Chapter 17, Death, Chapter 18, Mother and Child Summary and Analysis

The chapter opens with Olly's four week-old newborn sick, and her infant screaming. Eventually the baby died but Olly carried it as if it were alive for a day afterward; eventually, though, she stopped. Gilka tried to play with it, but it was already beginning to smell. Goodall followed the family and Olly seemed to be worried that she was around. Olly carried the body somewhere in the valley and left it.

It turned out that the infant had died of a terrible paralytic disease that would spread throughout the chimp community. Goodall was not paying as much attention because she was pregnant with her own child. The African population was facing a polio outbreak and had transferred polio to some of the chimps through the Kigoma district. Goodall and Hugo...