More chimpanzees move to the forest!

Kathe - loving climbing the trees!

There are now 10 chimpanzees in the ‘Chimpanzee Habitat’! On the 7^th of May the CRPL team moved Bolungwa, Kathe and Pablo from the sanctuary to the new facility. They spent day one in the dormitory to recover from the light anaesthesia used to assist in their transport. On the 8^th of May the 7 which had previously been moved were let out into the forest and a few minutes later the 3 new chimpanzees were released after them. They had never before met each other so this was a new day all around. It went perfectly! Kathe, Bolungwa and Pablo all took well to the forest and their new friends!

Kathe was particularly confident – she immediately climbed trees and ate anything she could find! Kathe even tried to break a nut she found in the forest with stones. We are really interested to see what other behaviours the chimpanzees begin to show once in this great environment.

Maiko, Fizi, Julius, Misisi, Monique, Ituri and Uvira have all settled in really well and are now playing a lot and exploring more of the forest with their caregivers and the 3 new residents! We will continue to keep you updated – more chimpanzees will move to the forest soon!

                                    Bolungwa relaxing                                                          Fizi and Uvira playing

Laid back Ituri!

Bolungwa following her long time friend Kathe in the forest

Beautiful Maiko

Misisi climbing and eating

Pablo leading the way with Bolungwa close behind

Thoughtful Pablo

 Uvira, Monique, Kathe and Fizi

Gorgeous Uvira

After a long day Bolungwa and Pablo have some quiet time with caregiver Claude

UPDATE ON THE INFANT CAGE: As you know, we still have a facility with the smaller of the infants in it. Walikale and Itebero have now moved in with these infants and are doing very well.

AN EXCITING DAY IN LWIRO – CHIMPANZEE FOREST MOVE!

On the 3^th of May 2012 the Centre de Rehabilitation des Primates de Lwiro’s Chimpanzee Habitat for Conservation and Education was first opened to its new residents! This has been 5 years of hard work from so many people and organizations that it is impossible to name everybody! Please go through past blogs to see all the wonderful organizations that have made grants to the CRPL to make this dream a reality – and for all those who made private donations or helped on the ground – you know who you are!

AN ENORMOUS THANK-YOU GOES OUT TO EVERYONE INVOLVED! We would also like to specifically thank the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature and the Centre de Recherche en Sciences Naturelles our two government partners for making this such a positive experience with so much support and for supplying the forest for the chimpanzees! And to our other Management Advisory Group Members Coopera, Venner av Lwiro and Friends of Lwiro Australia – this could not have been possible without your ongoing support. More individual thanks will follow – please watch the blog!

The first chimpanzees to try out the new facility were 7 of the oldest from the infant cage – now ranging in age from 4-6 years old! Fizi, Maiko, Monique, Uvira, Ituri, Misisi and Julius were transported in cages, 2 by 2 to the new forest! Some were a little nervous, but had familiar faces with them the whole time. They spent this first day in the dormitory to acclimatize and wind down after such a huge event. They took it in their stride and spent a happy day exploring this new area.

The next day, it was time to see what all the fuss was about! The doors were opened and their caregivers joined the 7 chimpanzees in the forest! They all went into the forest quickly and started exploring immediately. Misisi and Monique were very brave and independent and went walking on their own at times! While Ituri elected to have a caregiver carry her much of the time!

 Exiting the dormitory - Fizi looking deep in thought!

A great deal of the forest was explored on day one – and a guava tree was the biggest hit of all, with all 7 climbing up and having their fill! They also ate many other plants in the forest which are perfectly safe for them.

After a HUGE day both chimpanzees and people in Lwiro are very tired, but extremely happy! These 7 will settle in to their new home before more moves continue. We will keep you all updated on their progress and also the future moves!

Again, we want to express our gratitude to all who supported this project! We could not have done it without an enormous group of supporters!

Itebero and Walikale

Walikale and Itebero are doing well! They are getting bigger every day and are enjoying eachothers company! Here are some photos of them.

Itebero

Walikale

Enrichement!

Keeping the monkeys and chimps active and happy is a constant challange! Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks of the monkeys and the Goma-group enjoying some enrichement!

Shumbi the baboon, enjoying his banana tree stem

Bamboo with her fire-hose filled with goodies

Monkeys rooting through gras

Irangi with a big banan tree stem

The Goma group enjoyed their stems of banan threes

Rambo joining the nursery group

Finally the day for Rambo Rungu to join the others came last week! Lugushwa, Grace and Aketi was the chosen ones to meet him first, while the others were locked in their dormitory. It was quite a scary and intense experience for him, but he did well! The next day Uvira and Aketi was already grooming him, and he has now integrated well with the others! Well done Rambo Rungu, one step closer to becoming a real chimpanzee again!

A last check up from manager and vet Carmen Vidal

Aketi, Lugushwa and Grace are waiting for Rambo

Thank you, AWARE Germany!

A big thank you to AWARE Germany and their donors for raising 2000 euros for the CRPL! A special thanks to the Hamburg- based company "Markensturm.com", and their business manager Timo Kusian, for their generous donation of 500 euro! The money will go towards running cost of the CRPL, food for chimps and monkey and salaries for Congolese employees.

AWARE Germany is one of the CRPLs longest standing supporters and we are very grateful for their dedication to helping the primates in Lwiro!

Chimp enclosure update!

The work on the new chimpanzee enclosure is coming close to finishing! We now estimate we will start moving chimps into the enclosure around 1. of May! It's looking good and all the parts needed to finish it is now in Lwiro! Here are some photos of the finishing touches :-)


Finishing the cement

The tunnel going out from the dormitory is finised!

The access door is finished!

Donations in February!

In February we raised 30$ towards running cost.

Thank you so much to Ryan K. and Brenton H. for being two of our most dedicated supporters!!

Your support means a lot to us!! :)

Irangi says a big thank you to Brenton and Ryan :)

Painting of Kathe sold!

Cleve Hicks' has painted this wonderful painting of one of our resident chimpanzees, Kathe, that he rescued in northern DRC in 2008. She was one of the Aketi5.

The painting has now found a home, and the new owner, Judy S. in Leipzig, Germany, donated $305 dollars to Lwiro! Thank you so much Cleve and Judy for your support and fantastic effort! It's really appreciated!

Kathe says thank you!!

Donations in January

We've raised 285$ for running cost in January! This is a big help and goes towards paying food for chimps and monkeys and sallary for caregivers among other things! A big thank you to the five who donated! Ryan K, Brenton H, Kelly J, Manuel Z and Christine W thank you so much for helping!

Grace