 10, 2026 “Six Chimpanzees, Three Monkeys, One Afternoon at Gombe.” Gigi Lets Go! July 10, 2026 Fifty years after it happened, Jane Goodall greeted me […]
- [When Science Goes Awry](https://curtbusse.com/when-science-goes-awry/): When Science Goes Awry Two-thirds of the way through my field study of chacma baboons in the Okavango Delta, my dissertation research was collapsing. To rescue the project, we began darting and immobilizing the study animals to collect blood samples and other physiological data. During one anesthetization, a mother lay unconscious while her infant was grabbed and killed by a recently arrived adult male. Two weeks later, I witnessed a related event that fundamentally changed how I understood chacma baboons — and sent my research in an entirely new direction. A Failing Dissertation Project In 1977, I began my dissertation research […]
- [Okavango Photo Gallery Page 11](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-photo-gallery-page-11/): Okavango Photo Gallery — Page 11 Crocodiles, Pangolins, and Other Wildlife Previous Crocodiles I took this photo from my hut of a large crocodile on the opposite bank of the Boro River. It was the largest crocodile I had seen near Baboon Camp in nearly three years and put a damper on our occasional trips to the nearby swimming hole. This fellow was on a sandbar along the Boro River about a mile south of our camp. The croc was not too happy as we positioned the boat for a closer look. Snakes A black mamba crawls up a knobthorn tree […]
- [Okavango Photo Gallery Page 10](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-photo-gallery-page-10/): Okavango Photo Gallery — Page 10 Baboons in Floodplains and Savanna Previous Next Baboons Foraging in Floodplains Camp Troop baboons as flood waters start to recede. Camp Troop mother and infant. Adult male CRK. White Island baboons forage in shallow water. CMN, the lowest-ranking female in Camp Troop, just days after a nighttime electrical storm. In the morning we found CMN sitting on the ground below the roost in a state of shock, her infant not apparently affected. CMN was able to rejoin the troop a day later and appeared to recover fully from the apparent lightning strike. A young adult […]
- [Okavango Photo Gallery Page 9](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-photo-gallery-page-9/): Okavango Photo Gallery — Page 9 Adult Male and Infant Baboons Previous Next Here is my thesis in a nutshell. An adult male (WBH, left) protectively holds his likely infant offsping. The infant watches the alpha male (WNR, right) groom an estrus female (WEM). The alpha male had immigated after the infant was conceived, could not have been its father, and was a potential threat to the infant’s life. This photo is a continuation of the previous one. Immigrant male WNR yawns, exposing his significant canines. The adult female WEM has a fully swollen perineum and is likely near the time […]
- [My First Night at Gombe](https://curtbusse.com/my-first-night-at-gombe/): My First Night at Gombe Arrival I arrived at Gombe National Park on January 11, 1974, a 21-year-old undergraduate about to begin a study of adult male chimpanzees. As I stepped off the water taxi that morning, I had no idea that three extraordinary events had unfolded on consecutive days just before my arrival: one comically absurd, one that nearly cost Jane Goodall her life, and one that would forever change our understanding of chimpanzees. The trip to Gombe was quite an expedition. I met up with fellow students Grant Heidrich and Kathryn “Kit” Morris in Brussels. We flew on a […]
- [Okavango Photo Gallery Page 8](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-photo-gallery-page-8/): Okavango Photo Gallery — Page 8 Young Baboons Previous Next Three Camp Troop youngsters catching some morning sun. Youngster feeds after a mud fight. White Island infant after a fecent fire.
- [Okavango Photo Gallery Page 7](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-photo-gallery-page-7/): Okavango Photo Gallery — Page 7 Buffalo, Antelope, Giraffe Previous Next Cape Buffalo Aerial view of a buffalo herd on Chief’s Island. Buffalo herd in the floodplain between White Island and Cheif’s Island. I took this photo and the previous one from the motorcycle. During a drive on Chief’s Island. Antelope Impala frequently associated with the baboons and did not expect to encounter humans—at least not at first. I took this photograph from behind a tree, but on one occasion, while sitting in dense brush watching some baboons, a curious impala approached and brought its nose within two feet of my […]
- [Okavango Photo Gallery Page 6](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-photo-gallery-page-6/): Okavango Photo Gallery — Page 6 Baboons Feeding Previous Next Cogito ergo sum. Youngster eats palm fruit. Youngster feeds on the root nodule of a sedge. More sedge feeding. An adult female eats seeds from a sausage “fruit” (Kigelia pinnata). A Kigelia pinnata flower after losing its bright red coloration. WBH digs for roots in the center area of White Island. CRK feeds on roots along a floodplain.. Adolescent female from C Troop eats fruits. She was easily recognizable by her broken middle finger. More fruit consumption by a C Troop adolescent. Youngster opens acacia pods to eat the seeds. Fig […]
- [Why study baboons on foot](https://curtbusse.com/why-study-baboons-on-foot/): Why Study the Baboons on Foot? The Okavango Delta is a place of beauty, adventure, and danger — home to lions, leopards, hyenas, hippos, and more. In early 1977, Steve Smith, Barbara Kus, and I arrived there as students to begin a long-term study of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus), and we fully expected to observe them from the relative safety of a vehicle. Cape buffalo were common. While herds are relatively predictable, solitary animals or small groups can be among the most dangerous in Africa. (Note the towering termite mound in the background.) This fellow was lounging on a sand bar […]
- [Okavango Photo Gallery Page 1](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-photo-gallery-page-1/): Okavango Photo Gallery — Page 1 Baboon Camp Next In April 1977, Steve Smith, Barbara Kus, and I traveled to a remote region of the Okavango Delta (maps here) to begin a long-term study of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) under the direction of our professor at U.C. Davis, William J. “Bill” Hamilton III. Before the end of the year, we had built “Baboon Camp” from scratch, habituated a troop of 70 baboons on White Island, identified and named all of the adults, and worked out the dominance hierarchies among both males and females. The project never could have been undertaken without […]
- [Okavango Photo Gallery Page 4](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-photo-gallery-page-4/): Okavango Photo Gallery — Page 4 Inter-troop Dispute Previous Next Our two study groups, White Island (W Troop) and Camp (C Troop), occasionally encountered neighboring groups (X and Z), which were not habituated to humans and typically fled at our approach. Over the course of my three years in the field, I observed only a single direct interaction between W and C Troops. This occurred when C Troop made an incursion onto White Island after the floodwaters had receded. Following a brief confrontation (photos below), C Troop retreated. W Troop adult and subadult males (left) respond to the incursion by advancing […]
- [Okavango Photo Gallery Page 2](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-photo-gallery-page-2/): Okavango Photo Gallery — Page 2 Mothers and Infants Previous Next This photo shows a range of infant ages and colorations, from foreground to background: 3 months, 9 months, 6 months, 1 year. A majority of these photos are from the White Island troop. The infant on the right is probably just a few days old. White Island mother, WFR, and her infant, WFI. In my opinion, WFR (aka Farah) was the most attractive female among the two troops, and she had a very pleasant disposition. Camp Troop mother, CBN, chews into the fibrous husk of a pod that had fallen […]
- [Okavango Photo Gallery Page 3](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-photo-gallery-page-3/): Okavango Photo Gallery — Page 3 Lions, Hyenas, and Wild Dogs Previous Next Lions We saw these lions, including an adult male, during an overnight trip to the top of Chief’s Island. Say hello to the three lionesses who treed me one night at the baboon roost on White Island. We saw these three ladies an average of once a month, sometimes while following the baboons on foot. Spoor. When you’re walking around and see this, it’s time to keep your head up and your eyes peeled. Bonus photos (by Bill Busse): we took a safari to northern Botswana with legendary […]
- [Okavango Photo Gallery Page 5](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-photo-gallery-page-5/): Okavango Photo Gallery — Page 5 Water Crossings Previous Next The home range of the White Island baboons (W Troop) lay almost entirely on White Island (aerial photos, here). As a result, water crossings were rarely necessary, although the troop did forage in shallow floodplains at certain times of the year. In contrast, the Camp Troop baboons (C Troop) ranged across several smaller islands, often requiring them to cross floodplains up to three feet deep during the flood season (typically April–September). Water temperatures at this time of year can average around 18–22°C (64–72°F). All of the photos on this page show […]
- [Okavango Baboon Photo Galleries](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-baboon-photo-galleries/): Okavango Baboon Photo Galleries Photos can be freely downloaded according to the license agreement at the bottom of this page. Baboon Camp Gallery Mothers and Infants Gallery Lions, Hyenas, and Wild Dogs Inter-troop Interaction Water Crossings Gallery Baboons Feeding Buffalo, Antelope, Giraffe and more Young Baboon Gallery Adult Males and Infants Baboons in Floodplains and Savanna Crocodiles, Pangolins, and Other Wildlife Photography I used an Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR camera with a 75-150mm zoom lens. This camera was fully manual, and I was not particularly skilled at setting the aperture and focus. The film was a mix of Kodachrome and Ektachrome. […]
- [Ghost in White Pants](https://curtbusse.com/ghost-in-white-pants/): The Ghost in White Pants My first glimpse of the spiritual side of Jane Goodall came from her unexpected reaction to a ghost story told over dinner at her camp in Tanzania. It was January 1974 when I arrived at the research station in Gombe National Park. I was twenty-one years old, a student volunteer helping collect data on chimpanzee behavior. There were about a dozen of us students living at Gombe, half studying chimpanzees and the other half studying baboons. Our days were long and demanding. From sunrise to sunset, we followed our subjects through the rugged forest, at times […]
- [Baboon Infanticide](https://curtbusse.com/baboon_infanticide/): Infanticide in Two Populations of Savanna Baboons by D. Anthony Collins, Curt Busse, and Jane Goodall In a landmark 1974 paper1, primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy proposed a controversial explanation for infanticide among langur monkeys. Rather than viewing the killing of infants as a result of social breakdown or overcrowding, Hrdy argued that it could be an evolved reproductive strategy. She suggested that when a new male takes over a troop, he may kill unweaned infants that were likely fathered by the previous male. The loss of these infants causes the mothers to return to fertility sooner, giving the new male a […]
- [Okavango Maps](https://curtbusse.com/okavango-maps/): Maps of the Okavango Baboon Study Site Figure 1. Map of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, showing the location of the study site. Dark shading indicates perennial flooding; light shading indicates seasonal flooding (* see Figure 2 for an enlargement of the study site). Figure 2. Map of the study site, showing approximate home ranges of C Troop and W Troop. Shaded areas are seasonally flooded; open areas are permanently dry. Baboon Camp is along the Boro River. Figure 3. Aerial photo showing landmarks including Baboon Camp, Xaxaba Camp (bottom), and the White Island baboon roost. The areas outlined in blue are […]
- [Okavango Predation](https://curtbusse.com/okavango_predation/): Leopard and Lion Predation upon Chacma Baboons Living in the Moremi Wildlife Reserve by Curt Busse Of the papers I published during my twelve years as a primatologist, this one remains especially meaningful to me because it appeared in a local African journal rather than a journal owned by one of the major U.S. or European publishing houses. The citation is as follows: Busse, C. Leopard and Lion Predation upon Chacma Baboons Living in the Moremi Wildlife Reserve. Botswana Notes and Records, Volume 12, Pages 15-21, 1980. (Download PDF) Copyright © The Botswana Society (posted at www.curtbusse.com with permission of The […]
- [Chimpanzee Intergroup Conflict](https://curtbusse.com/intergroup-conflict/): Chimpanzee Intergroup Conflict On January 7, 1974, two of Jane Goodall’s Tanzanian field researchers, Hilali Matama and Yassini Selemani,1 followed a group of eleven Kasakela community chimpanzees on a patrol deep into the territory of the neighboring Kahama community. There, the group ambushed and brutally attacked a Kahama male named Godi, leaving him fatally injured. Adult male Sherry followed by Figan and other Kasakela males patrol into Kahama territory on August 6, 1974, the 38th day of the Figan Follow (photo by Curt Busse ). This unprecedented observation — soon followed by a similar attack seven weeks later — shocked Jane […]
- [Gombe Chimpanzees](https://curtbusse.com/): Gombe Chimpanzees (1974) Photos November, 2025 Photo Gallery of Gombe Chimpanzees, at the Figan Follow web site Stories Updated May, 2026 Stories from Gombe National Park in 1974. Research March 17, 2026 The Figan Follow, Intergroup Conflict, and Hunting. Jane Goodall October 5, 2025 A remembrance from one of Jane’s early students. Okavango Baboons (1977-1980) Photos March 18, 2026 Photo Gallery of Okavango Baboons. Approximately 200 downloadable photos. Stories April 10, 2026 Read about “When Science Goes Awry“ and “Why Study Baboons on Foot?“ Research March 27, 2026 Publications, PDFs, maps, etc. from the Okavango baboon project. Looking Back May 28, […]
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- [In Memory of Jane Goodall](https://curtbusse.com/in-memory-of-jane-goodall/): In memoriam Jane Goodall A tribute from the early students of Gombe, 1970–1975 We are deeply saddened by Jane’s sudden passing. Our heartfelt condolences go to her family, and to the countless friends and admirers around the world whose lives she touched and who now feel this irreplaceable loss. Before the Jane Goodall Institute, before Roots & Shoots, before she became a global icon, a few dozen of us students had the extraordinary privilege of working alongside Jane at Gombe. By 1970, she was already renowned for showing the world that chimpanzees make and use tools, that they hunt and cooperate, […]

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