Bill Wallauer

Topics:

The Chimps of Gombe National Park: Documenting Their Stories & Ensuring Their Survival

Travels from: Seattle, WA

Founded in 1977 by world-renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, the Jane Goodall Institute advances the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things.

Bill Wallauer offers a unique impression of life among wild chimpanzees, having spent years following the chimps of Gombe National Park, video camera at the ready.

Chimpanzee births, dominance displays, infanticide attempts, encounters with snakes, the mysterious waterfall and rain "dances" — he has seen all of this and more. Much of his footage is unprecedented — including capturing a live birth on tape, as well as a group of males moving with eerie silence through the forest as they patrol their territory. Ultimately the chimps locate and kill an adolescent from a neighboring community.

Wallauer became part of the life of the Gombe Stream Research Centre in 1989, while on assignment for the Peace Corps in Southern Tanzania. After attending one of Jane Goodall's lectures at the University of Dar es Salaam, a friend introduced him to Goodall, who quickly recognized his enthusiasm for wildlife work, and engaged him to help the Centre transcribe some of the Gombe chimpanzee data.

After completing his Peace Corps work in 1991, the Oregon native was drawn back to Tanzania to help study the Gombe chimpanzees. His athleticism and prior field experience made him a natural at following chimps.

After successfully capturing a wild chimpanzee birth on videotape, Goodall asked Wallauer to routinely follow the chimps and record their daily activities and behavior. Today he is an invaluable source of information about the Gombe and its chimps, and visitors often gain rare insight from this dedicated man with his tattered field vest, bandanna, and ever-present camera.

Wallauer says, "Imagine getting to follow the lives of the Gombe chimps while living on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in a hut tucked away on the forest edge. That has been my life for nearly 15 years and what an incredible journey it has been. Both the people with whom I work (the Tanzanian field assistants who follow the chimps every day of the year) and the chimpanzees have taught me so much about life, what it is to be part of a community, what it takes to live with minimal resources and not only survive, but thrive."

Film production companies have since recognized Bill's talent, and recruited him as a film camera operator, videographer and consultant for wildlife films being shot at Gombe and elsewhere. He has served as camera operator and scientific advisor for more than 30 productions including BBC/Animal Planet's Chimp Week, which aired in 2005 and 2006. He also shot the closing sequence for BBC/Discovery's 10-part series Planet Earth and is currently shooting the film, Chimpanzee, for DisneyNature.

According to Wallauer, "The films I make show the incredible range of emotions chimps are capable of, their spectacular habitat, their behavior (which is remarkably similar to our own). When people see young chimps wrestling and tickling and laughing out loud, they are blown away. They feel a connection that they did not know they had. If I have done my job, people will walk away from one of my films thinking 'Wow, chimps are totally amazing and we have to do everything possible to ensure their survival.'"

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