Fruit-sharing 71Zig. The main feature of interest in this story is the transfer of food between the two
adult females, in this case a mother–daughter pair.
Also at Budongo we have a case of a transfer from a low ranking adult male, Tinka,
to an unknown (immigrant) juvenile female. This took place on the morning of 21 April
1998, being observed by Emma Stokes, James Kakura and Joseph Karamaji. Tinka was
feeding on ripe fruits of Ficus mucusowhen an unknown juvenile female approached
him screaming in fear, having been chased down from above by the adult male Magosi.
Tinka held a fruit in his hand and had just put one in his mouth. He appeared startled by
the rumpus at first but then sat back down again, pulled the fig out of his mouth and gave
it to the juvenile, who sat next to him and ate it. Tinka then ate the fig he was holding in
his hand. No further interaction between Tinka and the juvenile female was observed.
The final plant-sharing we have seen in Budongo is the sharing of the soft pithy wood
from the inside of dead Raphia fariniferapalms. This is an extraordinary kind of food
as it is unclear what benefit the chimpanzees derive from it. What we find, in the Swamp
Forest, are dead tree stumps, up to 15 ft high or even higher, of Raphia. Occasionally
one of these stumps has a large hole in the bottom of it, just above ground level
(Fig. 4.5). This hole is visited by chimpanzees who put one or both arms or their head
or even their whole body into the tree and emerge with some of the inner pith or bark,
which they chew to extract the juice, then spit out as a wadge. There is some competi-
tion between the chimpanzees for who is allowed to do it and who gets the benefits, but
there is also sharing.
On 3 October 1998 Joseph Karamaji and a student, Paula Pebsworth, observed Maani
and Bwoya, both adult males, feeding on Raphiapith. They were later joined by the
adult male Muga and subadult male Zefa. Zefa extended his hand and begged from
Fig. 4.5: Rachel sitting beside a hole in a Raphiapalm tree, before entering to eat the dead wood.
The hole can be seen on the left (photo: S. O’Hara).