SLEEPING BABIES!!!

At the CRPL we have 12 chimpanzee infants who all live in a cage together. They range in age from about 1 to 3 ½ years old. In the wild, chimpanzees are very dependent on their mothers until they are quite old; because of this we have a caregiver in with the babies for 24 hours a day. This caregiver becomes the nurturer, cleaner, disciplinarian, protector and more to these little chimpanzees because they don’t have their mothers with them. Papy and Armani, our two caregivers both work rotating 24 hours shifts with the babies. Both Papy and Armani love the babies and are very good with them. They hug and play with them all of the time, but are also very good at encouraging them to grow and learn.

At about 5pm when it is getting dark and cold here in Lwiro the babies and their caregiver move into the dormitory attached to the cage. This is such a wonderful sight to see and probably one of my favorite times a day (although, it is hard to choose when you live and work here). The babies all march inside, sometimes walking with a friend, sometimes swinging in from a rope!

I have always been curious to see what exactly happened within the dormitory at night. I often ask the caregivers ‘who sleeps where’ and ‘with whom’! With these questions in mind I decided to send my camera into the dormitory for the night with Papy. I did wonder if I would ever see the camera again in one piece. The pictures below are the result. It seems that although there is room for everyone to have some space to him or herself, they like to sleep directly on top of one another. This no doubt gives them comfort and warmth!

Donations

Thank you for the donations we have recived the last few months, all the money will go towards getting the new enclosure built and the chimps in the forest where they belong. Your support means a lot to us, thank you!

Jordi C. - 90 USD

Jennifer M. - 50 USD

Alexa C. - 50 USD

Jill S. - 25 USD

Maiko (back), Misisi, Julius, Uvira, Mangay(back turned, hugging Misisi)

Updates on the nursery group

Here is an update on the members of the nursery group. Of course also Aketi and Mange has joined this group, but here is a long awaited update on the other 6!

Maiko: Maiko is growing bigger by the day. She is extremely dominant within the nursery group and takes on a mother like role at times. She is extremely intelligent and is always searching pockets for anything she can find. When a younger member of the group cries she always comes to help and hug them, even if they don’t want her too!
Maiko

Fizi: Fizi is the trouble maker in the nursery group. He is cheeky and bold. Although he taunts the other babies at times, he also likes to hug them. He is small in stature, but extremely well muscled and very strong.
Fizi

Julius: Julius is the quietest chimpanzee in the sanctuary; no one has ever seen him start a fight or anyone start a fight with him. He has grown so much since his arrival. He has a lovely personality, and all of the babies on the group like to be near him.
Julius playing with a football

Uvira: Uvira has become very happy and confident in my five months away from the sanctuary. In the past, he was always hanging off a keeper. But now he is always playing around the cage. He is currently going through a biting stage and chomps at fingers whenever they go near him-he then runs off laughing.

Uvira

Ituri: Like Kanshi, Ituri has changed so much in my time away. She has grown so fast, and now has an amazing body of hair, and very long legs. She is confident and happy. She plays with people and the other chimps all day.
Ituri

Monique: Monique arrived while I was away from the sanctuary so I don’t have pervious knowledge of what she was like. She is quiet and sweet and spends a lot of time playing in the hammocks of the cage.

Monique

Andrea

Lwiro update

People may have heard about the unrest in DRC over the past week or two. I want everyone to know the animals and the staff and their families are all safe. Everything seems to have settled down for the time being and it is business as usual. The volunteers were housed at the UN camp near by for safety reasons during four days of the trouble. We returned on the 2nd of November to Lwiro to find the sanctuary and staff well.
Shumbi – the olive baboon - has been moved from his small quarantine cage into a larger cage which neighbors Kashusha (another male baboon) and a group of other baboons. As soon as he woke from the anesthetic he climbed up on the branches with no problems at all. The staff were originally concerned that he would not be able to move about properly (due to the fact that he has one arm missing and the other is injured from a gun wound). His wound has healed very well.

Muhungu - a young male chimpanzee broke his on the 2nd of November. He has been isolated from the group to allow recovery. He still has visual contact with the group however, and can touch them through the wire. He is recovering well.

Banro is now very happy in the cage with the other babies. She has bonded with both the keepers and all of the babies very well. Every night, Banro and Julius cuddle up in their tub to sleep together. Below are photo of all of the babies in the nursery group. They are all strong, healthy and happy.

Second operation for Shumbi the baboon

Shumbi had his second surgery today to clean up the wound and have a closer look. The veterinarian bandaged the wound thoroughly, however a few hours later (with only his feet), Shumbi managed to free himself of the bandage. He is doing well at present and eating well. We now have to wait and see how he recovers.

Ituri and Uvira have integrated well into the cage with the four other babies, Maiko, Osso, Fizi and Julius. They have become very independent and all of the babies interact and play well with each other.

Banro is also doing well, and plays and runs around in the garden non stop. She is forever trying to escape into the area with the other babies. Her quarantine period will be over on the 20th of September, she will then be introduced into the nursery group also.

Andrea

A few updates

Julius has now finished his quarantine and spend his time with the other babies in the sanctuary or in the forrest. He loves playing with the others.

Kalume finally seems to be getting better, he enjoys his walks around the sanctuary and all the atention, he has become like a little baby! He also plays with the babies, but do find them a bit anoying.

Kalonge, the baby baboon, has moved in with our baboon group and it seems to be going well. Then it's just Kashusha, the adult male, to go...

The foundation of the new chimpanzee dormitory is finsihed, and we've got some money to continue, at least the outside wall.

Julius and Kanshi

Julius is doing very well, he is finally completely healthy from his cold, he plays a lot and seems very happy. He had a few days where he was a bit down with a bit of fever because he was getting his canine teeth, so now he has a full set of tiny canines :) He sleeps in a cage next to my bed, and wake up for a bottle and nappy change a couple of times each night. During the day we play in the garden and he likes to say hello to Kanshi through the bars on the quarantine cage.

Kanshi is also doing well in the quarantine cage with Claud, she also had a bit of a cold for a while, but she's now playing a lot.

Julius

Last night sadly another chimpanzee came to Lwiro. His name is Julius Kongolo and he is about one year old. We only had a few hours notice about his arrival, and it was the same lady who brought Fizi, that had found Julius with some poachers near Uvira in the village of Kongolo. She took him from them and brought him to us. Normally his name then would be Kongolo, but she wanted us to give him another name as she was scared the poachers would come looking for him... So now his daily name is Julius which is the name of a famous chimpanzee in Kristiansand Zoo in Norway, who has painted some lovely paintings that so far has brought over 10 000 USD to lwiro from sales. He is tiny, very skinny and was coughing constantly last night. He slept in my bed last night, and he woke up lots of times coughing. But this morning it has finally almost stopped, and he has eaten som cerelac and mango today and seems to be setteling in.

Hildegunn