The Chimpanzees of Rubondo Island

How did a random batch of chimpanzees come to populate a small island in Tanzania where apes had never lived before? Combining information gathered from fieldwork, laboratory and archival research, this book tells the unique story of chimpanzee babies shipped to Lake Victoria and set free on Rubondo Island.

Josephine Nadezda Msindai obtained a BSc in Biological Sciences from King's College London (2005), an MSc in Primate Conservation at Oxford Brookes University (2008) and a PhD in Anthropology from University College London (2018). The Chimpanzees of Rubondo Island is based on her doctoral work at UCL that included almost two years of field research in Tanzania. Volker Sommer is Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at UCL,UK. He obtained his PhD in Anthropology at Göttingen University (1985) and has conducted extensive primatological field studies in India (since 1981), Thailand (since 1984) and Nigeria (since 1999).

Introduction 1 Creating a Wilderness. The Making of an Island National Park 2 The Founder's Odyssey. Captured, Caged, Released 3 Rubondo Island. Weather, Forests, Wildlife, Humans 4 Bound to be Wild. Sociality and Ranging 5 Embedded. Mastering a New Environment 6 Apes in the Anthropocene. Lessons from a Maverick Release? Bibliography Appendix: Publications about Rubondo Island, Its History and Wildlife