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!

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.

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!

Alexa: Holidays

After 12 months of hard work, Carmen was off home to Spain for a well deserved rest. Coopera had arranged for another Spanish vet, Pablo, to take charge whilst she was gone. He is very experienced with primates as he works with them in Spain so was well suited to the task of looking after everything at Lwiro for 6 weeks. Pablo settled in well and workers and animals loved him. He organised a party for the workers the weekend before Christmas. We bought a goat, lots of spaghetti (they love spaghetti here!!) and beer and invited all the workers to the house after work. It was great fun! Everybody was up dancing and singing the sanctuaries ‘Sheriff and gentil’ song, even before the beer was opened. They wore their best clothes and smiles! The evening was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Alexa: Noel

One day the rangers from Kahuzi Biega national park arrived with a young owl face monkey. They had taken him off someone keeping him as a pet. He seem friendly as he was being carried in someone’s arms. He had old scars around his waist from a cord, but the new cord around him was loose and plastic. He was very hungry and devoured a huge banana straight away. As he is quite young he doesn’t have his white stripe on his face yet, but his eyes are very big and he is very cute! As it was only a few days until Christmas we thought a suitable name for him would be Noel, and the keepers approved. He was put into a cage for quarantine and settling down, but because he is so friendly he gets lots of tickles and attention everyday.

Update on Kongo and Lume

Kongo has now finally settled in with the Kalume group. He is playing especially much with Flora and Clara. It took quite a long time for him to get back to the happy playful Kongo from the quarantine cage, but now he seem to realise that he is a chimpanzee and it’s fun to have someone to appreciate his rough games. For example pulling Clara by one finger down the concrete steps, and she can’t stop laughing!! Lume settled in a lot quicker as he is used to chimpanzees. He likes especially to play with Youngesa and Alsace.

Group photo

Today we took a group photo of everyone working at the moment at Lwiro. This is how one of the best ones turned out.