The excellent article from this month National Geographic Magazine (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/02/congo-chimps/foer-text/1), written by Joshua Foer about the wild chimpanzees in Congo, raised some curious data founded with his discoveries.

The social behavior and the group activities are not news anymore. But the way this particular group behaved in the presence of the researchers was memorable. The idea that the chimpanzees are aggressive beings can be a mistake. Mainly due the peaceful and curious way these wild chimpanzees behaved. And maybe this is the difference: they had never had contact with humans. The idea that they are aggressive probably rose as a result of the unhappy experience they had with hunters and other humans who wanted to kill or captured them, which caused a defensive and attack behavior.

The presence of humans for the first time in this region did not cause any kind of attack or power demonstration. On the contrary, the chimpanzees behaved as curious people. I would even say, like the primatologists who were on the field and went into the woods to observe the animals closely and to study their behavior.

The location of the group above the researchers’ camping, as they were looking for the best position to observe them, surprises anyone. This group found this new enough to observe copy and even learn something. There was an inversion of roles of both animals.

It is a new fact that comes to drop the myth that these beings are bad, as a lot of people affirm. What it is able to check is that they are intelligent, curious and respectful beings (as it is described in the article the fact that they adapt complex tools to honey and insects extract), as long as they are respected. And there is the danger, because once they are discovered by unscrupulous people, their life can be in serious danger.

According to J. Michael Fay, from Wildlife Conservation Society, “Goualougo (in Congo) probably is the only place on Earth where other humans will never have the chance to know the real culture of chimpanzees”. Besides, there is another doubt: is that possible that all the behavior that scientists believe to be real, in fact are not? Or would they be distorted due to the presence of human beings?

One more time we can say that mankind, with all its rationality, has not been using it in a positive way. Because men can threat anything in which he interferes.

MSc. Luiz Fernando Leal Padulla
Biologist