Free-Living Chimpanzees - The Goualougo Triangle, Congo

The Goualougo Triangle is situated just outside the southern boundary of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, between the Ndoki and Goualougo Rivers, and is the focus of a study on the central African chimpanzee. The overall goal of the project is to protect the unique chimpanzee population in the Goualougo Triangle.

The potential for success is high because the Government of Congo and a local logging company are receptive to developing conservation agendas in collaboration with the local communities and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Crickette Sanz, a former CHCI graduate student, is a part of the research team studying the Goualougo chimpanzees. Crickette is a doctoral candidate in anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Crickette Sanz and Dave Morgan, a field researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society, Republic of Congo, reported their study of "Naïve Encounters With Chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle" in the April 2003 issue of the International Journal of Primatology.

More information is available on the Wildlife Conservation Society-Congo web site.