La Roche

Today a male Grey-Cheeked Mangabey (Lophocebus albigena) has been collected from Bukavu, he was confiscated from a house in the village of La Roche. Therefore he has been named ‘La Roche’. He does not yet have canines and appears to be in reasonable condition. The area around his waste is void of hair due to the cord which was used to control him. There is one female Grey-Cheeked Mangabey at the sanctuary currently, so when the quarantine period is over they will be housed together, along with other monkeys also. The new quarantine cage in the yard is almost finished, with just a small amount of welding to be done when electricity is next available in the area.

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.

Good bye Lwiro, for now...

Then time was there for me and Jeanette to leave Lwiro and go back to Norway. It was very very sad to leave the people, the chimps and the monkeys. It has been very intersting, wonderful and stressfull 8 months. I will miss everyone a lot! It is a great project for the primates and the local comunity, and I will do my best to raise money when I get home, because I know how desperatly they need it. And of course I will be back, in hopefully not too long.

The workers sang for me and Jeanette the last afternoon we spent at the sanctuary, very touching. Be well everyone at Lwiro, I will be back soon!

Hildegunn

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.

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!

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

Kanshi

Today Kanshi came to Lwiro. She is a four year old chimpanzee, who we've heard about for some time now. She lived in Goma in a flat with a french UN worker. Then he left for france, leaving her with his roommates! They heard about Lwiro through some other UN workers and contacted us. They said she had her own bed and went to the fridge to get coke when she wanted.. But to us it seems like she has spent a lot of time on her own and probably locked up in a room or cage. She is setteling in and Claud, one of our chimp keepers, will spend his time in the cage with her during her one month quarantine.

Osso eating a banana-video

Lulingu

Today a new monkey arrived at Lwiro. He is a mitis, blue monkey, and his name is Lulingu after the village he was confiscated in by the ICCN. He is very skinny, has a bad cut on his tail and had the usual cord around his waist. He is quite small, probably around a year old. After being in his new little cage for a while, he started eating well. And he is very friendly and like being groomed. We plan to move him in the bigger cage with the other baby monkeys when he is well. So now we have 4 blue monkeys at Lwiro.