Chimpanzees and motorbikes

When we started our conservation work in Boé in 2007 most people walked (often large distances) and only some had a bicycle. Nowadays, one may come across motorbikes almost everywhere in Boé, as the most appropriate and apparently affordable way of transport. When we organise a meeting almost all participants come by motorbike.
The disturbance by all these motorbikes is reason for wildlife – chimpanzees not excluded – to retire to more remote places. The hundreds of chimpanzee food trees our staff members Djuma and Califa control every month are often in remote areas. Apart from monitoring these food trees they also fill in patrol forms on their other observations. Their results in 2025 of chimpanzees seen during the monitoring of food-for-chimpanzee trees are shown in this table.

The results confirm what we expected. Chimpanzees are present everywhere and most readily seen further away from Béli, the administrative centre of the Boé, where disturbance is highest.  But even there in about 1/3^rd of the transects chimpanzees were seen and heard.

Read more on this and other topics in the Chimbo February 2026 newsletter.