ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS!

Today has been a funny day for Poplap and Suena (and of course for us!). The first days at the CRPL they have been indoors to settle in the new home. The two new chimps have proved they are already good friends and they are confident and relaxed with the new situation. So this morning we let them to go out and enjoy the outdoor facility.It is amazing to see them enjoying the sunlight and playing…

sharing food…

and grooming each other.

Poplap laid down and watched the forest in front of them for a long while. This is the forest we are fencing to get a forested enclosure for the CRPL chimps. It seemed she was dreaming of climbing those high trees and eating the flowers around them (she loves flowers!!)...

We hope her dream will become true soon. Please, help us to finish the fence. Thank you!

SUENA AND POPLAP PLAYING!

The two new chimps at the CRPL are settling in pretty well! They spend long time playing and laughing!

SUENA AND POPLAP ALREADY TOGETHER!

This morning Suena and Poplap shared a same room for the first time in their lifes!

At first the big boy was a little bit scared but Poplap was pretty playfull...

Finally they got confidence to each other and now they love to look through their window together!

Two new rescued chimps at the CRPL!

The arrival

Two rescued chimps from the abandoned Suena sanctuary in Goma arrived to the CRPL last evening. They were abandoned by expats who left the DRCongo leaving them and 3 younger chimps unattended. The 3 younger ones were handed over to J.A.C.K. in Lubumbashi and the two adults are now safe in Lwiro.

Suena (male) and Poplap (female) were confiscated by the I.C.C.N. After a long journey by boat and road they finally enjoy the new dens. They are waiting to be introduced to each other as they have spent their lives separated in different cages.

CRPL would like to thank the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) for covering all the transfer expenses and the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project staff who prepared and accompanied the chimps during the transfer ensuring their health and welfare.

Poplap beeing moved inside her room

Poplap enjoying the view

Poplap discovering the tire

Poplap in her new room

Poplap relaxing in her blanket

Suena unloaded from the truck

Suena beeing moved into his room
Suena in his window

Suena

The building of the fence continues!

Here are some photos from the construction of the new chimpanzee enclosure from today, it's progressing very well!

Urgent appeal!

The construction of the fence for the new chimpanzee enclosure continues!
Fence construction today, 22. March 2010

We now need your help to keep the work going! We need to raise another 100 000$ to finish the fence. For you to follow the fundraising and hopefully be inspired to donate what you can, we have made an urgent appeal. You can find this on our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/lwiro

or on this direct link

http://www.sjimpanser.net/urgent.htm

Every dollar is very important to us!!

Together we will make this happen! The chimpanzees of Lwiro need to climb trees again!

Donations!

Thank you so much to the people that have donated money!

Aurora P - 65 USD

Simone H - 20 USD +15 USD

Claudia R - 30 USD

Theresa S - 25 USD

Thank you so much guys! It means so much to us!

Everyone that donates gets a personal thank you and a nice photo of one of our primates on email, please consider helping us!

Lola, the red-tailed monkey

PARTY TIME!!!

The Women of CRPL! Mama Dorcas, Mama Guillamine, Carmen, Mama Irene, Mama Bea and Andrea.

A few drinks and a chat!
The Mamas dancing!

It is nice for the workers to spend time together outside of the Sanctuary. They really enjoy this time.

Everybody dancing!

The 8th of March marked International Women’s Day for 2010. In Lwiro there were many celebrations occurring, with all of the population out in force wearing their finest attire. Even the men love this day and get dressed up. However, as the chimpanzees need to be fed, like every other day of the year the celebrations for the CRPL workers did not start until 5pm. After finishing work we all donned our party clothes and sang and danced our way from the CRPL to the local guest house. On arrival we took some cokes or beers and sat down for a chat. The four women workers were beaming the whole night and looked beautiful in their special outfits. After a little rest the music began and we all danced the night away. A wonderful night was had by all in celebration of women everywhere!

EXCITING NEWS!!!

Yesterday the 6th of March 2010 was an exciting day for all of the animals, staff, partners, sponsors and friends of CRPL!!! We started digging the foundations for the Chimpanzee Forest Enclosure! I am sure that most have you have been following our desperate plea for funds to help us achieve this very large project, so you understand that we have been working hard to get this started. What you may not realize, is that this is already over two years of planning, and we are only just beginning the construction. We do not yet have all of the funds needed. But we do have the funds to start! And we figured it is better to get started now and continue to raise the funds as we go. We WILL get this built and these animals into better conditions, and our aim is to do it as soon as possible. I hope all of our blog followers and facebook friends will celebrate this exciting time with us! If you would like to be a part of the project, please donate on the blog. 100% of the funds donated will go into building this fantastic home for the chimpanzees of the CRPL! A big thank you to everyone who has already donated and to our sponsors. We have started this with your help!

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!