Taï Forest, December 1990

Salomé, Falstaff’s closest female friend, is a strong, assertive mother of two sons. Her eldest, Snoopy, is Falstaff’s main hunting partner. Her youngest son, 4-year-old Sartre, is a very active, spoiled toddler, keen to make the most of his mother’s generosity while at the same time learning to become independent. At this time of year, some of the most abundant fruits are becoming rare and the hunting season is nearing its end. Searching for food is getting more difficult. The abundant Coula nuts are starting to ripen, but their hard shells prevent the monkeys from accessing them and the bushpigs and elephants, which have strong enough teeth to break them open, have to wait another month for the nuts to fall to the ground. However, Salomé, like the other chimpanzees, has a trick that allows her to access this very rich food source: she is able to use tools. When Salomé enters the ridge of the valley south of our camp, which I know is rich in Coula trees, she collects a hard piece of dead wood she found under a Coula tree where it had previously been used as a hammer. She puts it in her mouth and climbs up this large Coula tree. Shifting the wooden hammer into the groin of her left leg, she enters the highest, sunniest part of the tree and uses her free hand to collect eight ripe Coula nuts, which she places in her mouth. She moves to another branch and collects six more nuts, holding them in her free right foot. Then, followed by Sartre, she moves to a thicker branch higher up in the tree and begins to crack the nuts with the hammer using her left hand. She hits each seven or eight times and then, “crack,” the nut opens.