By Suleiman Juma -Tracker, Greystoke Mahale
Mango is an exotic semi-deciduous tree found in the Mahale Mountains National Park. It was introduced by the Ba Tongwe tribe to this site before this area became a protected land.
Mango tree has big, sweet fruits loved and cherished by both apes and other monkeys. Chimpanzees and humans, the only great apes found here in Mahale, have no chance to eat mango fruits though! As others primates, yellow baboon and vervet monkey start eating mango fruits before they get mature and ripen, a stage which only then would chimpanzees and humans eat them.
Mango trees with roundish dense canopies suppress other vegetations which grow nearby them. They then create bare nice areas underneath them with a lovely shade which are fancied as nice resting spots on sunny days.
