Increasing our Understanding of Chimpanzees
The Goualougo Triangle Chimpanzee Study site has increased our understanding of chimpanzee behaviour in the Congo Basin, recording detailed observations of chimpanzee social interactions, daily activity patterns and other specific behaviors such as tool use, communicative gestures, and "cultural variants."
Chimpanzees studied in the wild in East and West Africa exhibit a high degree of behavioral diversity. However, very little is known about the social structure or ecology of the central subspecies of chimpanzees residing in the lowland forests of the Congo Basin. Focal and scan sampling methods are used to systematically record activity patterns and social interactions within the study communities. These data provide a rare glimpse into the behavioral ecology of undisturbed communities of chimpanzees and provide a foundation on which to monitor the influence of human expansion into neighboring areas.
A further component of research in the Goualougo Triangle is to examine the effects of the disturbances (timber inventories, road and layon establishment and timber extraction) associated with mechanized logging. Density estimates, behavioral monitoring, analysis of social organization, and physiological monitoring (population genetics, endocrine profiles, ape health monitoring) will be used to depict the specific impacts of logging activities (tree inventories, road and layon establishment, noise disturbance, timber extraction) on apes.