By Dr Matt McLennan, BCCP Director
Across Uganda’s Budongo–Bugoma Corridor, villagers share their daily environment with wild chimpanzees, and “conflicts” of interest between them are common. All chimpanzees in the corridor eat agricultural foods habitually: jackfruit, sugarcane, mangoes, papaya, cocoa, maize, and banana are dominant items in the diet of every chimpanzee community monitored by BCCP. Most villagers depend on farming to some extent for their livelihoods, so most complaints about the chimpanzees are about crop losses and their impact on livelihoods and food security. Conflicts caused by chimpanzees damaging people’s property are far less common. To find out why chimpanzees and farmers end up competing for the same land, and how we help both, download our free eBook, The chimpanzees next door.
In March 2024, an unexpected conflict emerged at Mairirwe, in the southern part of the corridor, where BCCP has monitored the resident chimpanzees since 2018. A local landowner, whose home stands a few hundred metres from a forest patch used by the Mairirwe chimpanzees, had recently begun renovating his house and, for the first time, installed glass doors and windows.
As household economies and living standards improve in rural Uganda, houses with glass windows and doors have become increasingly common in some villages in the corridor. We first saw how renovated homes could spark conflicts between homeowners and chimpanzees in 2007 in Bulindi, when the Bulindi males discovered they could see their reflections in the glass door of a particular house. I reported their aggressive behaviour towards the “enemy chimpanzees” behind the glass, and their resulting altercation with the homeowner, in one of our first publications about the Bulindi chimpanzees (read the article here).
Isaac stands to get a glimpse of the “enemy” chimpanzee behind the glass. Note the banana tree broken during the males’ displays.
At Mairirwe, houses with glass doors and windows are still fairly uncommon. The new mirror-like glass proved extremely provocative for Mairirwe’s small band of male chimpanzees, who discovered it while foraging in a nearby sugarcane field. From mid-March 2024, the group’s two adult males, Buck and Isaac, and adolescent Lewin made repeated daily visits to the house to stare at their reflections and threaten the “intruders” inside: banging on the glass, displaying wildly around the homestead, and breaking banana trees and other crops in the compound.
Understandably, the family and other residents were alarmed and outraged. The Mairirwe chimpanzees are ordinarily wary of people and avoid close encounters, but the males were so riled up by their reflections that they were extremely difficult to chase away. Our Chimpanzee Monitors took to standing at the front of the house when the chimpanzees visited, to discourage the males from approaching too closely.
Adult males Buck and Isaac display at their reflections in the glass doors of the house. On the left, Buck pulls down and breaks banana trees.
As the situation escalated, BCCP’s Education Team and Chimpanzee Monitors held a sensitisation meeting with local residents to listen to their concerns, explain the chimpanzees’ behaviour, and offer safety advice, such as bringing children inside the house when chimpanzees arrive at the compound. As a short-term measure, our Chimpanzee Monitors helped the homeowner cover the glass door and windows with cloths and tarpaulin so the chimpanzees could not see their reflections.
The house, with its glass doors and windows covered by cloth and tarpaulin to stop the chimpanzees seeing their reflections.
At first, the covers had the desired effect. The males visited the house several times in the following days, only to find the glass covered, and since they could no longer see their reflections, they left after a few minutes. In April 2024, however, Isaac managed to pull away part of the covering. And, as the homeowner pointed out, it is unrealistic to expect him to cover his house permanently with old sheets and tarpaulin!
Peace returns to Mairirwe
Eventually, the novelty of seeing their reflections wore off, as it had for the Bulindi males years earlier, and the Mairirwe males began to lose interest in the homestead. We kept monitoring the situation and offering residents support and advice, and by the end of 2024 the chimpanzees had stopped approaching the house altogether. At last, the homeowner and his family could enjoy their renovated home in peace. Sign up for our newsletter to get more stories like this from the field.
Situations like this are easier to resolve because our Chimpanzee Monitors and Education Team are on the ground every day, supporting local families and keeping the chimpanzees safe. Your donation helps keep them there.