Chindy is the third daughter of Cissy, estimated to be born in 2002/3. We have followed Chindy since she was four years old.

As an infant of a very sociable mother, Chindy had many childhood friends. She spent by far the most time with Lilly, who is the first infant of Chindy’s older sister Lisa. Being a first-time mother, Lisa spent a lot of time with her mother Cissy. Chindy and Lilly were born only around 18 months apart, so it was not surprising that they did everything together.

Chindy was with her mother Cissy until she was 9 years old and visited Cissy regularly after her younger sister Cinnamon arrived. Cissy was always very tolerant with Chindy and allowed her juvenile daughter to share her nest. On some occasions they even had unflanged male guests spend the night in Cissy’s nest which did not seem to bother anyone.

During her juvenile years, we often saw Chindy moving back and forth between a group of juvenile girls and her mother Cissy. The other juvenile girls were somewhat older than Chindy and it always looked like Chindy was a bit lost but did her best to fit in. Luckily, Chindy had Lilly, who was a central member of the group, to help her catch up. As a young juvenile, Chindy also spent a lot of time with unflanged males who tolerated her close association and seemed to enjoy just hanging out with her. Often, those males turned out to be friends of Chindy’s mother, Cissy.

When she was still ranging with the juvenile girls, Chindy was venturing all over the place and could be found anywhere in the Suaq area. But as she got older, Chindy moved more and more north untilfinally settling in the very north and across the border of the study area. Since 2015 we only see her sporadically and we noticed that Chindy became more and more interested in adult males.

In 2018, we found Chindy with her first infant, a tiny little boy whom we called Chips. Not surprisingly, we now often see Chindy together with her childhood friend Lilly. Chindy and Lilly are now both moms and have returned to their old routine of doing things together. They often drop their little boys in each other’s day nests: while one mom stays with the kids, the other one can go feed and enjoy her peace and quiet for a bit. The babysitting mom in the nest must remained very focused: the boys are often so excited to get to play with each other that they seem to overestimate their abilities. The hardest part for the babysitting mom is to make sure that Luther does not entice Chips out of the nest.

We are excited to get to know Chindy more as a mother and to see how she will raise her first infant!