Some enrichment for the chimps!

At the CRPL we try to give new objects to the chimps to provide some enrichment. Yesterday we prepared some pieces of hose pipe with jam and sweet treats inside and we gave them to the younger chimps...and they had a really nice time!

Uvira

Loia

Lulinga

Mangue

Also Suena and Poppy (as we fondly call Poplap) enjoyed themselves a lot!

Suena

Poplap

Poplap and Suena

Thank you! Update on the urgent appeal!

Our Urgent Appeal has been going for a bit over two weeks now, and we are very happy with the response! A huge thank you to the people that have donated these last two weeks, EVERY donation is very very important to us!!

Maria D - 25$

Cleve H - 40$

Lesley M - 25$

Jordi C - 90$

Cristina T - 60$

Athena B - 100$

Karen M - 25$

Marianne G - 15$

And a special thanks to Danny H for donating 1000$!

All the money donated will be used to continue building the new forested enclosure for the chimpanzees in our care.

Please consider helping us! Every dollar is important!!

Here is a cute picture of Mangay for you all ;)

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!

Thank you!

We would like to thank PAAW for their donation of $1000! This money will go toward the forest enclosure. Every donation goes such a long way here, and your support is so appreciated! http://www.paaw.org.au/

Mangay!

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)

Update on Mangay

Mangay


Mangay is one of the babies who arrived with the Aketi 5 chimpanzees. When he arrived he showed some very abnormal behaviours such as laying on the ground and rotating his hands and he also was quite unresponsive and scared. These behaviours have slowly been decreasing, until last month when he only exhibited them when all the babies went into the dormitory to sleep. However, I am very happy to report that now the behaviours have stopped all together. Mangay seems like a different chimpanzee. He is happy, playful and well adjusted.

Mangay
Mangay hugging Misisi


-Andrea-