New arrival- Mbandaka

Yesterday we received a newly confiscated chimpanzee female named Mbandaka.  She was confiscated from poachers on the other side of the DRC in the province of Mbandaka, near the capital Kinshasa. She was initially monitored by Lola ya Bonobo, the only Bonobo sanctuary in the world, located in Kinshasa, who worked hard to secure her transfer to the CRPL.

Travelling over 3000km and taking 3 days, Mbandaka was brought to the CRPL by the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN).  The ICCN did amazing work in this fight against the illegal pet trade and had coordinated her transfer using 3 modes of transport; plane, boat and car.  Mbandaka was brought into the quarantine cage at the CRPL and taken from her crate and into the care of a keeper. She was provided with food, which she accepted readily, eating some pineapple, banana, mango and onion straight away, as well as plenty of maternal contact, which she had been missing since taken from her mother by poachers.

Estimated at approximately 2 years of age, she will be provided 24 hour care by keepers and staff at CRPL.  Already, her personality is showing, a determined character that knows exactly what she wants!  She will spend one month in quarantine before the possibility of being introduced to other infant chimpanzees.  However, with other illegal infant chimpanzees known to authorities and the CRPL, it will not be long before we see more arrivals to join Mbandaka in her new life at the sanctuary of the CRPL.