Chimpanzee Conservation Centre

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 19 2009 | By: chris colin

I am sorry for not sending any news recently but I got fresh news yesterday and today.

 At the sanctuary:

Fatim is still doing great even if she gets some throat problems (her tonsils are swollen). Melanie, our vet, thinks she might have a local infection because her immune system is still low. But her general attitude is excellent, she plays, eats, drinks! Only her voice is distorted, like a smoker’s voice! Melanie started some antibiotics to help her to face this small infection and Fatim is still under Fluconazole, the mass has completly disappeared now but we have to continue for one month after the last symptoms.

-Coco is our oldest chimp, we think he is about 27. We rescued him in March 2000. I will explain you more about him in a next post as his story is long. He was not doing well at all during the past weeks, refusing to eat and play. And suddenly he started to eat again! A mystery!

From the release site:

- Nanou had been seen carrying a corps of a small mamal, maybe a primate but it could not been confirmed as she refused to be approched enough. When she was last seen, it was gone unfortunately! Maybe she had a miscarriage or it was an animal prey she hunted. If it is a miscarriage, it is not abnormal as Nanou is a young adult female, she never gave birth before and it is the firts year of the release. In any case, nobody noticed any sign of pregnancy. 

The others are doing great, Zira is still hanging out with her wild friends!

For the bad news, Matthieu, our manager, gave me a call an hour ago. The boat engine broke down this morning while they were coming back from the release camp. Matthieu and Mamadi, our boat driver, had to walk 10kms back to the Center. They may be able to get  it repared in Faranah tomorrow if it is not serious but if it is serious, they will have to take it to Conakry where we can find boat mecanics. But this engine is really old and we have been encountering more and more problems with it. Therefore there is no telling wether it can be repaired at all. Ideally if we had enough money we could buy a good second hand or a new engine in Conakry directly. We use the boat to move back and forth between the sanctuary and the release site and I do not know how they are going to manage at the moment. Wether the old one can be repaired or not, we will need to get a new one, I will keep you posted on the situation.  Keep an eye open!

Matthieu in the boat!

Take care!

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 30 2009 | By: chris colin

I got news last WE from the sanctuary:

- Fatim is doing great, her health is improving day after day. We all hope that the herbal medicines will help her to cop with the long treatment this time.

- Robert and Albert were patroling without the females the last few days but they were coming back where the 3 females are (Lottie, Mama and Nanou). Maybe the females are pregnant and the big boys are looking for other females?

And for the bad news : there were sad events in Conakry on Monday. People demonstrated to call for free democratic presidential elections in January 2010… A lot of people were killed. I am in contact with our friends in Conakry, they are safe and OK, except for one who was injured (bayonet wound!!!) during the demonstration but he came back home today. We all hope he will be fine. There are still some demonstrations in some areas of Conakry, the atmosphere seems to stay electric.

Everybody is safe at the sanctuary as it is remote and the events are happening only in Conakry - for the moment. We all wait now to see how the situation will evolve… We are very sad for all the poor people who died on Monday and yesterday and we hope Guinea will finaly find the democratic and peaceful way it deserves!

Take care.

Chris

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 24 2009 | By: chris colin

I jus got a call from Estelle, from the release site!

The group of 5 released chimps who are daily followed are doing well. Robert removed again his VHF collar few days ago. If you remember our post about the released chimps, we explained that when we released the chimps more than a year ago, Robert left the others few days after and went far away in the forest. We found him thanks to his VHF/Argos collar which was transmitting his GPS location. But he removed it 3 weeks after the release! We managed to locate him and bring him back to the release site with some females in August 2008 and he stayed there since then.

Robert was re-equiped with a new simple VHF collar in July this year, like the 4 other chimps of his group, but apparently, he does not really like collar at all as he removed it again… Anyway, the team managed to got the collar back and they will try to put it back on Robert without anaesthesia… quite a challenge! But he is a sweet and smart male!

Robert without his collar

The news from the sanctuary: Fatim is doing great thanks to the fluconazol! And thanks to you guys, we are going to be able to get enough fluconazol to treat her!

The group of babies is doing well, they all recovered from the respiratory diseases epidemic.

 The rains are still heavy. The “road” to the sanctuary (81km from Faranah, the 1st town where we go every WE to buy supplies) is really difficult and in poor conditions, apparently it has never been like that! It takes 6h30 to reach Faranah from the sanctuary! At the end of the rainy season, they will need to hire villagers to fix the road with blocks, gravel and sand…

The flooded road…

Take care,

 Chris

3 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 19 2009 | By: chris colin

Hey everybody!

I got good news from Fatim today!

They started the fluconazol last Sunday (they had some in stock but they were waiting to be sure that some more was coming before starting the treatment as it needs to be without interruption). Fatim’s condition started to improved really well on Wednesday. The mass dicreased quickly, Fatim can eat and drink easily again. It is a relief for her, for Koumba and for us!

We sent more fluconazol with new volunteers who arrived yesterday in Guinea and we also bought some herbal medicines to help protecting her liver agaisnt fluconazol side effects. We will have to buy more fluconazol as we have for the moment 60 days of treatment.

So thanks again for all the people who helped us to buy these medicines, and if you want to help us and Fatim, you can still do it!

Best wishes

Fatim, 2 months after her arrival, in 2005… she was so small!

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 16 2009 | By: chris colin

Many thanks to Mary, Meghan and Kathy for your donations, it is greatly appreciated! We have been able to buy enough medicine for 34 days at least and we are in contact with several people to buy more.

I will keep you posted when Estelle gives me more news of Fatim.

But at least one big peace of news. The Guinean government managed to completely stop the illegal logging in The Haut-Niger National Park where the sanctuary is located, by preventing big trucks carrying wood from reaching the capital and neighboring countries! This is really a big step in the fight against illegal logging which is becoming a huge threat for the remaning forests in Guinea.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 13 2009 | By: chris colin

Thanks a lot Jin-In for your kind donation and your advice!

I spoke yesterday with Estelle and Matthieu, the manager, and Fatim is not feeling great; she suffers from bronchitis on top of her problem. Her mass is compressing her throat and it is difficult for her to breath freely, plus the bronchitis… It is hard for us to see her like this.

They managed to get enough fluconazol for 1 week in Conakry but we do not want to buy more in Guinea as most of the time the origin of the medicines is unclear, many are fake, even in Conakry… it is too risky.

We already managed to buy 1 month worth of treatment here in France and it will arrived next WE at the sanctuary with new volunteers. We need to buy more for Fatim and to keep some in stock.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you again for your support. We really appreciate it.

Chris

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 11 2009 | By: chris colin

Fatim started to develop a mass on her neck, shoulders and the back of her head last fall. It grew gradually bigger. From the beginning it was physically annoying as she could not turn and move her head freely but as soon as it started to also develop in the back of her head, she was in pain and her general state deteriorated. It was heart breaking to see her like that. It was also really difficult for her to carry Koumba (see previous post) all the time and Koumba was crying a lot whenever Fatim was refusing to take her…Kindy helped Fatim a lot in taking care of Koumba especially during the walks, but we have to insist sometimes to encourage Kindy!

Fatim in October 2009

We tried almost every treatment: we thought first it was onchocerciasis, an endemic disease really common in people transmitted via small flies and that can have cutaneous manifestations, but it was not exactly a typical form… we then were afraid that it could be a really aggressive skin tumor in view of the fact that it was spreading quickly and was responding to no treatment… We sent a biopsy sample in November 2008 to a lab: it was not a tumor, but due to a “parasite” which the lab did not manage to isolate in the sample. We were really relieved to know it was not a tumor! Estelle had already contacted a surgeon in Conakry to see if he could manage to remove the tumor and make a graft in case…

Fatim in May 2009 before the fluconazol treatment

But we were still confused about which “parasite” it could be. A lot of vet colleagues tried to help us and gave us a lot of advices. But there was still no improvement… and Fatim was feeling really bad… we then decided to make others biopsies in May and the lab this time managed to isolate a fungi (still indeterminate!)! Fatim received then a special treatment and only after 1 week of fluconazol, the mass almost disappeared entirely and Fatim was relieved! It was a great pleasure for everybody to see her laughing, playing with all her friends again!

Fatim in June 2009

But she got side effects  after 2 months of treatment (fungal infections require long treatments but they are generally toxic for the liver , especially on young individuals) and we managed to send in Guinea another good medicine (itraconazol) to end the treatment 2 weeks ago. But I got a call yesterday from Estelle telling me that the new medicine is not working, it is getting bigger every day again and Fatim is feeling bad again…  So we are going back to fluconazol treatment. As it is almost impossible to buy good medicine in Guinea, we are going to buy and send fluconazol from France next week with new volunteers. This medicine is really expensive, almost 450$ for 1 month of treatment. We need to buy 3 months worth of medicines. We need some help to face this situation to help Fatim! We also need to buy medicine to protect her liver. Any donations would be really appreciated! Thank you very much in advance for Fatim and for Koumba who cannot lose her surrogate mum!I will keep you posted on the evolution of Fatim’s health.

Take care, Chris

6 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 08 2009 | By: chimpanzeeconservation

As in other sanctuaries, the group of youngsters has not been spared either from a respiratory disease epidemic the past month.

Almost all the group has been affected but some of the chimps have suffered more than others. It was the case for Annie, 7 years old, who arrived at the sanctuary 2 years ago when she was still really “wild” (we think she had been captured shortly before she was rescued and arrived at the CCC, since she kept her wild behavior and her natural fear of humans). It has been really difficult to treat her as she generally refuses to take medicine (she has limited trust in humans and rightly so!) Luckily, she is not so young and is strong enough and thanks to the patience of the CCC team, she finally took her medicines and has now fully recovered.

Annie is a really  sweet chimp

Another difficult case was Koumba. Koumba is the baby of the group and every single chimp loves her. Fatim is her “surrogate” mother, but Kindy, Wodo, Oga, Veve and other chimps also take really good care of her and they sometimes fight to have the opportunity to carry her on their back!

Fatim and Koumba, in October 2008

Koumba was born at the sanctuary in June 2007 (a birth control pill “accident”!) and she was supposed to be released with her mum Nikita in June 2009.

Nikita and Koumba in June 2007 

But sadly Nikita suffered from typhoid fever in the spring of 2008 and despite a heavy treatment, Nikita relapsed and died one month prior to release. We were all devastated by her loss as Nikita was a perfect candidate for the release and a great mother.

We then decided to introduce Koumba in the youngsters group after she was successfully treated for typhoid fever as well. Fatim adopted her really quickly and Koumba overcame her mum’s loss and thanks to the love of her new family and friends,she  is now happy. She reminds us Nikita’s memory every day.

Koumba in March 2009

Koumba playing on Louna’s back, March 2009

One afternoon, during the respiratory disease epidemic, Koumba was missing for the 3pm feeding. Everybody started to call her and asked Fatim to bring Koumba. But she was not in the cage. All the CCC team got really worried for Koumba as she is one of the youngest chimps at the sanctuary and we all know that young chimps are really susceptible to respiratory infections. Estelle (director of CCC) decided to enter their enclosure which they have free access to between meals and their bush-walks in the forest, with Ibro, one of the keepers, to look for her. The enclosure is not so big but it is really difficult to find a 2 years old sick chimp in thick vegetation… But as soon as Estelle and Ibro went inside, Wodo stopped in front of them and looked at them… Estelle understood right away that Wodo knew where Koumba was and he was going to show them! Estelle and Ibro managed to follow Wodo with great difficulty through the vegetation to a tree where Koumba was lying in a nest. Estelle asked Wodo to bring Koumba down, so he climbed up but he could not manage as Koumba refused to follow him down! Fatim tried as well but it was the same! One could see she wanted to follow them, but as soon as they climbed back down the tree, she would return to her nest! Ibro had the good idea of destroying Koumba’s nest so she had nowhere to lie down! After that, Koumba had no choice but to go with Fatim who brought her down. Estelle carried them both back to the cage on her back, followed by the entire group with Wodo and Louna holding Estelle’s hand, again working their way through the thick vegetation…They decided with the vet to keep Fatim and Koumba in an annex cage to facilitate treatment of Koumba: she had a huge fever! Estelle decided to shower her and she gave her some medicine (antipyretics, antibiotics, etc.); Fatim assisted her by holding Koumba in her arms to keep her quiet and showing her that the medicine was not so bad after all! They stayed only 24h in the annex cage and reintegrated the group the next day as Koumba was responding well to her treatment and was already feeling better. She has now completly recovered thanks to the treatment and Fatim’s good care!

Wodo, Fatim and Koumba

 It is always amazing to see how young orphan chimpanzees are able to show great empathy for one another and how intelligent they are when they understand that we are here to take good care of them! Especially Fatim who  suffered during months from a really rare and unusual fungal disease. She is better now but she is still undergoing treatment…

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 02 2009 | By: chimpanzeeconservation

Six released chimps have been re-equipped with new VHF collars. Recently however, one of the adult males, Rappa, was injured during a fight with his mates. Because his wounds were deep, the staff feared that he was likely to develop a serious infection if not treated with antibiotics. The staff therefore took the decision to bring him back to the sanctuary to take good care of him and to ensure that he recovers quickly and correctly. He is doing better now and he will be released again with the next group.

The 5 others (Robert, Albert, Nanou, Mama and Lottie) are doing well and are together, they are wandering in their territory where Albert and Robert regularly patrol.

Robert, Nanou and Albert equipped with their new collar

 All the GPS data stored on their previous collars have been downloaded. We have now a huge quantity of GPS data (almost 7 GPS points were registered every day from 6am to 6pm for 1 year for every equipped chimp!) It is going to be great to be able to more precisely assess how they used their home range since they were released a year ago. We will also have more detailed information on their association patterns. Even if this is all in retrospective, it will be very interesting and should yield some very interesting results which will be useful to us in the future and could also potentially be helpful for other sanctuaries also considering release as an option.

Zira, who was confirmed with a group of wild chimps a month ago, is regularly located from a distance (her collar is still emitting) and she has been seen again at least twice with wild chimps, confirming that she has most certainly integrated a wild chimp community! We are really thrilled for her.

Ok this is all for now, more news on the sanctuary chimps in the next post!

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 04 2009 | By: chimpanzeeconservation

Please read a brief article we published recently about “hand-clasp grooming” performed by some of the released chimpanzees. This article is available online at: http://mahale.web.infoseek.co.jp/PAN/16_1/16(1)_03.html

We witnessed this behavior when Rappa and Albert were reunited and it was quite astonishing for us to see this really particular grooming behavior. Handclasp grooming is a behavior which has before been described elsewhere at a few wild chimpanzee study sites, especially in East Africa. But not all wild chimpanzee communities display this behavior! It is truly a social custom, a cultural behavior unique to some chimpanzee communities!More data are being gathered on this behavior as we speak and it appears now that it is spreading among some of the released chimpanzees. It is fascinating to see rehabilitated chimpanzees being able to innovate and propagate new behaviors…Culture in the making!

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