Roots&Shoots-Lwiro continues the work!

The children learning about animal tracks

The Roots&Shoots club in Lwiro is going on with their educational activities. In these last weeks we have learnt more about the animals of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park. Using guides and books we identified different species of mammals and their tracks. And we have also watched documentaries about wild gorilllas and chimpanzees, so we can see how these amazing animals live in the wild and discuss the problems they face in DR Congo.

Watching chimp documentary

We have also visited the small forest that will be fenced soon as it will become the new home for the CRPL chimpanzees. We enjoyed a nice walk and discovered the several species of trees and plants that the chimps will soon enjoy!
Visiting the forest as a Nyoka
However, as the children walked to the forest we discussed how it is possible that they have never entered this particular forest before. The R&S club told a story of a giant pithon that lives within this forest which is the reencanation of the ancient spirits of their ancestors. So, to give them the courage to enter the forest the R&S club made a giant human Nyoka (snake in swahili). This gave them the strength to explor and enjoy the adventure.
Learning about the forest
We would like to once again thank the Jane Goodall Institute Spain (www.janegoodall.es) for thier support and for making this R&S-Lwiro club a reality.

-Laia-

Lulinga introduced to the others

Lulinga has now finished her quarantine period and 4 days ago she was introduced to the other baby chimps in the nursery group, witch means there are now 12 chimps in this group.

Luckily Lulinga has quite an independent and confident character and she coped very well with being introduced to the group. It is quite an overwhelming experience for the little ones, going into such a big group, as everyone wants to get to know them straight away. Little Lulinga did very well though and told them off if they were being too rough.

A few days later she seems to be turning in to a favourite among the slightly older females of the group, Maiko, Misisi, Monique and Ituri. They take turns carrying her around and wanting to hug her. She has also shown that she knows what she wants, defending her food fiercely against the other chimps, also the ones that are much bigger than her! We are very happy with the progress of Lulinga, and are confident she’ll be a well integrated member of the group very soon.


Everyone wants to meet the new arrival
Fizi saying hello

Maiko wanting a hug

Maiko, Lulinga and Misisi

Lulinga eating her corn


-Hilde-

Donations on the blog in October

October has been a good month for donations on this blog and we would like to thank the people who contributed! Every donation means a lot to everyone in Lwiro!

So thank you very much for your help!

Kate O: 80 dollars

Cleve H: 30 dollars

Natalia R: 200 dollars

Bolungwa

Update on the civets

Some of you might remember that we recived 3 baby civets some weeks ago. Although we are mainly a primate sanctuary sometimes other animals arrive on our doorstep and we take care of them as well as we can. Sadly it did not end well for two of our civets... After growing and triving for some weeks on milk formula, a few weeks ago two of them stopped eating properly. We don't know the reason for this and we tried our hardest to get them to eat and drink, we tried both with the milk and solid foods like bananas and meat, they also got medicines and veterinary care. But sadly the two of them didn't make it...


The good news is that the third civet is doing very well and has grown a lot! He eats a lot with his favourits beeing banans and rats. He is an independent little caracter and we do hope to find a solution to realease him back into the wild, if not he'll always have a home here.

Lulinga is doing very well!

Today Lulinga has been with us for 2 weeks already and she is doing fantastic. She played and ate well from day one and has not been sick. She had some parasites, but they've already been treated. Lulinga spends her days with her keeper for the quarantine periode Mama Dorcas, and she plays and eat all day, at the end of the day her stomach is very very full, and she's happy to go to sleep in her night cage. Here is some photos from her daily life.

-Hilde-

New enclosure for the baby monkeys

People that have been following this blog might have noticed that we've had a lot of new monkey baby arrivals in the last few months. We did not have appropriate cages for them and the little cages was getting very crowded. We tried to introduce some of them to the existing bigger groups, but with now luck, as the cages are allready full of monkeys. We desided we had to build a new cage. Luckily we had some materials from former projects so we only had to pay for some, plus the work and it turned out quite cheap.

We want to thank Raúl Cabrera a member of AICAS (Asociación Ibérica de Cuidadores de Animales Salvajes) for his kind donation which helped us build this much needed cage for the monkeys.
Putting trees inside before putting the mesh on.

Starting to put on the mesh.

Cage almost finished, only the door missing.

Yesterday the cage was finally finished and we moved 6 young monkeys, Bamboo, Nunuse, Hombo, Bunyakiri, Coco and Malimingi in. Malimingi was the first one to explore the enclosure and Bamboo, Nunuse and Coco quikly followed. Nunuse and Coco was running around playing after only minutes, and Bamboo was finding insects and grass that she liked to eat. Hombo and Bunyakiri were more scared and went into the little cage we have put into the enclosure to provide shelter for the rain. They stayed there for a while, but watching the others having the time of their life they soon came out and started exploring and playing. Soon they were ready to enjoy their first meal in their new home. They look very happy with the new cage!

-Hilde-

Putting four of the new residents inside with their old cage.

All this space is a bit scary at first

Malimingi contemplating the new space.

Hombo and Bunyakiri feels safer in a smaller space at first.

Nunuse

First meal in new home, Bamboo, Coco, Hombo and Bunyakiri.

Bamboo

Thank you!

We would like to thank two people for donating on this blog the last month. It really means a lot to us and makes a big difference here in Congo. The money will go towards building the new chimpanzee enclosure! More news on this coming here soon!

Thank you so much!

Alexa C. - 80 USD

Kyle W. - 50 USD

Felixta

Roots and shoots in Lwiro

Roots and shoots Lwiro club

We have started the first Roots&Shoots club in Lwiro! This group is formed for 9 girls and boys between 8 and 14 years old. All of them are sons and daugthers of CRPL staff. They are really interested in nature and they know well the work their parents do at the sanctuary. They also know a bit about the Kahuzi-Biega National Park and the wildlife found in this area.

Frank reading a tale for the rest of the group

Their activities take place in a new educational room that Coopera has close to the sanctuary. And some stationary material was bought with part of the donation from Jane Goodall Institute Spain to start educational activities in South Kivu throught the Roots&Shoots Program.

The first day we started the R&S activities talking and learning about chimpanzees and some facts about them. We used some educational books and tales from JGI. After that all the kids draw chimpanzees and we could decorate our new educational room.

The group in action

We also received an unexpected visit from Mr. Dieudonné Boji, the conservator of the national park, who brought a baby red tail monkey to the sanctuary. He explained to the kids the huge problem of bushmeat and the importance of the CRPL in the conservation of the primates in this zone.
The conservator of Kahuzi-Biega brought the confiscated monkey, Malimingi

The group R&S will meet up every week to learn more about wildlife, the problems it face and they will try to find solutions!

We would like to thank Jane Goodall Institute Spain for their collaboration and support to start this Roots and Shoots Program in Lwiro.

-Laia-

New arrival, Lulinga

Today a new little chimp arrived in Lwiro. She was confiscated by the ICCN in the town of Lulingu wich is near the lowland part of Kahuzi-Biega nationalpark. We called her Lulinga as we allready got a monkey called Lulingu. Luckily she is in quite good condition and was very happy when we offered her mangoes. She will spend her month in quarantine with Mama Dorcas, who is very good with the baby chimpanzees.

Lulinga arriving in the ICCN car

Lulinga in her tiny cage

Lulinga with mama Dorcas

Lulinga

New toys for the babies

Today the nursery group woke up to a nice surprise. Last night after they had gone to bed we had put up some new “hammocks” made out of fire hoses in their cage. They loved the new addition and only just had time to drink their morning milk!

We would like to thank Laura Riera and her team, and the Mona Foundation in Spain for the hammocks, the babies will have a lot of fun with them!

Fizi enjoying the new hammock

New arrival, Malimingi

Malimingi on arrival with monkey keeper Jacques.

Yet another monkey arrived today. She had also been confiscated from the militaries in Goma. She's a little red-tailed monkey and we called her Malimingi, wich means big riches in swahili. She was scared and hungry, but seems ok. She'll move in with the other baby monkeys tomorrow. The four babies Nunuse, Hombo, Coco and Bunyakiri had moved into a cage together and she will move in with them. They are all about the same size. But she'll get tonight to eat and settle in a bit. And then there was 104 primates in Lwiro...

Malimingi eating a mango

Update on Butembo and Loia

Butembo

Loia

Butembo and Loia have integrated well into the nursery group, which now consists of 11 small chimpanzees! Butembo and Loia are together with Aketi and Mangay the smallest ones in the group. They like to play with the other chimpanzees, but still play a lot with each other. Butembo has a very outgoing and playful character while Loia is a bit more serious and cautious.

Loia

Butembo and Loia hugging

Misisi and Butembo