HEALTH MONITORING FOR CONSERVATION
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The Bulindi chimpanzees live in such close contact to local villagers and domestic animals, that threats to their health are always a big concern. Consequently, we monitor the chimps' heath closely.
Great to see this new study published on the chimps' intestinal parasites and the self-medicative behaviors they use to help combat these. While the chimps suffer from a variety of parasites, this is quite normal for any population of wild chimpanzees. Despite their 'high risk' environment, the Bulindi chimps seem pretty healthy overall!

The full article can be accessed here:

McLennan, M.R., Hasegawa, H., Bardi, M., Huffman, M.A. (2017).
Gastrointestinal parasite infections and self-medication in wild chimpanzees surviving in degraded forest fragments within an agricultural landscape mosaic in Uganda. PLoS ONE, 12(7), e0180431.
FREELY AVAILABLE:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180431

THANK YOU to BridgIt Water Foundation and Suubi Community Projects-Uganda for bringing clean water to Bulindi!!! In developed countries, it can be easy to take water for granted. We usually just have to turn on the tap. It can be a surprise to learn that in some parts of the world, accessing water is a daily struggle.
At Bulindi, local households (often children) collect water from forest streams and natural springs, walking long distances to do so, and sometimes encountering the chimpanzees -- which puts both the chimps and villagers at risk. We are so grateful to BridgIt Water Foundation and Suubi Community Projects-Uganda for funding a project to install boreholes in 3 villages at Bulindi. These boreholes will change the lives of the local households!!
The photos show the drillers hard at work on the first of the 3 boreholes in Mparangasi village!