Mahale National Park
“How should we relate to beings who look into mirrors and see themselves as individuals, who mourn companions and may die of grief, who have a consciousness of ‘self?’ Don’t they deserve to be treated with the same sort of consideration we accord to other highly sensitive beings: ourselves?” Jane Goodall
Gombe and Mahale both facing Lake Tanganyika, both natural habitat for the last wild chimpanzees living in Africa.
In Gombe the research centre set up by the British researcher Jane Goodall, has now observed the sixth generation of indigenous chimpanzee.
In Mahale a team of Japanese researchers has been studying the behaviour of about 1000 chimpanzees for almost 4 decades.
The encounter with these wild beings who share 98% of our genes is an unforgettable experience.
You will lose any complex of human superiority, and take a lesson in humility.
You will silently observe them. Maybe someone will try to understand the difference made by that very little 2%.
Hard and perhaps useless exercise.
Better to indulge in a pure and curious observation, free of preconception.