ABSTRACT
A conspicuous exception, tucked away in the lake's south-western corner and still blanketed in lush green forest, is the island of Rubondo. Today, Rubondo embodies African wilderness. The developments which ultimately led to the creation of Rubondo Island National Park began in the 1950s, when the wildlife authorities of British-controlled Tanganyika realised, on the eve of its independence, that the survival prospects of the heavily hunted black rhino were alarmingly poor. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on what we know about the historical – or shall we say historic – introduction of 16 chimpanzees that took place more than half a century ago. It traces the origins of the founder apes; how they and their descendants managed to survive and thrive in an unfamiliar ecology. The book focuses on the future of closest living relatives in a now solidly established Anthropocene era.
