Fence update

The building of the new chimpanzee enclosure is continuing. Now all the fence posts are up, and most of the foundation is finished. Yesterday they started soldering the bits that will hold the overhang up onto the fence posts. They are doing a fantastic job with the fence and it looks amazing!

Still some holes to fill inn...

But most of the foundation is finished!

Soldering on the top of the fence posts.

Beautiful butterfly sitting on the fence foundation ;)

Sakina and Grace are doing well!

Sakina and Grace are both doing great! They eat a lot and play with eachother and their caregivers. Sakina is almost twice the size of Grace so she can be a bit much for him, therfore they have two caregivers like that one can play with Sakina while Grace needs a cuddle. Sakinas nose i a bit better, but still a bit swollen. We belive it is an infection from a tooth, so she might need to be anestetized to pull out the tooth before it can get properly well.

Grace

Grace and Sakina

Sakina

Sakina morning milk

New arrival: Vero

Last week, the 19th, another new arrival came to the CRPL. She is a young l'hoesti monkey about 2-3years old, and we named her Vero. She came with a military officer from the south near Uvira. He wanted to sell her to us, but we explained that we don't buy monkeys and it's illegal to keep. Luckily the cief of PNKB, South Kivu, came just then and explained to the officer about conservation and that it was illegal to keep monkeys and that they should be with other monkeys, not being kept as a pet. The officer agreed and the next day he came with the monkey and handed her over to CRPL. She is a bit skinny, but otherwise healthy and eating well. After her quarantine periode we will try to introduce her to a group wich has the three other l'hoesti females in the sanctuary.

Sakina and Grace getting to know each other!

Another chimpanzee arrives!

On the 14^th of August we heard from the Director of GRACE sanctuary, Jim Desmond that he had found a baby chimpanzee in need of a home in Butembo. The little male had already been confiscated and was being cared for by a veterinarian in Butembo who cares for some confiscated monkeys. The vet was doing all he could for the little chimpanzee, while looking for some help to arrange an appropriate home. Jim (along with Luitzen Santman, formally JGI, The Netherlands) very quickly organised the appropriate transfer papers and had the little chimp underway the next day. ‘GRACE’ arrived with Luitzen after having travelled from Butembo to Goma via airplane and then Goma to Bukavu by boat. He then had another 2 hour drive to the sanctuary.

Grace is very small, but already has his canine teeth, so is over 12 months old. He seems in good health and has a very big personality. He will spend a month in quarantine with Sakina Dungu and Mama Dorcas.

Thankyou to Jim from GRACE sanctuary, Luitzen and all of the ICCN teams who worked so hard to coordinate this very quick movement.

Sakina Dungu - second day and already playing!

It is Sakina Dungu's second full day at the sanctuary and already she is playing! She seems very confident and relaxed with Mama Dorcas already. Sadly, no person can ever take the place of the chimpanzees which should be in her life, but Mama will provide her with everything possible until her month quarentine is over and she can be moved into the infant group!

New Arrival!!!

Sakina Dungu (Sakina- the Congolese name she arrived with, Dungu- the name of the village of confiscation) arrived in the early afternoon on the 9^th of August 2010. We are still unsure about her story, but we were informed of her presence by the people at the Okapi Station in DRC. They also organised her travel from Bunia to Kavumu by air. Kavumu is just 7 km from Lwiro, so Sakina was picked up by the Director of the Kahuzi Biega National Park, Boji (ICCN). Boji and his team delivered her to us. She was a little apprehensive at the beginning, but soon settled down once she came to know Mama Dorcas – the caregiver at the sanctuary who takes charge of the quarantine of new infants. She ate many tomatoes (they seems to be her favourite) and spent the afternoon with Mama.

Sakina is around 2 to 3 years old and is very thin. She also has an advanced infection around her nose. This may have stemmed from a tooth infection, but the veterinarian will explore this once she has settled in. For now, Sakina will start a course of antibiotics, have access to good food and clean water and be cared for by Mama Dorcas. After her one month quarantine, Sakina will be integrated into the infant chimpanzee cage.

Sakina on arrival

Carmen removing the cord around her neck.

Sakina Dungu today, still sad...

Her nose is swollen due to infection

Roots&Shoots-Lwiro: spreading the conservation message

During these last months R&S-Lwiro has been growing. Starting with 9 children just 8 months ago, the group now consists of over 20 children! The children keep busy during their weekly meetings and have recently been deciding how to spread a conservation message about primate protection to the local community.

Roots&Shoots Lwiro club

The children have decided their first activity will be to perform a dramatic piece about chimpanzees. Patrick, the club leader, has written this play in Swahili and the actors are already practicing their lines. Due to fact that they are extremely shy and it is the first time they have performed a play, we have decided to use chimpanzee and gorilla puppets. We are also designing masks to use for dramatic effect.

Mariamu and her chimp puppet

Frank and Patrick reading the lines

The second activity the children have proposed is to create posters with conservation messages to spread the word to the community. However, as the club didn’t have any place to exhibit their posters they proposed to create a public notice board. Thanks the generous donation from Roots&Shoots-Madrid we fabricated a wonderful wooden board at the entrance of the sanctuary (CRPL). On this board the R&S-Lwiro members have hung information about the 12 primate species of the sanctuary, pictures of the staff (their parents) at work and pictures of the 48 chimpanzees at the CRPL. On another part of the board, they have displayed information about the Roots&Shoots program, an updated picture of the R&S-Lwiro group and some of the posters they have made. Patrick and the rest of the members will be in charge of updating the board on a regular basis so the community and visitors can read this information.

Salomon drawing his poster about poaching

The first wooden board

The second board with R&S-Lwiro work

Some CRPL keepers reading the posters

We would like to thank R&S Madrid and its coordinator Marisa Mariñán in particular, for their donation which has allowed us to buy additional stationary material and build the display board to spread messages to the community. Also, we thank the Jane Goodall Institute Spain for its constant support and advice.

In memory of Hombo

Hombo looking cute

Last week something really sad happened in the baby monkey cage. There was a big fight and Hombo must have fallen badly and hit his head. He was alive when the keepers found him, but died only a few hours later...

Hombo was a young blue monkey (Cercopithecus mitis) and one of the smallest residents in Lwiro. He was a sweet and careful character that arrived at the CRPL almost one year ago. He quickly found a good friend in the red-tailed monkey Bunyakiri. He also loved his keeper Jacques.

He arrived in Lwiro because his mother was killed for bushmeat and he was tried sold as a pet. The ICCN found him and confiscated him and brought him to us.

But he should have lived in the wild with the protection of his mother. Monkeys fight in the wild as well, and accidents like this is difficult to avoid completely. But living in small spaces means there is a lot more fighting. We do our best, but lack so much money to build the enclosures necessary.

We will always remember this sweet little monkey, Hombo- rest in peace.


Hombo hugging his friend Bunyakiri

Hombo having a nap

Hombo in the baby-monkey cage

Fence update

Here is some new photos of the fence construction. 100 fence posts are now up!

!