Fansi Anaumwa! (Fansi is Sick!)

In his latest blog entry, Dr. Deus Mjungu, Gombe Stream Research Center’s director of chimpanzee research, discusses a recent illness at Gombe National Park, Tanzania.

Fansi Anaumwa! (Fansi is Sick!)

For an animal, getting sick is a simple fact of life. Despite this, it’s particularly concerning when a chimpanzee falls ill. At Gombe, disease is one of the main causes of death for chimpanzees. Therefore, we keep a particularly vigilant eye on the chimps in the park.

Fansi, one of the babies of the female Gombe immigrant Flossie, has been sick for the past five days. His illness came as a huge surprise. Just a day before Fansi showed signs of poor health, he had appeared full of life. He was playing, feeding, and on three occasions he joined in group hunting episodes.

However, the following day the story was completely different. After Fansi left his nest in the morning, he spent a lot of time resting and ate very little. During the third and fourth day of his illness, he hardly came down to the ground. While we are still pondering the cause of Fansi’s ailment, we hope that this chapter of his life will have a happy ending.