Summer Moments ~ Fun and Education
Jul 11, 2006
Summer in Full Swing
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Little Sambe playing in the forest |
Summer at Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center in Cameroon means long, hot days, dry dusty winds, lots of insects...and thank goodness, lots of chimpanzee antics and quiet summer moments. We've shared a few short stories below to bring you a bit closer to the chimpanzees at Sanaga-Yong Center and also to highlight our education and outreach programs.
Tati
With the help of IDA-Africa supporters, Tati was rescued from life chained to a limb of a tree. He was brought to Sanaga-Yong Center in March at the age of 7.
 Tati is a mild-mannered adolescent who approaches situations with great caution. Having been kept in isolation most of his life with contact limited to human primates, Tati demonstrates classic adjustment challenges for chimpanzees who are "humanized" as a "pet" or forced to live in isolation and deprivation of normal environmental and social needs.
In simple terms, he sadly does not know fully how to be a chimpanzee. As an adolescent he will have a long adjustment but his adoptive family will help a great deal.
Here is an excerpt from volunteer caregiver, Kat:
...It was perhaps because Tati’s only recent interactions were with humans that he appeared somewhat confused, or perhaps dismayed when his new neighbor approached (recently rescued chimpanzee, Amigo). Tati really seemed vexed by Amigo’s chimp-like behavior, and constantly looked to us – the ‘fellow humans’ for interaction. By all rights it was probably the first chimp play-face or vocalizations that Tati may have seen or heard for a long while. Slowly however – with some gentle coaxing from us, not so gentle from Amigo – Tati’s character has finally come through. It seems like each day we see a little bit more personality emerging, like his leap-frog bounce he does as an excited greeting whenever he sees us coming, to which he’s recently added a very enthusiastic grunt if peanuts are on the menu. There also seems to be a bit of a cheeky side creeping through, where a quick hand-clap signifies he is in need of some attention.
The best news for Tati however is most definitely his release
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Amigo | into his newly finished enclosure. When we first opened the door for him he came rushing out jumping and screaming, then suddenly as if all the space and freedom became a little too much he quickly
returned to the small enclosure and pulled the door shut behind him. It took a few days but Tati became comfortable in the large enclosure, playing and climbing. In fact, he’s already put on a pretty impressive show for the camera, posing thoughtfully up in a tree, doing cartwheels and lying around in the grass.
We hope that when he’s really feeling more settled, Tati will start to seek less comfort and interaction from us, and more from Amigo as their bond starts to develop. With his ever-emerging confidence and the reappearance of some of the hair he’d previously pulled out, probably through boredom and frustration, he is on his way.
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Hope
Hope never lost her fear with humans and she doesn't seek human attention. Leilah and Cindy have been her best friends since she arrived at the Center badly injured. Unless Leilah is in the overnight enclosure, Hope would never come inside at the end of the day. Despite her blind left eye she climbs trees with the others but lacks some self-confidence (especially with Jacky, the alpha male) and does not show strong social skills. She is most content and happy when she is with her friends. |
Hope, Leilah and Alice
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She seems to find great comfort in their companionship and shows herself freely when she is with them. Agnes Souchal, Sanaga-Yong Center manager, has known Hope since her arrival and expressed, "Hope misses her mother more than anybody else and she will never forget the harm that humans did to her at the onset of her life, it clearly shaped her personality".
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Hope in a quiet moment
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Ballas
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Ballas was held captive as a family "pet" for at least ten years. He, like Tati, has difficulties at times being totally immersed in his chimpanzee family. He
shares five acres of forest with Bouboule and four juveniles with whom he loves to play, yet still he feels ties to human primates as a result of his captivity.
Recently, Agnes Souchal, Sanaga-Yong Center manager, gave him a coconut in which she had made one small hole. Ballas started to drink the milk from the coconut but soon it became empty so he got some water and poured it from his mouth through this tiny hole, shook the coconut well and drank the flavored water. He did that 3 times in a row. When the flavor was completely gone he tried to break it by tapping it with one foot and then the other but had no result. He became frustrated and gave it back to Agnes so she could help him. She made a slight cut with the machete and gave it back. In one second Ballas cracked the nut with his foot and enjoyed the white flesh while making grunts of satisfaction. |
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More tender moments...
Thank you on behalf of the chimpanzees for your participation in their rescue and sanctuary. With their mothers taken by the illegal bushmeat trade, these chimpanzees would have died or been subjected to abuse and neglect in captivity. At Sanaga-Yong Center they are given an opportunity to grow with other chimpanzees in loving adoptive families.
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| Zach and Yoko's first adventures in the forest at Sanaga-Yong - see our home page for Yoko's story. |
Akiba playing with bubbles. Read her story in the 2004 Bush Telegraph |
Every opportunity to raise awareness of the illegal bushmeat trade and the casualties it causes ~ not only the death of adult apes but also the orphans left behind as well as the toll such slaughter takes on the remaining endangered wild great apes ~ is critical.
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International Labor Day (May 1st) is a popular holiday in Cameroon, and this year's celebration in Belabo was no exception. Twenty Sanaga-Yong Center staff members and volunteers, proudly sporting project
t-shirts with the new IDA-Africa logo, joined some 100 other local businesses and organizations and their employees in a parade presided over by district dignitaries. Staff carried a Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center Banner and French language posters (seen in the back) that read: To kill, capture, sell or to buy Chimpanzees and Gorillas is illegal. you risk a fine of 3,000,000-10,000,000 CFA ($5,500-$18,500) and a prison sentence of 1-3 years. |
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IDA-Africa's precedent setting radio ads aired throughout the country in six languages raise awareness of the laws against killing and holding captive any great apes and also bring attention to the plight of the remaining free living chimpanzees and gorillas in Cameroon. A 4-episode mini soap opera is also aired nation-wide. A television PSA (public service announcement) being prepared with the "S.O.S. Chimpanzee" song written by school children will bring our message on behalf of great apes to even more people. (Read about the school and IDA-Africa on pg 3 of the 2005 Bush Telegraph)
IDA-Africa believes that education is the key to conservation and in addition to the media campaigns there are tours and presentations at Sanaga-Yong Center, education programs in schools and community centers, and posters and brochures distributed throughout the country which focus on the laws and fines against the illegal bushmeat trade. |
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