Natural World (1983) s21e11 Episode Script

This is Tanzania, East Africa and this is the Viramba troop Forty yellow baboons that exist on a knife-edge between life and death Competition is fierce, yet they rely on cooperation and the wisdom of the female mind This is Holly Caroll She spent a year in their company sharing their adventures and learning the secrets of their survival I'd like you to meet 3 remarkable ladies I met this year Kitovu, the queen of the Viramba troop whose dominance seemed to give her an aloof and superior air Old Heshima, humble in her position at the bottom of the hierarchy who was clever enough to guide the troop out of danger when their survival was most in question And little Kabety, who faced one painful catastrophe after another with amazing resilience Me? I spent the most extraordinary 12 months of my life in their accompany This is the story of the challenges we faced together in the African bush Kitovu, Heshima and Kabety are all members of the Viramba troop of yellow baboons Despite their familiarity with humans they remain totally wild Their home is a mosaic of flood plains, grassland and wooded hills stretching either side of the TanZam Highway which links the Tanzanian Coast with Zambia Holly has been invited by project director, Guy Norton to join his volunteer research team in Mikumi She has a lot to get used to, not least the searing heat Her passion is primates but she's been working as a biologist in Alaska studying salmon in freezing rivers When I left home it was about -30 Celsius, you know and now what is it, 32 degrees? That's about right, yeah You think I'll get used to it? Oh, yeah.
I hope you enjoy it here.
Food and water come and go It may not look it now but this is a very tough place to live Holly is keen to get out and meet the troop As always, the researchers will be accompanied by one of the project's two full-time rangers He'll be responsible for much of Holly's training and her safety too Over the years, he has had to scare off many lions, elephants and buffalo that have come too close He's never yet had to shoot to kill but this is a dangerous place to be out on foot So how do you know which site they're at in the morning? My first day in the field was Angela's last She'd come to the end of her two years of research and it was up to me to learn as fast as I could so I would be a worthy replacement Phew, it's hot There they are, Holly Where? Oh, wow We just walked right in amongst them It was amazing! They didn't run off In fact, they weren't even a bit bothered about us being there, even the big males Look he's like Yeah He's just looking right at me Totally unconcerned Oh, and there's one One of the first things I had to learn was not to stare directly into a baboon's eyes It could be interpreted as sign of aggression We could watch, but not stare So down here is the youngest infant we've got She's about a month old now This was my first meeting with Kabety the only female baby so far this year Back then, I had no idea what this cute little monkey would have to endure in the coming months I was so excited about the year ahead but it felt like I was doing my day's work in a sauna and I wondered if I was really up to it Those first few weeks were fun, but hard work Getting to grips with the research work and all the jobs that went with it where to go for supplies how to defend myself from dangerous animals Mamasha helped me with my Swahili and housemate Alison showed me how to cook with local foods Charles and William tirelessly taught me all the stuff I needed to know in the field It's mid-April and Holly's been at Mikumi for two months I've really settled in I've gotten to know the baboons and their stories, and um I'm learning the trees and the plants and I'm seeing birds every day and I'm loving my job And to top it off we just had a lion outside the shower Alison's in the shower so I'm trying to rescue her Um, I've shouted at her that there's a lion out there Is he away from the door now? Yeah, yeah.
She ran into the bush She was just right there It's those kinds of experiences that make this even more unbelievable The working day starts before 5 The researchers have to be up before first light if they're to find the baboons before they move too far from their sleeping tree Did you sleep alright? Yeah, I slept good actually Just getting to the sleeping site can take an hour or more Today Holly is accompanied by William He knows every twist and turn of the baboon's range and seems to instinctively know the direction they'll be heading in Ready? Without William or Charles, I'd have no hope of finding them When food was scarce, they'd leave their sleeping trees early and could walk for many miles But today, there was plenty of food so they hadn't traveled far In baboon society, you inherit your rank from your mother and keep it for life At the top of the Viramba rankings is 12-year-old Kitovu She has the most influence on the troop's day-to-day decisions At the bottom is Heshima, a wise 17-year-old Although lowest ranking, she knows the best place to go to find food and water These two females, the most important in the troop, were both pregnant Poor old Heshima It was just as well she got to the food ahead of the rest of the troop Once they arrived, she was relegated to feeding on the ground Kitovu, on the other hand, could count on Heshima to find the food and then exploiting her status, stroll up and take her seat at the head of the table The rich variety of foods available at this time of year offer all the nutrition the baboons need The fruit of the maruna tree, related to the mango is sweet, juicy and rich in vitamin C Protein comes from insects and grubs, if you can find them On average, a baboon needs to eat the equivalent of 1,200 raisins a day To pack in that much, they must forage almost constantly But at this time of year, for a few short weeks they're overwhelmed with delicious choices What can't be wolfed down is tucked away in cheek pouches rather like a doggie bag to be enjoyed later And that leaves plenty of time to relax, unwind and soak up the sun It was great to see them enjoying so much food especially Kitovu and Heshima They needed to stock up while they had the chance In a few months when their babies were due food would be scarce Mikumi is no place for a solitary baboon It's just too dangerous, and for much of the year the land is utterly unforgiving So their best chance is to live together Cooperation and shared knowledge are keys to their survival Most decisions are made by the females drawing upon years of experience But while this might appear to be a cozy community everyone must still look out for themselves Also with the troop are a handful of males Twice the size as the females, they provide protection from predators and other troops in return for sexual favors For the rest of that week, the troops stayed pretty much in the same area enjoying the fruits of spring But next time I spotted Kabety, she'd had her first brush with disaster She had a horrible accident Her tail was nearly severed and bone is actually jutting out of it And we think the bottom half if probably going to drop off because it's quite dead The first two days she was really crying a lot after the injury happened, so I think it hurt to touch But now I think it's dead because it's bumping against things and it doesn't seem to bother her at all With so few infant females in the troop this year it's essential that Kabety survives If the female lines die out, the Viramba troop will cease to exist This is because females born within a baboon troop stay with it for life These young males however, will leave when they are about 8 years old Breeding males will come from other troops, attracted to the adult females It was cool and shady by the waterholes and at the end of a hot afternoon, everyone gathered to chill out I loved these times It was like a summer's day by the pool So this was how life was in those first 3 months Apart from Kabety's accident, everyone was doing great There was plenty of food and times were good But it was all about to change The next day, Heshima shot off in a completely new direction leading us all straight into very long grass A journey like this presents the troops with their greatest risk It's difficult to spot a leopard in 10-foot grass when you are only 18 inches tall For Holly and William too, this is an extremely dangerous time to be out on foot I really don't like this long grass at all It's quite dangerous You can't see for like 3m in front of you and, I'm always worried that you're gonna see a buffalo or an elephant Thank god, William is they're there looking out for me because I'm too busy just trudging I wouldn't notice for most of the time and you can't hear I'll just be so happy when it's gone They must move with extreme caution Both Charles and William have known friends to be killed by elephants and buffalo in this long grass Lions lurk, barely noticed All the animals are on high alert The baboons were really on a mission They led us straight through the long grass for hours I've no idea how they managed to stick together in all this, when even William and I were having difficulty despite having the advantage of walking upright We finally arrived at a Sterculia tree As usual, Heshima waited at the bottom while Kitovu went ahead But why come all this way for one tree? And then I realized it wasn't fruit, but resin they were after They'd clearly visited this tree before They were all keen to get at it but rank determined whose turn it was next Poor Heshima, she'd brought them all this way and then wasn't allowed to get at the good stuff They really weren't very nice to her Resin is full of compounds evolved to protect a tree against fungal and insect attacks It's been used as an herbal remedy by humans for thousands of years Maybe the baboons use it for its medicinal qualities It's certainly appealing to injured little Kabety or maybe she just likes its sweetness Thankfully, Heshima got her fair share in the end As the troop moved on, she hung back and found some resin for herself Perhaps it would help her unborn baby By the time she called out, everyone was taking the rest from the midday sun One of the females has come into season and it's not gone unnoticed by a male from a nearby troop It seems he fancies his chances and he sets off after her But a lookout from the Viramba troop spots the intruder and alerts his fellow males In a rare display of solidarity, they close ranks Faced with such opposition, the intruder may be seriously injured or even killed While all this was going on, they didn't notice a much bigger threat sneaking up behind them And neither did we Is it an alarm bark? Yeah, that's an alarm bark because they've either seen a lion or a leopard or they think they have He's saying that a leopard has chased them here before and now they're all on alarm right now If you look in the trees, they're all looking in that direction See, look.
They're all looking that way See, I'd like to be in a tree right now looking Somebody saw something It wasn't just a false alarm They were pretty distressed All that alarm barking served its purpose The predator was eventually scared off and the baboons finally decided it was safe to move on I'll follow you By this time, I was feeling quite edgy so it didn't do my nerves much good when Heshima led us out onto the highway yet another danger to deal with They didn't use the road too often but today it felt like we were dodging one disaster after another To the baboons, this is a perfectly intelligent choice They sometimes use the road as a quick direct route to a distant feeding area or sleeping site Free of the long grass, they have clear visibility and can easily spot predators In their eyes they're safer here than in the bush But Holly feels differently The busses do about 120kmph Some of the trucks and cars go even faster The baboons are really not safe here As spring rolls into summer the fierce African sun sucks the land dry leaving precious little food and water for the wildlife of Mikumi The summer fruits had gone and the baboons had moved to the Tamarind groves on the hillsides Our daily hikes were becoming upwards of 10 miles and were much more tiring There was very little shade, and we still had the long grass to deal with The fruit of the Tamarind tree is one of the last remaining options But even these trees are hard to find and the troop relies increasingly on Heshima's navigation skills to find them The baboons eat as much as they can replenishing their energy after the long walk In spite of her accident, Kabety was becoming quite a free spirit Her tail had dropped off just like we expected and it wasn't causing her any problem But it worried me that she was still the baby girl of the year and that didn't bode too well for the future of the Viramba troop More females were needed It was Heshima who delivered She gave birth to a beautiful little girl I named Mwenzi, which means companion because now Heshima wouldn't be alone Mwenzi automatically inherits her mother's low rank But for the time being, they were the most celebrated couple in the troop It was great to see Heshima getting so much attention at last Everyone wanted to touch the new baby, but they had to ask her permission first by grooming her It was the first time I'd seen them treat her nicely But at the top of the troop, there's still no sign of Kitovu's baby And after a few days, Holly and the rangers are becoming concerned Well, Kitovu is overdue now She was supposed to have her baby a couple of days ago I hope nothing's wrong She's moving very slow today and her rear end looks quite tired and she's scratching a lot So it could be a good sign and maybe she'll have it today or tonight I'd really like to see it though So, I'm sticking to her like glue and I won't have a day off until I see her with the baby which could be a while at this rate With just the two babies, Mwenzi and Kabety at the moment the future is beginning to look bleak for the Viramba troop Normally, at least half the adult females would have suckling infants But then one of the mid-ranking females comes into season sparking fierce competition amongst the males All may mate with this one female but priority will be decided by fighting the most successful male claiming her at the end of the week when she's at her most fertile These fights can be extremely aggressive, sometimes fatal It was always upsetting to see them fight like this It was like watching friends in a bar brawl Jogu, a male who has been with the troop for 4 years escapes the conflict by grabbing an infant This is an common tactic Another male will rarely attack if he risks injuring an infant that may be his own Jogu is not a coward He fights plenty of battles But claiming an infant in this way is a privilege he's earned from spending many hours in the company of females He's sort of like a grandpa to all these kids here He's quite old, but he really likes the babies Then he usually goes and plunks himself down next to a bunch of the kids that are playing Sometimes he acts a bit, sort of, crotchety and he'll smack them if they get too rambunctious around him, but he loves it You can tell And look at this He doesn't have to tolerate that at all The park is now tinder dry It hasn't rained for 5 months The few remaining waterholes are widely scattered and there is very little food for the baboons They are walking a daily tightrope for survival At this time of year, fires spring up all over the baboon's range Some start naturally Others are started by the park service to prevent massive destruction by wildfires For baboons, it's not usually a problem They simply retire a short distance and wait for the flames to subside However, 6 miles away at the house, a runaway fire is giving Holly real cause for concern It's definitely coming this way Actually, it really looks like it's getting quite close and I don't know what to do Mamasha is just laughing, so I guess that's a good sign.
Um But that is looking like it's on this side of the road now Jeez.
So, should I be worried? Oh please don't let our house burn down Fortunately, the wind drops and the flames are beaten by a hastily recruited brigade of volunteers Liberated at last from the long grass and its threat of predators the troop returns to enjoy their new freedom and indulge in the abundance of food to be found on the scorched earth Nature has provided them with an easily spotted feast of barbequed insects and seeds It couldn't have come at a better time for Kitovu who has given birth at last This is it, I mean this is what we've waited for days on end for Kitovu finally had her baby and to top it off, it's female She's quite healthy, um, which is good And I think she's quite small, but she looks like she's going to be a strong one Um, so I'm really pleased I'm going to name this new baby girl Chelewa because Chelewa is the Swahili word for late and she was very late and was actually giving us a bit of scare So I think that's an appropriate name for the new princess.
Princess Chelewa It's an important day for the troop If Chelewa survives, she will one day inherit her mother's top-ranked position A few hundred yards away, a small herd of elephants forages in the morning sun Like the baboons, they've been drawn here by the remaining fruits of a solitary Tamarind tree William lets them know they have human company The baboons don't mind the elephant right now but if the elephant wants to scare them off, she will Sometimes they can be quite mean to the baboons and just run them off I don't think they like them around They'll actually chase them and trumpet at them, and the baboons will keep quite a distance But right now, they're just They're fine I think they just want the Tamarind But if she want that tree, she'll have it Okay, so she just sort of chased us off then She started advancing Her ears came out and that was a good warning sign And it worked.
We ran, the baboons ran and now she's got the tree So, uh, good communication on her part and, uh, good action on ours, I think One thing that really plagued us in Mikumi was the ticks They covered our legs as we passed through the grass and then once they had worked their way inside our clothes They'd suck our blood leaving itchy bites Being so small, it was hard enough for me to find each one It must have been so much harder for the baboons with all that hair Every dot you see, these are all ticks That's a lot of ticks.
I've got a few hundred on me currently This is the worst I've ever had yet It's not a huge deal as long as they don't actually get inside the clothing, which it doesn't look like they have That's actually just leg hair Oh, there's one And that's the joys of working in the bush Grooming is one of the things Holly's been studying as part of her research Not only is it an essential means of removing ticks from inaccessible parts of the body it's also the way in which a baboon socially ingratiates itself forging friendships that may later prove useful in avoiding conflicts Since giving birth to Mwenzi, Heshima has received a lot of grooming attention She rarely gets any peace these days, such is her baby's popularity Kitovu, by contrast, is pulling rank And keeping Chelewa to herself, she won't let anyone touch her new offspring Inquisitive little Kabety gets a sharp nip for coming too close But she retaliates with a rebellious kick It occurred to me that perhaps Kitovu's overprotectiveness was not the best thing for Chelewa She was clearly missing out on all the social interaction Mwenzi was enjoying and I wondered how this would affect her in the long run As for Kabety, her mother wasn't paying her very much attention at all so she was increasingly hanging out with the youngsters and in particular, Pumzi, a boisterous little 18-month-old male But their young friendship was about to be cut short As Pumzi lies unnoticed by most of the troop an adult male, Kona, lingers by the body His reaction takes Holly by surprise He stood by the body for a long time And he kept, sort of, looking around and obviously very distraught obviously protecting it while also, kind of, looking for almost, like, for help You know, the troop were moving on, and I think he was trying to keep track of where they were but he also didn't want to leave Pumzi Even Pumzi's mother has moved on, unaware of the accident When I came to get a closer look, because I wanted to do a bit of filming Kona threatened me and I've never seen that happen before I've never had a baboon actually threaten me He barked-threat and he stared and, it was very clear that I was not allowed to come near that baboon, so I Once I stepped back a bit, he was fine and, you know, I could tell I wasn't in danger, but he didn't want me to come close to Pumzi We'll never know for sure, but I often wonder if Kona thought he was Pumzi's father The dry season has reached its extreme Daytime temperature now regularly tops 40 degrees Celsius In a desperate search for food and water the Viramba troop has headed into the hills far from the center of their home range For Holly and the rangers, this means the daily slog is even harder and longer I was becoming increasingly concerned for the troop and in particularly, the young ones The long treks were exhausting for them and with so little food and water, they were becoming weaker by the day I started to fear what I might see each morning Every decision Heshima makes is now one of life or death While she considers her next move the stress of competing for food is showing in the ranks Carrying little fat, the baboons have to find sufficient food now, or they'll die Hashima reaches her decision, and in doing so, hands Kitovu and the other troop members a serious dilemma How hard can they push themselves to reach food and water? Too hard, and they may die from exhaustion If they rest too long, the weaker ones will starve They press on When Holly and William catch up with them they discover another disaster Kabety has fallen from a tree It made me feel sick to even look Her leg was hanging lifelessly from its socket She was clearly in a state of shock as she clung to her mother It seemed inevitable now that her days were numbered Surely she couldn't survive at such a young age with an injury like that To make matters worse, her mother couldn't nurse her properly as she had come into season again and the males weren't giving her a moment's peace Neglected by her mother, Kabety struggles to find comfort in the troop a few yards away But they move off, and she is unable to keep up with them If they slip away from her, she'll not survive out here for long Time is running out for the rest of the troop too They follow Heshima as she heads out in front Her priority: to find food for herself and her baby Mwenzi Where was she taking us? We were now miles into unfamiliar territory I later discovered that she was the only member of the troop who had been here before and that was 9 years ago Heshima has brought them to a wooded hillside that she visited when she was young Remote and almost impossible to get to she finds a route along paths cleared by fire Her decision was right The exhausted troop are rewarded with a woodland floor scattered with highly nutritious brakastesia seeds Ravenous, they cram in as much as they can But for little Kabety, the struggle for survival continues She's lost lower down the hillside and this is no place to be separated from your mother One of the adult males has caught a baby antelope He warns off the others with aggressive stares Baboons don't actively hunt but when food is scarce, they'll grab any opportunity that presents itself This small animal will provide all the nutrients he needs in one package The male is fiercely protective of his kill although his stomach will only allow him to eat a very small part of it What he can't manage will fall to the rest of the troop Meanwhile Kabety has had a reprieve When her mother realizes that she is no longer with the troop she returns to collect her With her stomach full at last it was good to see baby Mwenzi bonding well with her mother Heshima in the lower ranks and playing happily with other members of the troop That was a different story with Chelewa, though who was showing all the signs of being a right royal brat She'd have to grow out of this When she becomes the dominant female, she'll affect the troop's survival That was an incredibly large tantrum on Chelewa's part and it was, sort of, just like something you'd see in the supermarket kid gets mad, wants to be carried mom wants to ignore the child it throws itself on the ground and screams a lot But also, Kitovu was a little heavy-handed with Chelewa and just before Chelewa had her little tantrum she had bit Cheleea's hand I think Chelewa was wanting to ride and Kitovu was like "No, you're going to get down.
" So, that was interesting to see By midafternoon, as the temperature soars to 36 degrees Kitovu and Heshima lead the troop back down the hill Somehow, Heshima had pulled it off yet again Not only had she found food, but now water as well Although I knew her instinct was solely for herself and Mwenzi her actions had saved the rest of the troop, too But that still doesn't earn her the right to quench her thirst before the others and she's chased off Competition is fierce and rank is exerted throughout the troop She'll have to wait her turn Another hard day draws to a close The troop's covered 10 miles but thanks to Heshima's amazing memory they will survive another night As I watched Kitovu and Heshima resting with their new infants I began to realize that the experience of motherhood was a new burden for them both And divisions of rank have little to do with it I could see how well this group-living thing worked Each individual has its place, but everyone succeeds At moments like these, it was like one big happy family And after 9 months here, I was missing my own Over the next few weeks, the troop becomes increasingly difficult to find They've now traveled well beyond their home range and days pass when they can't be found at all Vehicles can't reach this area so Holly and the rangers are forced to walk 4 miles before they can even start searching When we finally found the troop, I was anxious to see if little Kabety was with them and was amazed to find that not only had she somehow managed to keep up but her leg was almost healed A human wouldn't be back on their feet so quickly Her resilience had astounded me yet again But I was still concerned about the fate of the troop as a whole If the rains didn't come soon, surely starvation was inevitable Fortunately, we didn't have to wait much longer As you can see, we're having a horrendous storm It's uh It's pretty freaky We've actually put some buckets outside because, ironically, we've been out of water for about a week, so we're kind of looking forward to some nice fresh rain.
Wow, oh, God! Oh, dear I'm kind of scared The thing that really sucks about this is that we have to get up at 5 in the morning even if it rains like this all night.
So, I don't know how we're going to get sleep, but I don't even know if you can hear me But for the next 5 days, the troop disappears completely Driven by the desperate need for food, Kitovu and Heshima have led them many miles further east into new territory Charles finally finds them late one afternoon sheltering in trees, hungry and exhausted Unable to venture far, they huddle closely together to conserve warmth and energy But Heshima won't rest She knows that this rain will bring a change in fortune if they can just hang on a little longer She plans her next move The rains pause to leave a rejuvenated land But still the troop does not return to its usual home range Kitovu and Heshima continue to lead them east The abundant fruits of spring have finally begun to appear The Sausage tree provides them with their first and very welcome meal The troop now had 8 new infants, 5 boisterous males and our 3 females who I hoped would mature into adulthood to take their places in the Viramba line Good old Jogu is there looking after all of them Unlike the females, he won't stay in the troop forever He'll eventually go off and find another troop Or perhaps grow old, and one day just won't be there That will be a sad day Coping just fine with half a tail and her leg completely healed it was great to see Kabety in perfect health at least She was now a happy independent little youngster with a lifelong place in the middle ranks of the Viramba troop Holly's year has now come full circle She'll shortly return home to Alaska and will be replaced by another eager volunteer I had hoped to see them return to the area where I had first met them but it turned out not to be They'd decided to stay where the promise of food was better I hoped they'd thrive here I could look at Heshima and Kitovu in a new light now Kitovu had shown that life at the top may have its perks but motherhood is tough no matter what your status Little Chelewa was still quite a handful I wondered what kind of leader she'd grow up to be These ladies had shown me that living in a group can work if you all cooperate Although they compete for food, water and sax their inherited hierarchy means they each get a share so there's little need to fight Everyone has their place and it's not so bad to be at the bottom You know, after it all, Heshima and Mwenzi do just fine They had made it through the year okay Their teamwork had protected them from predators and allowed them to find enough food for everyone Such a simple system Perhaps there's a lesson in there somewhere Tomorrow I won't be here and I don't think the baboons will notice at all And I won't be here to laugh at them and to get upset when the males fight And their life will go on as usual And I'll just have to hope that I can remember these moments forever, because I don't think they will I can't describe the emotion I feel around them It's not like they're my friends uh, but I really care for them I know it's sappy, but it's you can't not watch them every day of their lives ah, see? They play together now but one day, Chelewa and Mwenzi will take their places at the top and bottom of the troop Holly won't be here to witness it but the future of the Viramba troop will be in their hands