Donations on the blog!

We want to thank everyone that has donated on the blog and facebook for the last three months!

In March we got 60$, a big thank you to Ryan K and Brenton H for supporting us!!!

In April we got 45$, a big thank you to Brenton H and Alison B for your support!!!

And May was a fantastic month for donations! Which matches the fantastic month it has been for the chimps:) We got 720$!! This is a huge help, as all the changes this month also has meant more money spent. A big thank you to; Linda V, Linda H, Iris W, Daniel H, Frances M, Heidi Q, Marcia D and Tracey B!

A big thank you from Maiko for all your support :)

Thank you Diane!

We would like to say a big thank you to our friend Diane, who in the event of her 60th birthday in August, fundraised 1469$! She asked friends for donations instead of presents, and she also had a marked stall where she sold items and raffle tickets. What a great initiativ, and we are so grateful! We would like to thank all the people who supported Diane, and a special thanks to
Jenna & Jon K --- Phyllis C -- Lory L --- Fran K ---- Pauline T --- Chrissa O

Maiko and all the others in Lwiro says a big thank you! :)

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)

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-

Misisi is doing well!

Misisi

Misisi was introduced to the nursery cage about one and a half months ago. From the first day she adjusted well and remained in the cage day and night. Misisi is now extremely dominant within the cage. She loves to play with all the other babies and needs constant attention from them all. She demands to be the first to have milk in the morning and the porridge at night.

Maiko with Misisi in the background looking for peanuts

-Andrea-

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

June 1st to July 11th 2008

It has been a long time since the last update, but a lot has happened here at Lwiro. Seven new monkeys of various species have arrived, through confiscations. This brings Lwiro sanctuary to 80 residents in total!

After Kanshi finished her one month quarantine she was moved to the sanctuary. She has now settled in well to the Goma group, and is getting on with all of the individuals.

Kalume is doing wonderfully also, and spends his days in a cage next to the Goma group or going for a walk around the sanctuary. His mobility has improved incredibly in the last few weeks, and he has even been climbing trees with the babies!

The four babies which arrived a few months ago are all doing well. They are getting bigger by the day! We have had to move them to the quarantine cage at the house, as they were getting too big and boisterous for the small cages at the sanctuary (besides the fact that they are all now occupied by monkeys). Construction on a small dormitory attached to the quarantine cage has finished this will serve as the babies night den. Another cage is in construction in the yard also, this will serve as a new quarantine cage.

Maiko, one of the babies arriving a few months ago, had a bullet fragment lodged above her right eye from when her group was shot at by poachers. This bullet fragment came out of its own accord a few days ago.

Construction also continues on the new dormitory, next to the small forest. The foundations have been laid and the walls are almost finished.




There have been several more small earthquakes originating from the DRC-Rwandan border area; however, they didn’t seem to impact the animals as much as the previous earthquakes.

I am a new volunteer at Lwiro, my name is Andrea. I will be writing the blog updates when I get time! When I came to Lwiro I had some goods and services donated to me for the sanctuary. I would like to acknowledge these companies and individuals for being so generous.

Firstly, thank-you to Darren and David of DARCHE who made and donated over 30 new hammocks for the chimpanzees night dens. These hammocks will go into the new dormitory and ensure that everyone can have a bed to themselves!



A huge thank-you to Peptech Animal Health, in particular Tim Trigg and Katie Yeates, who donated contraceptive implants for the chimpanzees. These were needed greatly.

Thank-you to LYNX (a keeper driven conservation group) who donated funds to allow us to purchase medications and protein powders which were desperately needed. To Zoos Victoria, for donating worming medications, thank-you. And thanks very much to Dr Kate Bodley who worked very hard to organize all of the medications.

Thank you to RCR International, who donated 8 hot water bottles for use with very young babies when they come to the sanctuary.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Jetta Express enormously for donating the air freight to get the above items and more to Uganda, so we could get them to the sanctuary in Congo.

The babies

A little update on the little ones, Osso, Maiko and Fizi.

They've finsihed their quarantine periode now and spend their days around the sanctuary and on little trips to our little forrest. They are still very young and the little space in the other chimp cages do that we won't introduce them to the others until we finish the new forrest enclosure. So they now form their own little group, that also Julius will join when he has finished his quarantine. But they are around the bigger ones and they can see and hear them.

They have all become very healthy and happy little chimps!

Maiko and Osso

Yesterday Maiko and Osso came to Lwiro Sanctuary. Two little girls. They were very tired and scared. They had travelled by plane, car and boat. They were with us at about 5 o’clock in the afternoon. We carried them into my room, and with a bit of force got them out of the travel cage and put them in the cage they were going to sleep in during the night. I was alone with them in the room and Osso came out of the cage and sat on my lap. I cried for a while. It’s very difficult to understand how people can treat chimpanzees like that. Maiko and Osso have both seen their family being slaughtered. They ate mango and passion fruit and then went to sleep. Today they slept for a long time, we woke them up at eight. We had planned to have them inside in the room for a couple of days, but Maiko was very shivering with cold, so we put them back in the cage and carried them outside to the quarantine cage in the sunshine. There they slept most of the day, scared and tired. We took them back in at four o’clock and put them to bed for the night.

Jeanette

Maiko and Osso

In the beginning of February we heard that two baby chimpanzees had been confiscated near Maiko National Park in North Kivu. And after a lot of paperwork, and quite a bit of money to cover transport cost, they finally arrived at Lwiro today. They are two little girls called Maiko and Osso.

Maiko is a bit over a year old, she has a lot of parasites and her tummy is very painfull.

Osso is under one year old and in better shape than Maiko, but they are both very thin and traumatized.

Jeanette, a zoo keeper from Kristiansand Zoo in Norway is looking after them with the help of Carmen the vet and manager. Jeanette is volunteering at Lwiro for 3 months.

Hildegunn