Through a Window (23 page)

Chimpanzees can very clearly differentiate between human males and females. They are, by and large, far more respectful of men, particularly large men with deep, resonant voices. They take liberties with women. And I think Goblin seriously felt that it was necessary to dominate me along with the other females in his life. The fact that I was of a different species did not seem to worry him. And so I went through a trying few years, never quite knowing when Goblin might charge out of the undergrowth, run up behind me, and slap me or even stamp on my back. There were times when I was quite black and blue. This irritating—and sometimes painful—behaviour eased off after a while. I never reciprocated and so I suppose he reckoned that he had subdued me and I was no longer worth bothering about. Indeed, by the time he was twelve years old he was directing far less aggressive energy towards the female chimpanzees as well. As he had already physically attacked and thoroughly defeated most of them it would have been a waste of effort. He continued to challenge the remaining three—Passion, Fifi and Gigi. All three occasionally attacked him but Goblin took these setbacks in his stride: there would be another opportunity soon enough. When he was just thirteen years old he successfully conquered Gigi, the toughest of them all.

Now he was free to turn his attention to the lowest-ranking of the senior males, Humphrey. Poor Humphrey, fallen king, challenged by a youngster barely in his teens! At first when Goblin displayed towards him, Humphrey ignored him, or waved an arm in irritable threat. But Goblin persisted. At some point Humphrey must have realized that this was no ordinary thirteen-year-old show of valour: it signified the beginning of the end. Then Humphrey's irritation gave place to nervous tension and he began to respond in kind to Goblin's boisterous challenges.

This power struggle between Humphrey and Goblin clearly put Figan in an awkward position. His loyalties were divided between Humphrey, now established as his "best friend," and young Goblin with whom, for so long, he had enjoyed a peaceful, almost paternal relationship. When he was present during one of their disputes, Figan typically compromised by displaying between the two, and this usually terminated the incident.

The first real conflicts we saw between Goblin and Humphrey took place at the end of i977. Once, as Humphrey displayed towards him, Goblin whipped the older male with a sapling still rooted to the ground. Humphrey charged on and past him and Goblin started to feed. But not Humphrey. He sat glaring at the young male for another thirty minutes, as though brooding. And then he displayed at Goblin again. This time the two males stood upright and hit out at one another, hair bristling. Humphrey started to scream, while Goblin remained quite silent. In the end it was Humphrey who lost his nerve and, still screaming, left Goblin master of the field.

The second incident resulted in an even more clear-cut victory for Goblin. Humphrey had just mated a pink female and was peacefully grooming her, when Goblin approached, hair and penis erect, clearly desirous of copulating in his turn. Humphrey at once charged furiously towards his young rival. But Goblin, far from being intimidated, held his ground. The two skirmished up in the branches, and Humphrey, weighing about a hundred pounds compared to Goblin's seventy-five or so, was actually knocked from the tree. He ran off screaming and Goblin, after watching for a moment, returned to the female and calmly mated her.

And so Goblin entered the hierarchy of the adult males when he was only thirteen years old—at least two years earlier than other males whose progress we have charted. Humphrey ranked below him; five males ranked higher. In a variety of ways it was clear that he was leaving adolescence behind. He spent more
time grooming with the other adult males, and sometimes they groomed him in return. He frequently joined in the charging displays that occurred when, for instance, his group arrived at a new food source, or when two groups met. He often mated pink females in full view of adult males, rather than having to lure them to some private spot. After making a kill, he was usually able to retain a reasonable portion, instead of losing it all to his elders. And he began to take patrolling duties seriously.

All this time Goblin maintained his close relationship with Figan. When the alpha displayed, then Goblin, if he was there, would join in, following hot on his hero's heels, often imitating his actions. When Figan performed one of his devastating early morning or late evening arboreal displays, startling his screaming subordinates from their beds, Goblin sometimes charged through the branches and swayed vegetation too.

The following year Goblin's progress was nothing short of spectacular. Systematically he began to challenge the senior males—first the low-ranking, easy-going Jomeo, then Jomeo's kid brother, Sherry, then Satan and finally even Evered. Only Figan was exempt. Indeed, it was his relationship with Figan that enabled him to challenge these older and more experienced males: he almost never did so unless Figan was nearby, and Figan, if he was there, almost always charged up in support of his young follower. Once, for example, Goblin and Evered began to fight each other when they were in a tree. Evered fought back and the two hung, hitting and kicking at each other, then fell to the ground. Goblin, clearly losing this particular fight, began to scream, at which point Figan charged up and Evered ran off.

Another incident took place when Figan was not around. It began when Goblin tried to move ahead of Satan when the group was travelling. This could not be tolerated and the much larger and heavier Satan attacked the younger male. Goblin ran off screaming, but an hour later, when Figan joined the group, Goblin at once began to threaten Satan, uttering waa-barks and
displaying towards him. And Satan, no doubt anticipating the displeasure of his alpha should he retaliate, climbed hastily into a tree and sat there, whimpering softly to himself, as Goblin charged about below.

Soon after his fourteenth birthday Goblin, on a
one to one
basis, could intimidate all of the senior males—except, of course, Figan. And then came the day when, for the first time, Goblin was seen to challenge the brothers Jomeo and Sherry when they were
together.
Thrice he displayed past them as they groomed, going a little closer each time. And then, during a fourth challenge he actually hit Jomeo. Enraged, the brothers, each of whom weighed more than Goblin, chased after him. But though he ran off then, he did not give up. Four months later, almost exactly on Goblin's fifteenth birthday, there was a dramatic conflict. Jomeo and Sherry were grooming, and at first they ignored Goblin when he began displaying towards them—or at least they pretended to ignore him. But when he got really close they uttered fierce waa-barks and waved their arms. The situation grew increasingly tense, and when adult female Miff arrived on the scene she was immediately and violently attacked, first by Sherry and then Jomeo. In this way the brothers tried to vent some of their frustrated aggression.

Goblin made the most of this distraction. No sooner had Jomeo taken over the pounding of poor Miff than Goblin charged Sherry and attacked him fiercely. Quickly Jomeo left Miff and rushed over—but he helped his brother with vocal threats only. Goblin and Sherry fought on, rolling over and over, now with Goblin uppermost, now Sherry. They battled in silence until Goblin bit deeply into Sherry's neck and then, with loud screams, Sherry pulled away and ran off. Jomeo followed him, also screaming. And Goblin gave chase. For twenty yards or more he pursued them as they fled, then stopped and sat, gazing after them, his eyes hard and bright, his sides heaving. There were patches of saliva and fear-dung all over him. It was truly an
amazing victory—and a decisive one. From then on, Goblin was able to dominate the brothers even when they were together.

It was in the following month that we saw the first sign of change in Goblin's relationship with his erstwhile hero. For some time we had been expecting Goblin to turn on Figan. Indeed, I am still puzzled as to why Figan, so socially adroit in all other ways, had not been able to predict the inevitable outcome of his sponsorship of Goblin. The first sign of disloyalty was recorded one peaceful afternoon when, instead of hurrying over to greet the newly arrived Figan, Goblin ignored him. After that, he ignored him more and more often and Figan, obviously sensing the implicit challenge, became increasingly tense and nervous. One day when Goblin suddenly appeared, Figan actually gave small cries of fear and ran, seeking reassurance, to embrace Evered. It became increasingly commonplace to see Figan, grinning in fear, running to seek help from one or other of the senior males. And from then on events slowly moved to their inevitable and foregone conclusion.

During the dry season of 1979 Figan somehow hurt the fingers of his right hand. He limped when he walked. Just as Figan himself had quickly seized on any sign of weakness in a superior, so did Goblin now. He began to challenge Figan in earnest, displaying towards him again and again, sometimes hitting him as he ran by. If one of the senior males was around, Figan always rushed to him for support. In this he was successful, and a strong feeling of unity grew between the five older males: they banded together, supporting the old order of things in the face of the young upstart. Thus Figan had four potential allies while Goblin, having alienated his only long-time supporter, stood on his own. He relied simply on the devastating effect of repeated vigorous and energetic displays.

Quite clearly, Goblin had profited from his close association with Figan—he had picked up a number of useful "tips for dominance." He had learned, for example, the psychological advantage gained by startling the other males from their sleep with a vigorous arboreal display above their nests early in the morning. And the value of surprise—hiding in the undergrowth when he heard a group approaching, then suddenly charging out. Both techniques gave results that must have been eminently satisfying to the ambitious young male. But it was clear that, for all his bravado, this was a stressful time for him. Again and again when confronted by pairs of senior males, Goblin revealed his tension by suddenly displaying towards females or youngsters apropos, apparently, of nothing. Once again I became a frequent scapegoat on such occasions. I remember once when Derek and I watched him as he tried to intimidate Satan and Evered, who were grooming. Again and again, seven times in all, Goblin charged past them, dragging branches and hurling rocks. Each time he went within a few yards of where they sat: they did not even look. Goblin became increasingly frustrated and after charging past the two males for the eighth time he carried on towards Derek and me. He avoided Derek, who was sitting beside me on the ground, then veered to give me a hearty shove with both hands and a double thump, thump with his feet before displaying away and then sitting, glowering at the world in general.

At the end of September we saw the first serious fight between Figan and Goblin. Goblin won, most decisively, kicking Figan from the tree into which he had fled. Figan fell some thirty feet to the ground and ran off screaming. A week later, after Goblin had displayed at and around him five times, Figan again took refuge in a tree. Never shall I forget that day when I sat and watched Figan, once the most powerful of Gombe's alphas, becoming more and more agitated and unhappy as the minutes went by. He moved restlessly, he scratched. Once, very cautiously, he began to climb down towards the ground, but Goblin, hair bristling, gazed up so ferociously that Figan, with squeaks of fear, retreated. I was vividly reminded of similar incidents
when Figan subjected Evered to the same humiliation. On this occasion I had an interesting insight into Goblin's mood. Eventually he moved away from Figan's tree and joined Melissa who was sitting in the bushes nearby. He stretched out on the ground and she began to groom him. And then, almost imperceptibly, he reached for his mother's hand and began to play, gently, with her fingers. There he lay, relaxed and peaceful, idly tickling with Melissa. And when Figan, with utmost caution, crept down the tree and away, Goblin, though he followed the older male with his eyes, continued to play.

Quite clearly Figan could no longer be described as an alpha male. But neither could Goblin because, although he could boss each of the other males if he met them individually, for the most part he was still unable to control the situation when two or more of them were together. For a fifteen-year-old, Goblin's position was remarkable—but for this remarkable individual it was simply not good enough. It was clear that he would not rest until he had made it to the top and to this end he devoted himself tirelessly, displaying in the vicinity of the senior males at almost every opportunity.

Then, in mid-November, came the Great Attack, which, for almost a year, put Figan back on top. It started during a meat-eating session when tension often runs high and aggressive incidents frequently break out. Goblin, who had had no meat, displayed at Figan, who had. Figan, surrounded by potential allies, stood his ground. There was a dramatic fight as, for over a minute, the two males battled in a silence broken only by the sound of gnashing teeth. Suddenly, as though in response to some unheard clarion call, all the other adult males present—Evered, Satan, Jomeo and Humphrey—joined the fray, fighting under Figan's banner. With the odds at five to one, Goblin started to scream and struggled to escape. When finally he managed to pull free he fled, with Figan in hot pursuit and the other males charging back and forth, highly roused and screaming. Goblin was very badly wounded during the fight, sustaining a deep gash in his thigh which was still bleeding heavily an hour later.

After that, Figan regained some of his former confidence while Goblin, in his turn, was uneasy in the older male's presence. One month after the Great Attack, Figan had the satisfaction of seeing Goblin rush screaming from his displays. Better still, when Goblin took refuge up a tree Figan kept him there, tense and unhappy, for over twenty minutes while he sat calmly below. The tables had been turned. The other senior males, having gained in confidence as a result of the Great Attack, now supported each other even more enthusiastically against Goblin. Lesser males would have given up the struggle after a setback as serious as this. But Goblin, desperately unhappy with his present position, was made of sterner stuff.