Bili ape

Skulls of gorillas were first collected near the town of Bili in 1908. These were sent to the colonial power of Belgium; in 1927, a new subspecies of gorilla, Gorilla gorilla uellensis, was described based upon these specimens. Colin Groves examined the skulls in 1970 and determined that they were indistinguishable from western gorillas. Also recruited by Ammann was Shelly Williams, an experimental psychologist affiliated with National Geographic magazine, Williams reported on her close encounter, "we could hear them in the trees, about away, and four suddenly came rushing through the brush towards me. If this had been a mock charge they would have been screaming to intimidate us. These guys were quiet, and they were huge. They were coming in for the kill – but as soon as they saw my face they stopped and disappeared". Other reports attribute this statement to Ammann. In 2005, Williams was paralysed in an accident, and her claims to the media ceased. She never mounted her planned expedition. In 2019, Hicks and others published a comprehensive paper on the chimpanzees of the wider 'Bili-Uéré region', as they termed the central part of the Uélé watershed. Despite early reports of super-long rods used to fish termites, Hicks et al. document that these chimpanzees do not use rods to fish for termites at all, but instead bash the mounds open against roots. == Description ==

Williams initially claimed the apes were bipedal (meaning they walk upright) and stood tall, with the looks of a giant chimpanzee; Even though these apes avoid the camera, they seem to have a curious nature. It has been observed that, when these chimps find humans around, they don’t just approach humans, but circle them out of pure curiosity. The chimpanzees would stand face to face and exchange longing glances. == Distribution ==

Bili is a city, and a river tributary, which lies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's far north, about east of the Ebola River. In 2006, Hicks moved the study to the much denser forests around Gangu, and from the road to Bili. As of 2014, a large contiguous population of chimpanzees is now known to occur in the lands along both sides of the Uélé throughout Bas-Uélé District, in a range of habitats. They can be found throughout the region, in the savannahs around Bili and the dense rainforests a few hundred kilometres south. They are adapted to humans and occur within of Bili, as well as other neighbouring towns such as Lebo and Zapay, and within of large cities such as Buta. == Conservation ==

Primates throughout the Congo are hunted for bushmeat, although less to the north of the Uélé. Over a 14-month period between September 2007 and November 2008, Hicks and his associates documented 34 chimpanzee young and 31 carcasses for sale in the cities of Buta, Aketi and Bambesa. == See also ==