been reported at Kibale Forest. The subject has been reviewed by Wilson and Wrangham
(2003).
At Budongo such fighting is rare, but we have observed hostile interactions between
the Sonso community and the Nyakafunjo community living to the west and south of the
Sonso range.
Fawcett (2000: 32) reports:
Only one direct community encounter was witnessed. This occurred within the eastern boundary of
the Nature Reserve. [The Nature Reserve is to the west of the Sonso range.] The Sonso community
were feeding in Cynometra, they replied to some nearby calls (we initially assumed that these were
from another party of Sonso chimpanzees) by rapidly climbing down and moving towards the east.
The Sonso community chimpanzees were relocated about 200 m east, again feeding on Cynometra.
As Geresomu Muhumuza [field assistant] and I stood beneath the tree trying to identify all individu-
als, two unknown males charged through the undergrowth, directly past us. The response of the only
Sonso male on the ground, Kikunku (KK), was to turn and run east. Upon seeing us the unknown
chimpanzees ran back immediately...The Sonso males continued to move slowly north east of the
river and the other community moved towards the south. It is probable that the presence of human
observers affected the outcome of the encounter as when we were spotted by the charging males, they
stopped and ran back to the south where other community members were spread out in the trees.
Together with field assistant Kakura James, I was in the forest on that occasion, some
300 m to the east of the boundary where Katie Fawcett and Geresomu Muhumuza
were witnessing the above events. In particular I was watching an adolescent female
Mukwano (MK). She appeared very frightened at the noise coming from the fracas to
the west. She abruptly climbed down the tree in which she had been feeding, a few steps
at a time, stopping each time and looking towards the noise, her arms and legs rigid
and her whole figure a portrait of apprehension. Finally she got to the ground and ran
rapidly towards the east, the centre of the Sonso range.
In general, however, the lives of the Sonso chimpanzees appear, during the years we
have been observing them, to have been peaceful ones. There have been no examples of
inter-community killing as far as we know. Possibly some of our adult males who went
missing were killed by other communities. Over a four-year period from 1997 to 2000,
during which there were occasional inroads into the range of the Sonso community by
the Waibira community to the north, we lost four of our adult males (see Table 2.1):
Chris, last seen on 9 August 1997, Kikunku, last seen on 6 July 1998, Vernon, last seen
on 28 June 1999, and Muga, last seen on 23 March 2000. The loss of these males was a
severe blow to our community. The number of adult males was reduced from 15 to 11
over this period. It could be that they were killed in snares or traps, or died of diseases.
However, during this same period the number of adult females who disappeared was
two, Mama and Sara, who had immigrated and may have moved to another community.
No adult females are knownto have died during this period. Further, we did not find any
of the males’ bodies, suggesting they died some distance from camp, possibly on the
fringes of the range where inter-community fighting is known to take place.
Inter-community fighting 107