ape action news Issue 8, December 2012

Happy New Year from all of us at Ape Action Africa!

Ape Update A double Christmas introduction for our gorillas and chimps

Ape Arrivals Welcome to Dr. Sharon and new caregiver Stephanie.

Ape Education Our 2012 programme is a success

Ape Improvements Our long awaiting gorilla nursery is completed.

Ape Activities Thanks for all the action taken to support us in 2012!

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Ape Action Editorial Team

Editors: Elissa O’SullivanCaroline McLaney

Words: Elissa O’Sullivan Rachel HoganCaroline McLaneyVirginia Rollet-Moore

Photos: Virginia Rollet-MooreRachel HoganIan BickerstaffJo-Anne McArthurAngela Mather

The copyright for the articles and images appearing in Ape Action News is the property of Ape Action Africa. Requests for permission to reproduce any part of this newsletter should be directed to the editor at info@apeactionafrica.org

www.apeactionafrica.orginfo@apeactionafrica.org

Dear friends,

It seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating the end of 2011 and here we are already - another year on!

2012 marked my eleventh year in Cameroon and my second as Ape Action Africa’s Director. I’m very proud to say that this year our resolve to improve the lives of orphaned primates was strengthened even more by the hard work of our dedicated team of caregivers, construction workers, education officers, volunteers and donors.

Our primary focus will always be to provide a safe and comfortable home for the primates in our care, but it is fantastic to see the progress we’ve made in developing a number of projects that are helping improve the lives of our local village communities. You’ll find information about some of these projects in the pages that follow.

With each year that passes, the number of mouths to feed at the sanctuary increases and 2012 saw the arrival of three baby chimps, an infant gorilla and numerous monkeys. It is for these new arrivals and for the many who have joined us during the past 16 years that your continued contributions are so important. On their behalf, I want to thank you for the generous donations and kind words of support that we’ve received throughout the year.

Happy new year to you and your families from all of us!

Rachel HoganRachel x

Our smallest chimps and gorillas have begun the next exciting stage of their lives - graduating to separate social groups.

Baby chimps Mac, Ayisha and Mbia and gorillas Chickaboo and Luci have been living together for almost a year. Chimps and gorillas do occasionally meet in the wild, but it is not usual for them to socialise and not a practice we normally follow at the sanctuary. Last year however, a sudden influx of orphaned babies meant we didn’t have the space to house them separately. To support their recovery, we allowed the babies to form a group and interact with each other rather than with individual human carers whilst we raised funds to build a new gorilla nursery.

The babies flourished in each others company but are now ready for the next stage of their development - to separate into species groups and meet new friends, Afangui and Shakira.

Afangui the gorilla and Shakira the chimp, were rescued from Equatorial Guinea earlier this year. Afangui was seized in a high-profile confiscation by the government after being kept illegally as a tourist attraction at a beachside restaurant. Shakira was the pet of a South African expat who gave her up after realising she needed to live with her own kind. The babies have been living together during their quarantine period, but are now ready to meet friends of their own kind.

On Christmas eve morning, Shakira was the first to be introduced - meeting Mac, Ayisha and Mbia in the safe confines of their night cage. She clung nervously to her human carer as the group circled curiously around her, but it wasn’t long before two-year old Mac began making friends. Ayisha also welcomed the newcomer, then went about her business looking unfazed, whilst Mbia hung back looking unimpressed.

Shakira was frightened by the attention of the other chimps, but after a short while she began to relax and soon the games were on! For the rest of the afternoon, the cage rang out with giggles and the day was so successful that Shakira spent the night with her new family. By the time you read this, she will be spending her days with them out in their forest enclosure.

Over in the gorilla cage, things got off to a slower start. Chickaboo and Luci ignored Afangui in favour of the climbing equipment - an unexpected reaction from two very sociable youngsters! When Luci finally showed interest, Afangui became very nervous and hid behind her carer Jeanne’s legs. When Luci persisted, Afangui bit her, then did the same to Chickaboo. Despite being bigger than both her new playmates, Afangui was clearly upset by the experience so we stopped the introduction to give her time to recover. Tomorrow we will start again and take things a little slower. We are confident that Afangui will soon make friends and be out enjoying the trees in her new enclosure.

Stay tuned to our Facebook page for updates in January!

AFANGUI MEETS LUCI HIDING FROM CHICKABOO AFANGUI LOSES CONFIDENCE

SHAKIRA MEETS MAC

Ape update A double introduction

SHAKIRA TAKES A BREAK

livepage.apple.com

We welcomed a number of new friends to our sanctuary this year - most recently a little chimp who was rescued during the arrest of wildlife traffickers.

The Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA), in partnership with the Cameroon Government arrested four wildlife traffickers in late November. In the process, they confiscated a grisly array of dead animal parts including ape hands and feet and three live animals - a Drill, a Red-capped Mangabey and an infant chimpanzee. Each of them was brought to our Mefou Park sanctuary.

LAGA is a small NGO that focusses on wildlife law enforcement in Cameroon and its neighbouring countries. It estimates that since its inception in 2006, an arrest has been made each week of an illegal wildlife dealer. Each arrest brings with it the possibility of a live confiscation and we work with LAGA to provide a long-term home for these individuals who would otherwise have nowhere to go.

All the animals confiscated in the arrest were in good health and are recovering well from their ordeal - none more so than our newest chimp baby. At around one year old, the little female was quiet on arrival, but showed an immediate

interest in food. She readily accepted her first meal of fruit and water and over the past couple of weeks has started eating vegetables and milk, fixing firmly on sugar cane as her favourite snack!

We have named the baby Dr. Sharon in honour of one of our Trustees, veterinary expert and good friend Dr. Sharon Redrobe who is based in the UK. Just like her namesake, little Dr. Sharon is very active and curious. She loves to be held, but is also developing confidence and independence. During the day she lives in her own spacious quarantine cage and by night, sleeps in her own area in her caregiver’s bedroom.

Now that she has settled in, is eating well and sleeping through the night, Dr. Sharon will undergo a full health screening to make sure she doesn’t have any underlying problems. If all is well, she will be able to join our new infant chimpanzee group, currently lead by Mac. From her quarantine cage she can see Mac’s group but cannot touch them. This will help build visual familiarity and increase the chances of a successful introduction.

From Cook to Carer! Meet Stephanie, our newest Primate Caregiver.

Stephanie has worked in our Mefou Park Sanctuary kitchen for two years, creating three meals a day for over 40 people. She has kept smiling throughout what is often considered the toughest job in the park, but has always showed a strong interest in our primate residents.

Stephanie asked on many occasions if there was an opportunity to train as a Caregiver, but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that a position became available. Knowing her strong interest we offered her an opportunity to re-train and she happily accepted.

Since then, Stephanie has embraced her new role and is a natural with the babies. She

quickly learned all the key vocalisations and gestures needed to communicate with chimps and has been working with our volunteer Rob, making different enrichment objects to entertain the infants in the park.

We are very happy to have Stephanie on board as one of AAA’s caregivers and so is Dr. Sharon - her latest charge. This little chimp has forged a real bond with Stephanie since her arrival and the two spend hours together during the day, exploring the quarantine cage and creating new games to play. Stephanie will play a key role in helping Dr. Sharon integrate with the infant chimp group when she completes her quarantine period and will then become the full-time caregiver for the group.

Welcome Stephanie and thanks for your hard work!

Ape arrivals four arrests and a rescue

DR. SHARON WITH CARER

STEPHANIE

MEET DR. SHARON!

APE PARTS CONFISCATED FROM TRAFFICKERS BY LAGA

2012 has been a great year for our education team, led by Jeta James...

We have said goodbye and best wishes to Joseph, Victor and Bertrand as they have moved on to new opportunities and have welcomed Henry and Franklin. The team have been very creative and delivered a whole range of activities throughout the year, involving more than 11,000 people in schools, communities and visitors to the park.

Our outreach programmes in schools and community continue to be very popular, with children learning conservation messages in role play, games and other hands-on activities. For many Cameroonians, a visit to Mefou is the first time they have ever seen a live gorilla or chimpanzee so this is an

important education opportunity for us. The park guides are part of our education team, delivering key messages to our visitors about the plight of the great apes and other environmental issues.

In addition to delivering our own education programme, we have been working with teachers in a Yaoundé college to help them develop environmental education lesson plans so that they can continue the work we have started. This was a very popular workshop and the college have asked us to return to do further workshops with all staff members.

We joined the rest of the world in celebrating the World Environment Day by planting 150 fruit trees in Mefou which was a great activity for the children to be involved in. The nature club in Mvog Betsi Zoo was also involved and we were delighted when they won awards for singing, drama and poems.

The education team has coordinated a number of community projects which are important for the sanctuary as we can only succeed by working with the local people. A community farm has been established which sells its produce to Ape Action Africa to feed our primates. New cooking stoves have been constructed in village homes that are smoke free, reducing the risk of respiratory diseases associated with traditional open-fire cooking. They are also energy efficient and don’t burn wood with obvious benefits for the surrounding forest.

Women have not been overlooked in the programmes and activities organised this year. They came out in force to organise a clean up campaign at Mfou town. Plastic bags are used in abundance in Cameroon and there are no facilities for recycling. The women are now collecting plastic bags and recycling them by ‘crocheting’ them into purses, sandals, small bags and other gifts which they are selling to our visitors in the park. All of the money raised goes directly to the women, and for some it is the first time they have had their own income.

Our education programme goes from strength to the strength each year and we are very proud of what the team has achieved, often in difficult environments with limited resources. We look forward to a new year of programmes that will help spread our conservation message in Cameroon!

GUIDED GORILLA TOURS WOMEN WEAVING BAGS BUILDING A COMMUNITY FARM

EDUCATING CAMEROON’S KIDS

Ape Education spreading the message

TREE PLANTING EVENT

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This year, just in time for Christmas, we achieved our plan of building a new home for our baby gorillas!

It has been almost three years since we had a nursery enclosure for our infant gorillas at Mefou. Our original nursery was one of the earliest structures in the park and housed Nkan Daniel’s group for almost a decade. By 2009 it was badly worn and had become unsuitable due to the growth and proximity of the local human population around it.

When Nkan Daniel’s group moved to a new adult enclosure that same year, the nursery was closed and all its materials repurposed. Now, with three new baby gorilla rescues in the past year, we have had to draw funds from our running costs to establish a new nursery that will allow Chickaboo, Luci and Afangui to live happily together in a natural environment.

By building an enclosure near our quarantine area, we have been able to save money by using existing infrastructure as night cages. The build has impacted our quarantine capacity which will need to be addressed next year, but it’s a wonderful Christmas present knowing that we can provide a new home for our gorilla babies. We can’t wait to see them using the enclosure together soon!

Visitors are on the increase - and this time they’re local.

Our visitor numbers continue to increase month by month and this year we have seen a rise in the number of Cameroon Nationals visiting the park. We have spent many years educating both children and adults on conservation issues and the role played by Ape Action Africa in helping Cameroon’s great apes, so it’s a great achievement for us.

Due to the increase in visitors we are planning to build another visitor centrein January where we can display more information about the sanctuary and provide another area for visitors to rest. We have also increased our merchandise and are selling not only t-shirts, but also caps, key rings and bags so people can support us and remember their visit.

Our residents have been finding fun in all sorts of new things,

thanks to a volunteer from Bristol Zoo.

Rob Rouse has been working as Overseer of the Mammal Section at Bristol Zoo since 2007 and part of his job is looking after the Zoo’s six gorillas. In December he volunteered for three weeks at our Mefou Sanctuary and lent us his valuable experience in creating primate enrichment.

With a tight budget and very limited resources, it can be a challenge for us to provide new things for our chimps and gorillas to do. Rob spent his time teaching our key staff members and volunteers to make different enrichment objects and how something as small as changing feeding patterns and sizes of food can make a difference.

Some favourite activities were arranging branches and swings for the adult primate night cages and creating balls made from vines that were stuffed with ginger fruit, pineapple and papaya. Our chimps went wild for papier mache piñatas filled with peanuts and pieces of bamboo with holes to hide treats that they had to take out using sticks. The work Rob started has continued and is making a real difference to many of the primates under our care.

Discover more about us through our new apps!

This year we were very excited to launch our new app for iPhone and iPad!

Both apps are free to download and include information about our work, a lovely photo gallery, updated news items, links to our other social media sites and and the ability to make donations. Big thanks to Carlo Ghirardelli and Susan Eberth for making this happen! Download your version here.

Ape improvements a new gorilla nursery

DOWNLOAD OUR NEW APP!

GORILLA NURSERY

VINE BALL SNACKS

TYRE SWINGS

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

2012 marked another year of events and challenges for us and our supporters around the world.

Our UK team appeared at several events this year, including the Bristol Festival of Nature and Chessington Conservation evening. The events attracted a large number of visitors and gave us the chance to spread our conservation message - encouraging people to buy FSC wood, recycle mobile phones and other electronics that use coltan.

In Cameroon we attended the American School Christmas Bazaar, educating visitors about the sanctuary, and raising money by selling AAA gifts such as t-shirts, hats, key chains and postcards. The children enjoyed colouring in our monkey, chimp and gorilla pictures and one lucky person won a free family visit to the

sanctuary in the raffle. Thanks to everyone who came to talk to us at these events and find more about our work.

Our volunteer community worked very hard this year, not only by donating their time at our sanctuary, but also taking on challenges at home to raise money for us. Big thanks go to Vicky Luke and her partner Simon Close who ran the Norwich half marathon, Martin Smith who ran the Miami Marathon and Donna Harrison who ran 2 half marathons in 2 weeks!

On the subject of challenges, we are hugely grateful to everyone who took part in this year’s Big Give Christmas Challenge. You gave us £12,581 in donations, which were matched by The Big Give to bring our fundraising total to £22,581. The Big Give will claim gift aid for donations from UK taxpayers so the final amount we will receive is a huge £24,981! The money raised will be used to care for our growing group of baby gorillas and chimps.

A big thank you to our zoo supporters.

Huge thanks go to Bristol Zoo who have donated £50,000 to us over 5 years, raised by their 2011 Wow! Gorillas campaign. The funding will enable us to appoint a new Deputy Director, send our Manager Bibila Tafon on a management skills course, pay for Jeta James to complete a masters in International Environmental Management & Sustainable Development and educate

our Vet Techs in English so they can attend further training in the UK. The funding provides us with a very important opportunity to invest in our people.

Thanks also to Chessington World of Adventures who donated £7,500 to help fund a much-needed portable x-ray machine. It has become increasingly risky to transport animals to town for x-rays where we rely on access to human hospitals. It will be fantastic for us to have our own x-ray machine in the forest so we can reduce the stress on injured animals and perform our work more effectively.

Dress a girl around the world...

Little Cameroonian girls have benefited from the local actions of a UK sewing café called ‘Cordial and Grace’. Recently they celebrated their first birthday by collaborating with Louise Horler from a charity called ‘Dress a girl around the world’. Their idea is that every little girl should own at least one pretty dress, no matter how disadvantaged she might be. The dresses are made using simple patterns and repurposed pillow cases and were a big hit amongst the girls who received them.

Thanks for supporting us in 2012!

Finally, our heartfelt thanks to Cam Iron, who provided significant funding to Ape Action Africa this year. Cam Iron are keen to do what they can to mitigate the impact of their mining activities in Cameroon and we look forward to working with them on environmental issues again in 2013.

AMERICAN SCHOOL BAZAARCHICKABOO - BENEFICIARY OF THE BIG

GIVE CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE! DRESSES FOR VILLAGE GIRLS

Ape activities Thanks for a year of action!

OUT & ABOUT IN THE UK