Jess and I went on an eventful afternoon hike on Saturday. I was a little grouchy because it was the middle of the day, and hot, and I didn’t think the prospects of seeing any wildlife were good. We decided to do a loop trail that we had done several times before, but as dark clouds and distant thunder rolled in, we debated turning around. Shortly into our hike, near the top of a ridge, we heard a loud thump somewhere in the distance to our right almost simultaneously followed by a short scream very close on our left. Jess and I looked at each other nervously, and crept a little further up the trail. Then, a hundred yards to the left, we noticed a dark shadow in a short tree. It was a lone chimpanzee, munching on leaves and pulling branches in to snack on. We watched him for several minutes and noticed that he was missing a hand (many of the chimps here have been maimed by snares left by poachers), which, according to our chimp-researching neighbors, means that this was an animal named “Twig”. Excited about our discovery, we continued on the trail, and soon saw a small group of Mangabees, a less common monkey that looks like it has a light colored mullet against its dark fur. Continuing along, we came around a curve and saw a single L’Hoest monkey (a species we’d only seen twice before) sitting in the middle of the trail.
At this point we started to get excited, realizing that we’d seen several of the hardest to find species in the park. The most difficult species remaining was the blue monkey so we kept our eyes peeled and walked softly. We’d had no luck as we finished the loop, but as we rejoined the spur trail back to camp, we ran into two field assistants observing a group of Redtail monkeys (as part of a project to analyze the plants they eat). I noticed a couple Black–and-White Colobus monkeys hanging out with the group and told them about our quarry, to which they responded, oh there are some Blue Monkeys right there! After spending a few minutes watching the monkeys, we made our way back to camp, confident we would spot a few of the ever-present Olive Baboons and playful Red Colobus monkeys (actually pretty rare in Uganda but common around the station). Of course, this was the one day when they weren’t actually around, so we had to extend our hike up to the other side of the station, where a troop of baboons was lounging in the grass, perhaps after a long day of crop-raiding. Still no Red Colobus, but when we returned to our duplex, there they were, crashing about in the treetops as usual! We were very pleased with ourselves, having now spotted all 8 diurnal primate species in park in a single afternoon (9 if you count humans....)
Later in the evening, we decided to go for the “Grand Slam,” and along with our friends Aleia and Will, took our flashlights for a short hike in the dark. Flashing our lights in the trees we looked for reflective eye-shine and were quickly rewarded with couple small Galagos jumping between the tree branches. After a few more minutes of searching we returned to the station for a final effort. Just as we were about to give up we spotted our last target, a Potto hanging from a lower branch before he scurried up the branch under the glare of our lights. Success! All 10 species in a single day!