Chimpanzees

I’ll be telling stories in the Budongo Trail this Saturday (October 24th), next to the zoo’s troups of chimpanzees.  The most popular chimp tale on the internet seems to be the West African one about how chimpanzees got their big red bums.  Bum stories, especially ones with poop in them like this one, are always a hit with the 4 to 6 crowd, so I’m prepping it for the Saturday performance.

I’ve also found a story by the fabulous environmental storyteller Margaret Read MacDonald with a chimpanzee in it.  MacDonald’s tale is a version of a Limba story from West Africa called “Strength” and it has a message about poaching in it, making it ideal for telling in a conservation context.

How the Chimpanzee’s bottom got Swollen and Red can be found on All Folk Tales, as well as on other sites.

“Strength”, by Margaret Read MacDonald can be found in the collection Ready to Tell Tales, edited by David Holt and Bill Mooney.