Habituation of chimpanzees at Loango National Park (Gabon)

Primate habituation work is an important preliminary step to field research and requires several precautions to respect (wearing masks, remaining as neutral as possible…). The chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) of Loango National Park (Gabon) have been the subject of a great ape habituation project conducted by the Max Plank Institute since 2005, in collaboration with the ANPN. Recently (2014) this project split in two habituation programs between gorillas and chimpanzees. The interest of this study site is truly particular given the huge variety of habitats and the very large area of the home range used by the studied population of chimpanzees. After a brief description of the species and the study site, I will present here the different types of preliminary data which are collected to evaluate the progress of the habituation work. I will also briefly describe some specific behaviors which have been identified at this study site, such as stick tool use on Binga Binga Honeybee nests. This is the beginning of very fruitful future research projects.