The smallest of Tanzania’s national parks is situated on the north-eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. Gombe Stream park is very famous for its chimpanzees. It’s here where Jane Goodall founded a behavioural research program in 1960 that now stands as the longest-running study of its kind in the world. The chimpanzees have become habituated to human visitors.

The ‘Panthood’ call, an excited whoop, erupts from deep in the forest, boosted immediately by a dozen other voices, rising in volume and tempo and pitch to a frenzied shrieking crescendo. The famous ‘panthood’ call is a bonding ritual that allows the participants to identify each other through their individual vocal stylisations. To the human listener, walking through the ancient forests of Gombe Stream, this spine-chilling cry is also an indicator of imminent visual contact with man`s closest genetic relative; the chimpanzee.