Chimp Eden, South Africa

Mary, who holds many a male heart <3
When Mary gets up and moves away, she is almost always followed by her loyal male admirers, usually Charles or Marco.

I took a while to get around to it, but here I am, finally writing about my trip to South Africa. Spending time at a chimpanzee sanctuary- and being able to do something helpful!- was an amazing experience. Chimp Eden was a really beautiful place, aside from the chimpanzees, there was a variety of wildlife roaming free on the reserve. The local vervet monkeys were great to watch, though I was less fond of them when they stole a large amount of my unattended dessert (they ignored all the healthy food!).

I've got a small amount of video footage from the sanctuary, but so far I haven't been able to get it off the camera as we've lost that camera's lead. We've ordered a new one from the UK, and hopefully it won't be too long before I can upload the videos onto Youtube.



 Jessica, the dominant female in Group 1. She is quite a character, though Martha is not her biggest fan. The youngsters sometimes begged for food from her, but they had no luck. Jessica is certainly not one to part with her food.


I spent the majority of my time recording the behaviour of Group 1 (Charles and Jessica's group), which was lovely as I was able to get to know the chimps' fascinating personalities.



Mowgli, an extremely cute little man.
 For the first week I was there Mowgli displayed at me when I came to the enclosure, and often threw sticks and bark. It was never quite as impressive as the displays of the likes of Charles and Marco, and he has yet to acquire Marco's good aim thankfully. After that time, he must have gotten used to me, or at least figured that I'd been sufficiently awed by his powerful display, as he stopped performing charging displays at me.
 Mowgli became one of my favourites, he always seemed so cheerful, often turned pirouettes and somersaults. I really enjoyed watching Mowgli, and golly, he has a handsome little face!



Tamu playing with Charles, the big boss.
Tamu is the youngest in the group, but makes up for his small size with a big personality, he hangs around a lot with the big guys. It was lovely to see a big dominant male like Charles playing with a juvenile like Tamu. He certainly knew the right spots to tickle to make Tamu laugh REALLY loudly! Charles has a very traumatic background, he was rescued from the same circus as Jessica and both were in appalling condition.

Another photo of Charles, he is the boss after all.




This is Suzie, one beautiful girl. Her favourite fashion accessory is a small stick in her ear, as modeled in this picture.
Suzie is one of my absolute favourite chimpanzees. When she sits watching you it feels almost like she's looking right into your soul, there's something very human-like about her gaze, even more so than the other chimps. She often sits with her legs folded and her hands in a lap, somewhat reminiscent of how a human child might sit. It seems Suzie has become good friends with another favourite of mine, Charlene. When the group had their late afternoon snooze, so much of the time the two girls lay next to one another, and I often saw them seeking out one another's company. One time, when the chimps were going indoors for the evening and getting all excited, Charlene started screaming as some of the other chimps pushed her out of the way. It was Suzie that went up to her and gave her a big reassuring hug.




Azie and friends having an afternoon nap. Azie is a very clever girl when it comes to the use of tools. She always seemed to spend so much more time then any of the others using rocks to crack open nuts, and using sticks to fish for goodies out of the pseudo termite mound. Azie is also one pretty girl!




My favourite chimpanzee, Charlene. She doesn't quite have Azie's knack for tool-use.
One time, Charlene spent several minutes watching Suzie cracking open a nut with a rock, staring intently at her as she worked away. When Suzie moved off, Charlene picked up the rock, studied it carefully as if thinking 'I know this thing is involved in some way...', and then proceeded to put the rock to one side and bash the nut with her fist instead!
Charlene isn't as quick on her feet as the other chimps, which is thought to be the result of a thiamine deficiency when she was younger. She can certainly give a good account of herself though, and beats her chest and tummy when annoyed.
 Some of my best memories of Chimp Eden were watching the chimpanzees playing together, it was really special to see them enjoying themselves so much considering what difficult backgrounds they all have. One such highlight was watching a very long and energetic play session between to of the bushmeat orphans, Mowgli and Charlene. I've recorded a bit of it on video, and will hopefully be uploading it to Youtube soon.


I took this photo after Mowgli and Charlene were playing together, and he put her arm around her. :)


This trip was an incredible experience for me, it has only solidified my passion for the great apes. I left with different ideas of what my eventual goals are. On my way home I visited Taronga Zoo in Sydney, which was a huge contrast to the peaceful sanctuary at which I'd spent the past weeks. I now have higher personal standards in my ideals of how captive apes should be kept. My career goal is still to work as a great ape caregiver at a zoo or sanctuary, but I now have different ideas of what sorts of zoos I'd like to work at. Spending time with chimpanzees living in spacious accommodation, with opportunities to socialize, plenty for them to do and opportunities to get out of each other's way and out of sight of their human observers, gave me a clear view of what I think all captive apes should be given.

I'll sign off with one more photo of dear Charlene, such a gorgeous hairy girl. I feel so lucky to be able to spend time with her and all the other wonderful chimpanzees.