Nenya.net

At the chimp sanctuary

Three chimps in a tree

Chimp posing for the camera

Even better on film- the slow, but well-choreographed walk of three chimps in step ;-)

Feeding time at the ...sanctuary (please note the one who's playing with his food!)

"Can I have some of that? You know you want to give me some"

It is sometime since I last posted- life has been busy and flat during that time and I also think I’ve managed to avoid a full week in work (due to public holidays, Easter and visitors) for the past month. Anyway, I forgotten far too much of what I have done in that period (a problem of not posting regularly).

I will tell you about the Chimpanzee sanctuary that I visited recently, with visitors from the UK. I spoke to a friend afterwards who said that he had only taken 20mins to go round- I’m not sure tho’ because we took at least and hour and a half- maybe we just asked more questions or something.

The visits have to be undertaken at certain times and by appointment only- one of the reasons is that the ‘road’ leading up to the sanctuary isn’t particularly wide and you wouldn’t really want to meet people coming the other way if you could possibly avoid it. Also, the visits are carefully arrange around feeding times, otherwise- due to the large size of the enclosures, you’d be unlikely to see many of the chimps who know when feeding time is due and gather at particular points in the enclosures.

The chimps themselves were brilliant- some were particularly keen on posing and showing off for the camera, whereas others were happier throwing stones at the visitors. The sanctuary itself has been open for about 10years and has been in national and international media for reasons good and bad. The work that is done there is amazing- rescuing chimps that would otherwise be abandoned or badly treated, or possibly served as bush meat, introducing them into family groups and giving them increasing freedom. Despite the ravages inflicted on the centre (food, money and medicines were stolen by the RUF) during the war, the workers stayed on and managed to get food etc for the chimps from locals who had also faced the pillaging of the rebels. One of the most famous chimps was a rare albino, she had white hair and one blue eye and one brown. Unfortunately she died after an accident in the jungle but her picture is still lovingly displayed at the centre.

There was a break-out from the centre in 2006 and the alpha male is still loose, but the rest of the chimps have returned and the group that escaped still flourishes- some of the chimps pull faces and do acrobatics on request.

On other notes, we’ve have rumbles signifying the beginning of the rainy season. Most particularly on the night of the 2^nd May, the rain was so loud it actually woke me up! Our house has a tin roof and so I assume that those in the apartment above us get a lot more noise when it rains and (naturally) I’d never heard the rain on the roof before, there was obviously a lot of rain that night because the sound woke me up. The next morning- driving to work- the view over the city was clearer than I’ve seen it in months, quite spectacular. Anyway, we haven’t had rain since then, so maybe the wet season hasn’t really arrived and that was just a foretaste, but when it rains here, it really rains.

The 27^th April celebrates Sierra Leone’s independence, although very little actually happens on the 27^th itself because (as of last year and possibly pre-war), there’s a large lantern parade through the town. Some friends went to see this, tho’ due to the usual amount of Sierra Leonean punctuality, by 3am they’d only seen one float- I’m told there were more about later on but I was at an independence day party arranged by the Spanish contingent of the ex pat community. Hence Independence Day is usually seen as a time to sleep off the exigencies of the previous night in order to return to work on the 28^th- although this year the 28^th was a Saturday, meaning a wonderfully long weekend!

Labels: chimps, rain, water

posted by Nenya @ 3:19 pm