Introduction by Jane Goodall
I have known Vernon Reynolds since we were both students. I had been working at
Gombe for about three years and Vernon and his wife Frankie had spent a year studying
chimpanzees in Uganda’s Budongo Forest. We discussed our plans. I was on my way
back to Tanzania to continue my study of the chimpanzees. Vernon was going to find
a teaching job at a university for a while and then return to the Budongo Forest. However,
while my plan worked out fine, the political unrest in Uganda that followed the seizing
of power by Idi Amin forced Vernon to put off his return to Budongo. Uganda became
increasingly unsafe for foreign researchers, and Vernon immersed himself in primate
academia at Oxford University.
His return to the field was triggered by a newspaper cutting sent to him by the
chairwoman of the International Primate Protection League, Dr Shirley McGreal. It told
the story of two infant chimpanzees who had been smuggled out of Uganda and sent to
Dubai — where they were discovered, confiscated and sent back again. They had almost
certainly been captured in the Budongo Forest, the place that had captured Vernon’s
heart almost three decades earlier. Two infant chimpanzees — infants who should have
been safe with their mothers, learning chimpanzee lore in the safety of their social
group. It reawakened his all but forgotten plan to return to Uganda — this time not only
to learn about but also to try to protect the chimpanzees.
First, though, he had to get funding. Eventually, after many disappointments, he
managed to get enough money for a return fare to Uganda and, in 1990, 27 years after
leaving, he was back in Budongo. I can imagine his excitement when he actually
glimpsed chimpanzees in the forest. But they were scared and moved off hastily through
the trees. Hardly surprising as poachers had been roaming the forest, shooting females
and stealing their infants. And setting snares. It was clear that something had to be done,
and urgently.
Back in the UK he wrote to me, begging for help. And amazingly, although we were
a tiny organization, the Jane Goodall Institute-UK (JGI-UK) was able to find a small
amount of money, enough for Vernon to return to Budongo and employ a keen and
talented young Ugandan, Chris Bakuneeta. Chris set up a camp, hired and trained some
field staff and marked out a study site in the centre of the forest. Once things had got
going on the ground it was easier to apply for grants, and within a year a basic research
camp was firmly established. It was at about that time that I visited the project. I found