We are observing wild chimpanzees in an extraordinary habitat in Gabon to explore how environmental influences have shaped their behavior. By describing their unique abilities, we aim to increase human awareness of the importance of their protection and survival, and contribute to a better understanding of our own origins.
Research is Protection!
Species protection. Environmental protection. Climate Protection.
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Chimpanzee research at Loango
We have been conducting research on a chimpanzee population in the Central African rainforest of Gabon since 2005. Over the years, here's what we've been working on.
About us
Our hearts beat for Ozouga. Research and conservation of the Loango chimpanzee population goes hand-in-hand with respecting nature and the needs and ideas of the local population.
Our passionate team of scientists, students and local employees work every day to improve our understanding of chimpanzees and their ecology. This in turns helps us understand the evolution of our own species as well.
Partners & Donors
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS
DONORS
We sincerely thank all our private donors concerned by the vanishing of chimpanzee populations and their habitats for their generous donations and support! Without you, our project would not be possible!
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Loango
National Park
Loango National Park is located on the Atlantic coast of south-west Gabon, approximately 300 km from the Gabonese capital of Libreville. The park was established in 2002 and covers an area of 1,550 km².
Ozouga
Camp
Our Ozouga camp is located at the forest edge about 500 meters from the Atlantic Ocean. The camp has a magnificent view on the savannah where forest elephants and buffalos roam.
The Rekambo chimpanzees
Male chimpanzees
Arnold
Male / adolescent
Mother: Aroide
Arnold is a young low -ranking male. He spends a lot of time grooming other males. He often travels with Chinois and is easily recognizable by his loud and distinct greeting calls.
Cesar
Male / juvenile
Mother: Carol
Cesar is a lively juvenile chimpanzee. He is the little brother of our alpha male Pandi. He is very confident and often risks getting into fights, even with older males, knowing that his high-ranking mother and brother will defend him.
Moana
Male / juvenile
Mother: Mimi
Moana is a funny little chimp with a distinctive gait that looks like he’s trying to peddle a bicycle. He is very photogenic with a light face and dark black fur. He also has a very distinctive, high-pitched (and unpleasant) pant-hoot. He has a lot of play battles with Cesar and Sia, the other juvenile males.
Pandi
Male / adult
Mother: Carol
Pandi is without a doubt the coolest chimp in the group! He’s the dominant male and is not afraid to show it. He has a very distinctive vocalization – the raspberry, which involves pushing air through his pursed lips (a bit like a fart noise). He likes to be the center of attention and has a lot of social interactions with all group members.
Chenge
Male / adult
Mother: Roxy?
Chenge is a middle-ranking male. He often tries to impress other group members with his displays, when running through the forest while drumming against buttress roots or slapping on the ground. He spends a lot of time with Roxy who we suspect might be his mother.
Freddy
Male / adult
Mother: Mimi
A big teddy-bear of a chimp. Freddy is the dominant male Pandi’s best friend and a high-ranking chimp himself. Freddy is known for his distinctive sleeping pose where he sleeps facedown flat like a pancake. His mother, Mimi and little brother and sister, Moana and Madiba are also part of the Rekambo group.
Ngonde
Male / adult
Mother: Pai
Ngonde is definitely the male of the community that is most shy around humans. He is quite low ranking and spends a lot of time following in the footsteps of Chinois.
Sia
Male / juvenile
Mother: Suzee
Sia is the middle sibling between older brother Thea and little sister Sassandra, who he plays with all the time! He spends a lot of time with just his mother and sister. Although he is nine years old, due to a tumor under his right arm, he has had stunted physical development and resembles a much younger chimp.
Chinois
Male / adult
Mother: unknown
Chinois is the most impressive male in our group. He is characterized by his long and prominent face. He is high-ranking and a lot of the other chimpanzees do their best to stay in his good books. As the oldest male he often takes on a protector role and can usually be found at the back of group of travelling chimpanzees to ensure that nobody is left behind.
Littlegrey
Male / adult
Mother: unknown
Littlegrey is a distinctive looking chimp very lean and with very grey fur. His name comes from when the chimpanzees were still being habituated and all we saw was a grey blob that was constantly in motion. He is Carol’s good friend and also likes to play with the babies in the group. There are periods when he spends quite a lot of time with Roxy and Chenge who we call the ‘Magic Trio’ when all three are together.
Thea
Male / adult
Mother: Suzee
Thea has a uniformly dark coat and is becoming bigger and buffer so we have been observing him starting to find his place amongst the higher ranking males. He has lots of interactions with his family members including his little brother and sister: Sia and Sassandra.
Female chimpanzees
Carol
Female / adult
Carol is a high ranking female and is very popular with all the males in the group, especially Littlegrey. She has two sons, Pandi and Cesar and is a very protective mother who likes to have her eye on her offspring at all times.
Joy
Female / adult
Joy is the youngest of the adult females in the group. She’s one of the most popular females among the males and is groomed a lot.
Pai
Female / adult
Pai is one of our older females and spends quite a lot of time without the main group. She is mother to Ngonde and little Pastis.
Roxy
Female / adult
Roxy spends all of her time in proximity to Chenge. When she is separated from Chenge, or the rest of the group moves on, she has the tendency to start crying and doesn’t stop until another individual replies. Roxy is also a very vocal female and joins in on drumming displays with the males.
Onome
Female / adult
Onome is one of the oldest Rekambo females and is almost completely blind. She spends most of her time with her adolescent son, Orion, a young male who guides her through the forest to prevent her from losing connection to the group.
Suzee
Female / adult
Suzee is a caring mother and spends all her time around her family. She loves playing with her offspring Sia and Sassandra. Her oldest son Thea is already grown up, but still spends lots of time with his family.
Ida
Female / adult
Ida is quite a shy and independent female. She spends most of her time with her adolescent son, Gump and her new adopted daughter, Olive.
Mimi
Female / adult
Mimi is a successful mother of three, Freddy, Moana and little Madiba.
Queliba
Female / adult
Queliba is an orphan and has a severely crippled hand. She therefore spends a lot of time travelling bipedally. She is small for her age and very thin.
The
directors
The project is led by Prof. Dr. Simone Pika and Dr. Tobias Deschner of the University of Osnabrück.
Dr. Tobias Deschner
About me
»Every time a chimpanzee population vanishes, we irretrievably lose a unique culture«
My research focuses on the behavioral ecology of great apes. Over the course of the last twenty years, I was fortunate enough to observe wild chimpanzees at various sites across Africa including Taï in Côte d’Ivoire, Budongo and Ngogo in Uganda, Gombe and Issa in Tanzania as well as bonobos at Lui Kotale in the DRC. What particularly fascinates me is the ability of chimpanzees to adapt to highly variable habitats; a trait they share with humans. How do they achieve this? To what degree is this adaptability related to social learning? Which cultural patterns might have evolved in this context? How do these adaptations help them to survive in a constantly changing habitat and numerous feeding competitors? To answer such questions at Loango, we make use of traditional behavioral observations as well as video, endocrinological, genetic and pathogen analyses, and camera trap recordings.
Loango is the perfect place to study social behavior and ecological adaptations. The habitat is breathtakingly diverse and the chimpanzees encounter their feeding competitors such as elephants, gorillas, red river hogs and different monkey species on a daily basis.
Prof. Dr. Simone Pika
About me
»We protect what we love«
Since 2019, I am the head of the research group Comparative BioCognition at the Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück. I started my career as a field researcher in the Okavango Delta in Botswana studying baboons. After that, I started to investigate the communicative behavior of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, Kibale National Park in Uganda. Since this wonderful experience, I am fascinated by the communicative complexity, intelligence and behavioral diversity of chimpanzees and other primates. In addition, our research presence in the threatened habitats of chimpanzees and other species in combination with the transfer of knowledge significantly aids in protecting these unique biotopes and species.
My research centers on the question of language evolution and cognition by applying methods from Comparative Psychology, Cognitive Science, Ethology, and recently AI to different model systems (primates, corvids). I have published on learning, shaping and referential use of signals, the impact of experience and social matrices on communicative output, species specific communication styles, the development and performance of cognitive skills, tool-use and turn-taking. In 2010, I was awarded with the Sofja-Kovalevskaja Price of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung. In 2017, I received an ERC-Consolidator Grant of the EU to study the evolution of turn-taking in primates.
