Funny pinatas to play…

This week we prepared some pinatas with old newspapers. We filled them with dried leaves and some pieces of fruits and sweet treats. The chimps loved them!

The paper pinatas
Misisi and Loia

Kalume
For Goma’s group we prepared 16 pieces of house pipe with honey and nice treats inside. They had a really nice time!

The pipes with treats

Ombeni giving the pipes to the chimps

Baheny

Gari and Kama

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

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!

Update on Butembo and Loia

Butembo

Loia

Butembo and Loia have integrated well into the nursery group, which now consists of 11 small chimpanzees! Butembo and Loia are together with Aketi and Mangay the smallest ones in the group. They like to play with the other chimpanzees, but still play a lot with each other. Butembo has a very outgoing and playful character while Loia is a bit more serious and cautious.

Loia

Butembo and Loia hugging

Misisi and Butembo

Loia and Butembo introduced to the others!

Mama Dorcas with Butembo and Loia

Loia and Butembo were introduced to the nursery cage today. Both of the babies were a little scared at the beginning, but all in all it went very well. Of course all of the other babies are curious to meet the new additions and sometimes they can be a little rough. Mama Dorcas will remain in the cage with them during the days coming until they become accustomed to their new surroundings. At night the boys will sleep in the cage inside the house as they have been for the past month. I am sure within no time, they will be happy with their new friends.

-Andrea-

Butembo and Loia, new arrivals

Two new baby chimpanzees arrived on the 15th of July. Butembo and Loia arrived from the Butembo area after a very long two day journey. Both babies are male and are about 1 and a half years old. Butembo is the most outgoing. Within 10 minutes of releasing them from their travel cage he was running around playing with the caregiver. Loia is a little more reserved and took some time to come out of the cage completely. Both babies were very hungry and ate a lot the first afternoon. A few hours after arriving they went into their night cage well and slept all night. On the second day, both ate well and played well also. Both babies have many different parasites and are being treated for this and malnutrition.
Truck arriving with Butembo and Loia

Butembo and Loia will spend their months quarantine with Mama Dorcas (who was removed from the main nursery cage due to the babies becoming too dominant over her). Mama Dorcas is very good with the babies and will provide them with all the love and support they need for this month in quarantine.

Butembo
Loia