The city chimps
Thanks for helping protect chimpanzees in Uganda. But, what happens when two wandering youngsters take a ‘wrong turn’, after leaving their birth communities?
Rosette the chimpanzee (c) Matthew McLennan
You’ll be interested to hear that, in chimpanzee society, when young females reach adolescence, they usually leave their natal (birth) community to join another group of chimpanzees. This journey, which takes place when females reach reproductive maturity, shapes their social bonds for life and, as you might imagine, ensures genetic diversity for the population.
However, as the world undergoes rapid transformation, the ability of young chimpanzees to disperse and establish themselves in new communities is becoming increasingly challenging. Rosette and Tabitha’s extraordinary stories highlight the challenges faced when a ‘wrong turn’ is taken.
With your support, our long-term colleagues at the Bulindi Chimpanzee and Community Project (BCCP) monitor six communities of wild chimpanzees in Uganda. These chimps live in unprotected habitat around villages, farmland and roads, within the ‘Budongo-Bugoma corridor’ – which links two important forest reserves.
In this human-dominated landscape, striking out alone in search of other chimpanzees is a risky undertaking for young females. The network of riverine forests and swamps that formerly served as their migratory routes have largely been cut down, and replaced by farmland, villages and towns. The landscape is now crisscrossed with busy roads.
Despite these added challenges, chimpanzees are resilient and in recent years the BCCP team has documented several successful transfers of adolescent females among monitored groups. However, this is not always the case, and worryingly, several young females have disappeared from the monitored groups. Their fates sadly remain unknown.
Alongside monitoring six communities of chimpanzees, the BCCP team incorporated two young females, Rosette and Tabitha, into their monitoring programme. Both chimpanzees left their natal or birth communities separately, in search of a new community. They ended up in residential areas of Hoima city, in western Uganda, known as the country’s second capital.
Ending up in one of Uganda’s major cities would of course have come to a shock to these chimpanzees. Their resilience and adaptability, however, has surprised the BCCP team.
First identified by the BCCP team in March 2023, Rosette had initially come near the range of another chimpanzee community, monitored by BCCP. The team assumed Rosette would soon join this group. However, she ‘bypassed’ them and, in September 2023, showed up at the outskirts of Hoima city
Rosette behind Matthew McLennan’s house (c) BCCP
“In a strange twist of events, from October to December 2023, Rosette was frequently seen in a small swamp directly behind my house!” explains BCCP’s Director, Matt McLennan. “I have rented the same apartment since 2012, and this was the first time in anyone’s memory that a chimpanzee has been seen in this location.”
Rosette’s presence in a residential area caused some upset amongst the local community. The Uganda Wildlife Authority stepped in, dispatching a veterinary team to dart and translocate Rosette. The BCCP team assisted Wildlife Authority over several days in their attempt to move Rosette to a safer location.
But, despite the teams’ best efforts to translocate her, Rosette evaded them, disappearing for a few days. In 2024, she continued to range in the residential area and occasionally re-appearing behind Matt’s house. In December 2024, a second attempt was made to relocate Rosette, but she fled as she saw the vet team approaching.
In January 2025, Rosette was sighted in another residential area, about 1km away from where she had been ranging. She was last seen in February and there have no further reports to indicate her whereabouts since.
The BCCP team are sincerely hoping that Rosette has made it out of the city. There are three chimpanzee communities who live not far from where she was last sighted, and the hope is that she will integrate into one of these groups.
Wandering Bulindi female Tabitha in a residential area in Hoima City (c) BCCP
Rosette’s case contrasts sharply with that of Tabitha’s. This second young female migrated from the Bulindi community, one of the groups monitored by BCCP, in 2020 after reaching adolescence. Unfortunately, it looks like Tabitha took the ‘wrong’ direction in her search for other chimpanzees. Eventually, she ranged into a residential part on the outskirts of the city where she’s remained ever since. This is about 2km from Rosette’s previous location.
For over four years, Tabitha has been living in the city suburbs. Each night, she nests in a eucalyptus plantation by homes and eats from the residents’ small gardens during the day. BCCP staff check in with Tabitha and the local residents once or twice a month. Overall, the local residents are remarkably tolerant of her, having become used to having a wild chimpanzee in their ‘back yard’.
Both Tabitha’s and Rosette’s fascinating stories highlight the significant challenges animals face in highly modified environments like the Budongo-Bugoma corridor. They also illustrate how chimpanzees can make the ‘wrong’ choices while having to adapt to such a fast-changing environment.
But, with your loyal and generous support, Born Free is working tirelessly to keep wildlife in the wild across our conservation programmes. You can find out more about BCCP and what you can do to help protect wild chimpanzees below.