Death of an adult female 47when the cadaver was recovered on 25 July after veterinary assistance failed to arrive. By the time
of recovery, considerable autolysis had occurred.Unfortunately, despite many efforts to obtain the services of a veterinarian to perform
a necropsy, none was available and the carcass was eventually cleaned by our students
and staff and preserved at Sonso.
Death of an adult female
A second case of death was actually observed by a number of our field assistants as well
as many of the members of the Sonso community. This was the case of Ruda (RD), an
adult female.
On 29 October 2001, RD, the mother of two offspring, Bob (BO, a juvenile male) and
Recho (RE, an infant female), was found dying, surrounded by a large number of mem-
bers of the community, 26 in all. She was very emaciated and died in the following
night, with members of our staff in attendance. The circumstances of her dying are of
interest and I report them here as written up by field assistant Zephyr Kiwede:
At 10.15 hrs in block 30 Zephyr and Melissa came across RD, she was on the ground calling. Black
(BK, adult male) was hitting her. Her body was covered with faeces, she had serious diarrhoea.
Kalema (KL), Kewaya (KY) and Bob (BO) were feeding on Ficusfruits nearby and when they
heard RD calling (a strange call) they immediately climbed down, we followed them to where RD
was lying. Bahati (BH) and Katia (KA) were also present.
At 10.38 BK went away, leaving the other chimpanzees, some giving alarm calls. At 10.40 BK
returned with Duane (DN, alpha male) who looked very scared, he could not move close to RD,
just stayed away while calling. At 10.45 Maani (high ranking adult male) arrived and tried to hit
Ruda to see if she could get up, in vain.
10.46 BK moved close to RD and smelled her, then moved back, all other chimpanzees were
giving alarm calls.
10.50 DN looked carefully at RD, then ran away scared, returning at 10.54 to sit nearby looking
scared and calling.
10.57 BK and MA displayed near RD and hit her, BK turned her round, she could just scream
loudly.
11.01 BK pant hooted while turning RD aggressively, smelled her body and moved away.
11.07 All the chimpanzees left except BO and RE who stayed behind looking at their dying
mother. BO moved close to her and smelled her, then moved away.At this point Zephyr had to leave Ruda; other field assistants stayed; Zephyr returned at
17.20 and continues his report as follows:
17.20 BO and BK made strange calls, another group replied from north.
17.23 BO and BK made strange loud calls again, another group replied again from north. RE was
sitting 5 m from her mother looking at her, RD was still calling but not loud. Further strange calls
from BK and BO. Tinka (TK, low ranking adult male) arrived but did not go close to RD.