Baby owl

On Friday two men showed up on our front door step at 6:15am. They were carrying a baby owl with them. Carmen went outside to discuss the situation and hoped to be able to obtain the owl from the men. Luckily, she walked out and took the animal out of the man’s hand, to his surprise. They went on to ask for ‘a little something’ for bringing the animal to her. She explained to them that it is illegal to buy or sell a wild animal. And told them if they would like to wait, she will call the local authorities to discuss the situation. They declined and left very quickly.
This situation is not uncommon in this area. People catch wild animals; birds, snakes, primates etc and bring them to us or other people they think have money, and asked to be paid. Sometimes we manage to take the animal, sometimes the people refuse and leave if we tell them we will not pay them. Even at the expense of that one animal, it is important that we do not cave in and give money to these sorts of people. If we do, they will continue to go out and collect more wild animals, hoping that we will continue to give them a ‘little something’ for their trouble. If we do not pay, they may not be bothered with the effort to try again, seeing they got nothing.
Luckily this time, Carmen was able to keep the owl, and did not give the men anything in return. Sadly, it is a baby owl and therefore cannot be released. This is a difficult case for us, as we are a primate sanctuary, and do not have the facilities at the ready to care for a baby, omnivorous, nocturnal bird. However, we are doing our very best for him. He is living at the house with us at present, and we are searching for the appropriate food source which he enjoys the most.

Misisi's story

Misisi was confiscated by the police in Fizi about a month before she arrived in Lwiro. The police had questioned her ‘owner’ and taken notes which they sent with her for us to read. These notes tell of how the owner had purchased Misisi from a pygmy man, to keep as a pet. In the statement he says that he never saw her mother and does not know what happened to her. We can assume however, that Misisi’s mother was killed by the poachers, as were some of the others in her group. The adults were most likely sold as bushmeat, and any other babies sold for pets like Misisi, or died before this could happen. Misisi is the name of the village in which she was confiscated.

Rescued from terrible conditions

Like all the chimpanzees in Lwiro, the Aketi 5 was also rescued from terrible conditions beeing held illegaly as pets. The chimps were not bought or traded in for any favors. They were either given up voluntarily or confiscated by the authorities. The owners were informed about chimpanzees, why it is a bad idea to keep them, and that they are a protected species. It is illegal to hunt or keep chimpanzees as pets in Congo.



It is very important never to buy a chimpanzee, because then the hunter will think it is a good idea, to go and kill another family of chimpanzee just so he can steel their babies.



Most chimanzee orphans that are captured die due to lack of proper care, the ones that don't usually end up beeing killed when they get too big and unmanageable.



Here are Bolungwa, Kathe and Aketi before they were rescued.



Bolungwa

Kathe

Aketi Kigoma

All photos courtesy of Cleveland Hicks

More chimpanzees coming to Lwiro

Plans are beeing made to move chimpanzees from a makeshift sanctuary in Aketi north of Kisangani to Lwiro, at least five. The move is beeing planned for the end of March. The original plan was for the chimpanzees to move to a new sanctuary that is under construction in Kisangani, but the construction took longer than planned and these chimpanzees need a new home now. Although the people that is looking after them in Aketi are doing a great job.
There is a lot of hunting for bushmeat going on up there and too many orphans...
You can read about Laura and Adams work in Aketi and the chimpanzees in their blog: http://lifeincongo.blogspot.com

Baby chimpanzee arrive at Lwiro, CRPL

I have to tell you a beautiful story. One day we met a Canadian who works at the mines in Namoya. We have a discussion about the impact of mines in the east Congo...A week later he called us to tell us that there was a baby chimp with a poacher. ICCN told us that there was no way to go over there and do the confiscation but they did the permit to transfer the baby by plane.

The Canadian works for a Banro concession (a Canadian gold mine company, the biggest here in Sud Kivu)...he tried hard to involve Banro to take out the baby. He called us telling that there were other chimps and other animals....So we went to speak with Banro here in Bukavu. The discussions were too long and only one baby chimp was left (the other chimps were eaten). After several meetings they agree to take out the chimp as an urgency and yesterday finally, by plane, "Banro" arrived into the CRPL. She is a one year old baby in very very good health. Cos this rescue was successful maybe Banro will help us with confiscations. Also they want us to do sensibilization into their camps...this can be a very good opportunity!!!
Banro (the chimp) is now settling in to CRPL. She will have a one month quarantine periode, and volunteer Andrea from Australia will be looking after him. After she has finished his quarantine she will move in with the other little ones in the nursery group.

Lorena

Pictures are from Banro arriving at the airport. Balume which are the manager of the workers at CRPL met him at the airport to bring her to CRPL.

Uvira

Another baby Chimpanzee has arrived today. We have been expecting him for some time, and finally had word last night that he would arrive this morning. He was confiscated from a region to the south of the sanctuary. He has been named Uvira, after the area of his confiscation. He has been very quiet today, which is to be expected, but has eaten well all day. He appears to be around 18 months old, with the canines already present. He also has prominent wounds around his waste from where a cord was tied. Uvira will spend his one months quarantine with Ituri, and both of them will be introduced to the nursery group at the same time.

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