Monday, January 28, 2008

Tchibatti

Today we took the journalists up to film at Tchibatti. Tchibatti is the site where we are planning to move the sanctuary in the future; it’s 4 km from Lwiro and is at the border with Kahuzi-Biega National Park. The research centre, CRSN, has given a huge area of land, about 75 hectares, that is going to be for the sanctuary. We now need money to reforest this area as soon as possible. There is also a corridor between the CRSN land and the national park which is privately owned, and we would also like to buy and reforest this land.
The view from Tchibatti is amazing, over lake Kivu, and on the other side you can see the sharp line were the national park start, the forest. After looking at the sanctuary land we were allowed to enter the park just a little bit, a couple of meters. And there we found chimpanzee trails and fresh chimp kaka, they had been there that same day! We were all very exited! Hopefully we will be able to help protect these wild chimps which are so close to our doorstep!

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Red-tailed move

Today it was finally time for the red-tailed monkeys to move into the new cage. It took a bit longer than expected because some of the holes were a bit too big and we had to fix it so that they couldn’t escape. The move went quite well, we used little cages to catch them, and then put them into the new cage. We also tried to put Kavumu and Bukavu in with them, but it didn’t go very well… So they moved in with the baby monkeys instead.
Also today, two journalists from Norway arrived; they are making a documentary and a feature story in one of Norways biggest newspapers. They are staying for a week and hopefully this publicity will help us get more money for Lwiro. They came together with a new volunteer from Norway, Jeanette. She normally works at Kristiansand Zoo, as a zoo keeper. She is staying for 3 months.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Internet!

Finally we have got internet at Lwiro, thank you Coopera!! I will try to get this blog up to date and fill in the gaps within the next week. Alexa has been kind enough to write some of the updates for me, as I also have the norwegian one to update. Everything is going well here at Lwiro, only four monkeys left in little cages, and they will be out very soon. All well with the chimps, Kongo and Lume has setteled in well. Our first priority, and next step now is to get money for our new forrest chimp enclosure. We will need about 50-60. 000 USD for this. So if anyone got an idea of how to get some money we will be very greatful!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

First paying visitors

We have now made a longer fence in front of the sanctuary which was needed after the new monkey enclosures. And it was desided that we are going to open to visitors. Congolese 1 dollar, and non-congolese 25 dollar. Our first two visitors were Congolese and were very happy with the visit.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Alexa: Monkey nursery


As there was now an empty cage where the vervets had been (The parrots and tortoises moved into the old baboon cage), it was decided to create a baby monkey nursery, for the little ones. David and Kidogo, the red tails, Noel, the new baby owl face, and Kalonge were moved in. David loved it straight away and didn’t stop running and climbing the trees, Noel was next to follow. Kidogo was a bit more wary and it took her a few days to venture into the trees. And Kalonge was great with them, he played and shared food though wasn’t too pleased if any of the others tried to have a hug with someone when it was his turn!

Also today Britta and Pete arrived at Lwiro, Britta is a new volunteer from Germany who are staying here for 3 months, and Pete is Hilde's boyfriend visiting for one month.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Alexa: Vervet move and Kalonge

Today it was the 5 vervets (Simba, Chui, Duma, Mama Lwiro and Lwiro) turn to move. The big male Simba was sedated and moved first. Then the 2 boys Chui and Duma were tranquilised along with Mama Lwiro. They had a health check, my god their canine teeth are huge, and moved across to join Simba. Baby Lwiro clung to his mum the whole time, he looked very confused with what was going on, but Pablo reversed the sedatives and Mama was in the trees within seconds. Simba took a little longer to come around, but there were no problems, and they were very happy with their new home, swinging, playing and jumping around.



Later that day the ICCN (Institute for Conservation of Congolese Nature) arrived with a young male Baboon. He had been confiscated from someone trying to sell him in a market. We noticed he had an old fracture in one of his legs that had healed again at an odd angle. We also thought he may have had some broken ribs, as every time you touched his chest he would flinch a lot. He was also very emaciated and weak. Unfortunately, he had an incident in the car with the ICCN where a pot of white paint had spilled all over him, he was covered! He was sedated so we could check him over and wash the paint off, which may have been difficult without him sleeping as he was very scared. He was put into a cage to rest and eat, but it became clear just how friendly he was people, he didn’t sleep unless he was being stroked! We decided that he would benefit from some one to one attention and took him out for hugs everyday, which he loved! He had been found in a village called Kalonge, and, yes, you’ve guessed it, we named him Kalonge!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Alexa: Poor Gari


Pablo had noticed that one of the baby chimps, Gari, had a bad tooth, where the gum seemed to be receding more everyday. We decided the best course of action would be to anesthetise him and take a closer look. The next day poor Gari had to go without bananas and milk in the morning, he was taken to a separate enclosure where he played with his keeper Kaleshe. With the help of Balume and Kaleshe, Pablo managed to inject the sedative without having to dart Gari. Pablo found that he had an infection in the tooth and it was starting to rot. He removed the tooth and cleaned up around it, you could see Gari’s big tooth waiting to come through. Gari came back around in the arms of Balume and seemed content to have long hugs. He recovered well and is happy again with the other baby chimps.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Alexa: Baboon move

There had been a few delays on the completion of all 5 of the new monkey enclosures- rain, lack of electricity, no cement, too hot, too cold, Sundays, no workers, etc, etc! However, they finally finished them and Kahole and Jacques, with the help of others kitted them out with trees, ropes and tyres. As Pablo regularly sedates primates for his work in Spain he was the perfect candidate to move the baboons into the new enclosures. There is 4 baboons (Becky, Torrente, Papio and Yoda). Pablo darted yoda, using a blow pipe while balume managed to inject Becky. When they were fast asleep they had a health check and were carried over to the outside compartment of their new home. Then it was the smaller baboons turn, Torrente and Papio. They too were darted and carried over to the inside compartment. They began to wake up slowly but were very wobbly; it was amusing to watch them stagger around like they’d had too much to drink, though I’m sure they weren’t feeling that great! By lunch time they were wide awake and jumping and playing on the trees together. Becky especially liked the view to the river where she tried to talk to the local people on the far side!