I accepted a new role on Tuesday, JGI plumber in residence. I fiddled with the shower and Debby re-routed the water supply to the cistern and we have showers, hot ones, when there is power. I replaced the float assembly in the toilet and that’s functioning as well. Stephanie and Debby also bought a new faucet assembly but I haven’t found the tools to attempt it yet. Debby and Stephanie also presented us with a gift, an inscribed copy of Dr. Jane’s “40 years of Gombe.” Debby is off to Congo and we will be heading to Ngamba Island early Wednesday.
Now for the highlight of the trip, saving the best for last. Debby arranged wih Richard at the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust, the outfit that shares the building and runs the sanctuary on Ngamba Island for us to visit for a couple of days. We first became supporters of JGI in 2002 when we ‘adopted’ two orphaned chimps. Petit Prince lives in a sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bakulu lives on Ngamba Island and now we were going to meet him.
We left at 8:00am for the two hour journey by motorized canoe, one on major steroids. We went with a dozen tourists, many from Melbourne, got the introduction and watched the feeding. There are 39 chimps ranging in age from three to twenty years, all of them rescued from traps, illegal animal trade, entertainment and other un-chimpanzee activities. They are introduced to a square kilometer island and a mostly natural lifestyle. Because of its limited area the island cannot sustain so many and their food must be supplement with fruits, veggies, pasho, millet gruel, hard-boiled eggs, and such. There aren’t enough trees for them to build new nests each night so they return to their caged enclosure to sleep high up in hammocks that they line with straw. As in the wild, they develop their own society with its alpha individuals and form coalitions and cliques.
The handlers throw fresh eggplants, carrots, peppers, melons papayas, and of course, bananas provided by locals on neighboring islands, and the largest alpha individuals hoard what they can but all receive enough. Every effort is made to include locals in the profits of eco-tourism, just as all the possible environmentally friendly measures are taken – solar power, composting toilets, rubbish segregation.
Sometimes a carrot or a banana falls outside the electrified fence and an enterprising ape will use a stick to pull it in - tool use at its most primitive. Of course, there is usually another chimp waiting to steal the prize, basic exploitation. There is hooting and hollering and fighting and playing and more often than not our chimp, Bakulu, is at the center of it.
After the feeding we joined the others for lunch and they boarded the boat for the return but we stayed. Lawrence, a Ugandan veterinarian who runs the site showed us around. They have done a good job and the welfare of the animals comes first. They have a good clinic and each chimp gets an annual physical, mature females are given Norplant’s contraceptive implants, good for five years. By the way, Lawrence attended a conference of vets at DeWildt just after we left, another small world.
Isaac is the other champion. He is the interpretive teacher and escort and is fantastic. His love of the chimps and for his job is obvious and his manner is disarming and infectious. They work 12 days on and 4 off; 8 on and 5 off each month, returning to their families on the mainland.
We did some birding until the chimps returned to their cages for a snack and sleep and were joined by Peter and Fiona from the U.K. who would also spent the night, but in the luxury safari tents reserved for paying clients while we would use staff housing. The evening dynamics were interesting because they were trying to integrate the dominant juvenile into the main population, a potentially violent situation. But on this night, there was no conflict.
We watched the morning wake up, a noisy affair. Surprisingly there was little activity during the night, a good thing since our room was only a few meters from the sleeping chimps. Then, dressed in coveralls and gumboots, we went with ten of the “youngsters” on a forest walk. You can't bring a camera or even sunglasses or a watch because chimps are cureous, devious and strong and they will take what they want. They even reach into your pockets looking for things. The smallest, Nakuu, loves to be carried. She would climb on Connie’s back and just relax. Billie also wanted to be carried but he weighs 30 kilograms and that’s too much. The rest would run past chasing each other or swing down on vines or jump on us from trees. Sometimes we would wrestle or stop and groom them or tickle them just sit and cuddle. One look into their liquid brown eyes can reach your soul. Towards the end of the walk I sat to groom Bakulu and he returned the favor picking ants from my arm with his three-fingered left hand, a souvenir of a fight when he first arrived. Quite the morning!
It is important to note the precautions taken to protect the chimpanzees. Since they are susceptible to the same diseases as humans, visitors must have received all of the major vaccinations. Even though we each had measles as kids we had to get vaccinated before we could walk with the chimps. Fortunately we anticipated this and received them back in April in Kampala.
