48 Morbidity and mortality
17.36 BO screamed loudly, which I termed ‘crying’. We really felt so sad when BO started
screaming joined by RE at 17.39. RE was screaming in such a way you would know there was a
problem, she continued up to 18.00.
18.38 chimpanzees started nesting around the spot. We could not see whether RE nested with her
brother BO. Because RD was still breathing we had to stay out in the forest to make sure that
strange animals at night did not celebrate on it.
On 30 October 2001, the following day, the chimpanzees that had nested around RD got up and
left the site. Inspection showed that RD was dead. Later in the morning her carcass was carried to
camp. Veterinarians at UWEC and Makerere University had been informed and would arrive later
that day to conduct a post-mortem.A necropsy was conducted by four Ugandan vets and one Australian vet who came up
to Budongo for the purpose. It revealed that the cause of death was likely to have been
heart failure secondary to severe chronic peritonitis. Many sacs of pus were found in the
abdomen, RD had large liver abscesses, emphysema, and at least three types of intesti-
nal parasites including one tapeworm. A full report of the necropsy by Wayne Boardman
can be found in Appendix D and a picture of the post-mortem in progress at Sonso camp
is shown in Fig. D.1.
Death of an old male
Bwoya (BY), an old male, died after a long illness during which he became very ema-
ciated. He was seen by Zephyr Kiwede and Melissa Emery Thompson on 3 September
2001 looking very sick and feeble, and he was seen again on 28 September 2001 with
a runny nose, still looking emaciated and weak (see Fig. 3.6).
Fig. 3.6: Bwoya shortly before he died (photo: M. Emery Thompson).