7. Infanticide
Sunday morning, 7 a.m. Colobus called in the night, again at dawn, chimps too. Baboon barks from
time to time — a big male just inside the forest. People now getting up and going to the choo.
Geresomu taking the weather records. A beautiful background medley of bird songs, some very
laid back, unhurried, long notes in sweet cadences. Sunlight breaking on the treetops, moving
down towards camp. Mozzies floating around...Tomorrow Budongo university meets, Mr Bean in
the evening. Tuesday General meeting. Weds Makerere students arrive. Little Arambo, Mary’s
daughter, wanders around starkers with braids and beads in her hair...Now I want to finish my
toast and honey with a cup of tea and Lariam tablet...Evace is filling the shower tank, the day’s
round is beginning (26 September 1999).First observation of infanticide
The first observation of infant killing by chimpanzees was actually made in the
Budongo Forest by Suzuki (1971). He described and photographed an adult male,
Ropoka, a member of the ‘Picnic Site’ community, a large community of chimpanzees
living in the Busingiro area of Budongo, eating an infant chimpanzee. He described this
as ‘cannibalism’. He had not seen the killing of the infant, nor had he any knowledge of
the provenance of the infant or its relationship to Ropoka. The observations were made
on 13 November 1967:
The author first found Ropoka, the largest male in the group, perched on a branch of a Cordia
millenniitree with the prey, the baby chimpanzee, in his right hand ....Mkubwa,another male,
emerged from a nearby tree, groomed Ropoka and stretched out his right hand to grab hold of
the baby, which was dangling from Ropoka’s hand. Ropoka snatched the baby right back.
Mkubwa then elaborately groomed Ropoka for about three minutes. This done, Mkubwa
grabbed hold of the body, this time with his left foot, and hung it upside down from the tree and
patted it.
Soon Ropoka got the cadaver back again....
The baby chimpanzee was in a horrible state. Its right leg was gone and bled from the groin and
the head. It still had a navel cord five to six centimeters long — an altogether newborn baby. What
now ensued is recorded in the author’s field notes as follows:
10:27 Ropoka tears off flesh from the baby’s right thigh with his mouth and ‘mumbles’ it.