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Please go to my new Psychology Today blog to see what I'm up to. To buy the book, Bonobo Handshake, please visit my website. To follow the adventures of the Lola ya Bonobo orphans, please visit Friends of Bonobos

Friday, August 31, 2007

Tory's mystery disease

We haven't even left yet, and already Congo got to us. Tory is part of our research group and she just came back from the other Congo testing chimps few weeks ago. Her mange cleared up already, but then she came in and showed us this:


Can you see the size of the lump compared to her finger? It looks nasty. What we think happened, and everyone who spends time in the tropics automatically thinks they are expert medical diagnotics, is that Tory got bitten by something on her arm where the small bite is, and the poison has travelled down to her lymph node in her arm pit.

Could be elephantitis. Problem is, Tory doesn't know what bit her. Could have been anything but it's unlikely it happened in Germany because Germany is too cold for bugs. For sure we think it was something in Congo. She is going to the doctor today. I hope she can come on the next trip!

Tory is embarrassed she is appearing on this blog as an enlarged lymph node, so I'm posting another pic to show she's usually pretty. The chimp she is with is an orphan that lives in a sanctuary. We hate people who keep chimps as pets.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007