218 The Kasokwa Forest chimpanzees
hand or foot of the victim and so allow it to escape. In fact the chimpanzee was able to
extract its hand from the jaws of the trap because the leaves had become slippery.
More attacks by chimpanzees
Since that time there have been two more cases of chimpanzee attacks on humans. In
each case the victim has been a girl and in each case the age was the same, 8 years old.
In the first attack, in February 2002, near Kirima village, to the southeast of Budongo
Forest (see Fig. 10.1), a girl was attacked by a chimpanzee in the forest while she was
with her mother and other women and children collecting firewood in the forest. The girl
was bitten on the upper leg, genitals and hands, and hospitalized for two months. In
revenge for this attack, the villagers of Kirima hunted and killed a juvenile chimpanzee
in March 2002.
In August 2002, in the same area, a second girl was attacked and bitten badly on the
face and arms. Possibly the same chimpanzee, which appears to have been an adult male,
was responsible for both attacks. The attacker was one of a group of 7–13 chimpanzees
which had come out of the main Budongo Forest block for crop-raiding. Kirima village
is on the forest edge — a new settlement of immigrants. The villagers have had to cut
down their paw-paw trees, have removed passion fruit vines, and have abandoned plant-
ing pineapples because of the chimpanzees. People here, according to Kyamanywa, are
very scared of the chimpanzees, more so than of baboons. Baboons raid and do great
damage, but they rarely attack people.
Here is a more detailed account (names withheld) of the circumstances of, and what
followed, the August attack:
On 10th August 2002 I received a report from a resident of Kirima village that a chimpanzee had
attacked and injured his brother’s daughter. According to the report, he said it was on 9th August at
around 3 p.m. when the attack occurred. He mentioned that the 8-year old obtained deep cuts
on the face by the left eye, on the arm, and fingernails were pulled out. He said that the girl was
obtaining medical treatment at the Doctor’s clinic and a bill of 12,000/- (around £5) was outstanding
relating to a vaccine for tetanus.
While the story was being told, the father of the girl arrived with the girl on the back of his
bicycle. Immediately he started quarreling bitterly and attracted the attention of Karujubu Trading
Centre. In his quarrel he mentioned the following points:
‘You are the people who are saying that we should protect chimpanzees and that we shouldn’t
kill them. But your chimpanzees are attacking and killing our children. Do you mean chimpanzees
are more important than human beings? I am going to buy a kilo of nails for making arrows and
tomorrow I am starting to hunt them and kill all of them!’
I tried to direct him to the offices of UWA in Masindi but I was stimulating his temper. His demand
was for compensation for the medical bills and feeding [in hospital] of his daughter. I witnessed the
wounds and the medical form. The girl was really badly injured (Kyamanywa 2002a).
Kyamanywa adds the following significant points:
● Intervention such as holding village meetings for sensitization on the protection of chimpanzees
may be futile.