The Chimpanzee Family
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
North American (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
But once you get used to them, each chimpanzee looks quite different from every other Justus we do. I have given names to all the chimpanzees I know, and chimpanzees in the same family have names that start with the same letter. Gremlin is 18 years old, hidden in her lap, protected by her encircling arms. Her small baby is sleeping. Gremlin is a wonderful mother. She is gentle, affectionate and playful. Her baby is called Galahad, and he is five months old, with sudden soft grunts of pleasure Gremlin Klein's to feed on little green figs. She crunches loudly and goes on making small grunts of pleasure. Galahad reaches to touch the fruits, keeping close to his mother. He has only four teeth and won't start eating any solid foods for several months. And even then, milk will remain his most important food until he's about three years old. Nearby, another group of chimps is feeding. We hear their calls of delight as a to feast on figs, sometimes Gremlin replies with contented sounds of her own, as though to say, I have delicious food, too. Already at only five months old, Galahad has a strong personality in a mind of his own. One day, I feel sure this little chimp will become the top male of his community. He has such good care from his mother. And he has such a good example to follow because his Uncle Goblin is top male. Now it is getting dusk now, and Galahad is a very small black silhouette against the evening sky. As I sit and watch him, I hear chimps calling nearby. There is a group feeding on leaf buds. Probably fee fie with some of her family. Perhaps wonder and little Wolfie, too. Gremlin replies to the calls. They're beautiful. Calls like singing. The chimpanzees make these sounds on Lee when they're well contend, well fed. At the end of the day, seven o'clock on a fine summer evening, they seem to call out, and all's well with the world. I leave them. Therefore it is nearly dark, and I have some way to go. They will make them sleeping nests close by, so I shall be able to find them in the morning as I hurry down the mountainside ports, my little house on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, I hear again the melodious singing calls and I hear other voices joined to the chorus from further South Goblin to is calling his good night. These chimpanzees living in a national park are lucky. It is not so good for those in other parts of Africa. In many places, the forests were chimps. Ones lived have been felled for timber or to make space for houses or crops. In some places where chimps remain, they're hunted for food. Often, mothers are shot and their infants taken. It is terrible and cruel, and some nights I cannot sleep thinking of it all, planning ways to try to help the chimpanzees. But at least in Tanzania, the chimpanzees are well protected. Fee fi and her family, Willie Wonder and More Fit Every End and Goblin Gremlin and Little Galahad and all of the others to are safe from humans. They have learned to trust us, and we must never let them come to harm at our hands. Tonight, as I lie listening to the lapping of the lake on the shore, my mind will be filled with pictures of little Galahad