South Africa

During a frenetic two weeks in June, the number of chimps at Chimpanzee Eden increased dramatically - from 20 to 30!

The ten new chimps, ranging in age from one-year-old Charlene rescued from Sudan to Martha (13) from Ghana, are all now safely in quarantine.

First to arrive at their new home were Lily (2) and Suzie (5), both rescued from Angola by JGI rescue director, Eugene Cussons.   Suzie was confiscated from a beach resort three hours south of Luanda where she had been used to amuse tourists.  Roped to a tree on the beach by day, and caged by night, Susie was becoming large and dangerous to those around her.  Despite his ignorance, her owner did care for her.  He was only at the beach resort over weekends, however, and in his absence, the local people abused Suzie.

Lily, aged about 2, a victim of the bushmeat trade

Lily was a bushmeat trade victim, bought at a market and kept as a pet.  She was rescued from a village close to Luanda, and cared for by Dalene Dreyer, with the help of Lucinda Piets and Catherine MacMahon.  Dalene’s home, in Luanda, was first used as a ‘halfway house’ for chimps Tony and Sampa last year.  

Dr Michelle Barrows, senior vet at the Johannesburg Zoo, kindly volunteered to help on this mission, her first for Chimpanzee Eden.

Next to arrive was Martha, who was rescued from Ghana by Sanctuary manager Phillip Cronje after repeated attempts by other NGOs.  As Doug Cress, executive director of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA), noted: “… you have now officially gotten the first chimpanzee out of Ghana that I have ever known. That is amazing! Well done to you guys.”

Phillip attributes this success to going through proper channels and fulfilling all the tedious bureaucratic requirements to the letter.  It took him about a year and a half, but his perseverance finally paid off.

Martha had been hand-reared and, as so tragically happens time and again, was suddenly too big to be a pet any more.  She was sent to the Zoo in Accra, Ghana’s capital. The Zoo, however, was closed down when it was found to be in the way of planned presidential palace extensions. Martha, together with other Zoo animals, was then shipped to the Kusami Zoo, 370km away.

Life took a turn for the worse there, however, as she was never accepted by the four chimps already resident at the Kusami Zoo.

The advance party for Martha’s rescue consisted of Zoo vet, Michelle, and cameraman, Russell Bergh of Triosphere, the company filming the highly acclaimed Escape to Chimp Eden series for Animal Planet.

Michelle took Martha’s blood samples, working with the Ghanaian Department of Forestry vet, and once they had been cleared a few days later, Phillip flew to Kusami, via Accra.  With permits in hand, and clear blood samples, all was in order.  

Rescues, however, never seem to go like clockwork.

First potential problem concerned sedating Martha for the trip to South Africa.  Michelle gave the Dept. of Forestry vet two darts when she left. One misfired, so everyone held their breath as the vet tried again, with the one and only dart available to him.

Among the other issues was a seemingly pointless flight back to Accra for Phillip at the behest of the Dept. of Forestry, the transport vehicle arriving five hours late to collect Martha for her flight, airport customs officials refusing to stay open to accommodate the late arrival, and airport security then finding a ‘suspicious object’ in Phillip’s luggage.  This turned out to be the Dept. of Forestry’s dart gun which they had asked Phillip to bring to South Africa to be repaired.

Luckily Phillip, like Eugene, takes everything in his stride and managed to overcome all these obstacles.  But only in the nick of time.  He and cameraman Russell eventually managed to board just 15 minutes before take-off.

The Mona Foundation, a UK-based primate rescue organisation, funded Martha’s entire rescue – even picking up the additional freight charges when Martha’s crate was found to weigh twice as much as expected!  It was the Mona Foundation that originally approached Phillip about rescuing Martha. (See its Web site for a story about Martha here.

Although Martha has been isolated and teased for much of her life, she is in good physical health.

When the group arrived in Johannesburg there was just time for Phillip to rendezvous and swap notes with Eugene and Triosphere’s Anton Truesdale, who were on their way to Sudan for the next rescue. 

When Martha eventually arrived at the Sanctuary after the drive to Nelspruit, the hugely heavy crate had to be lifted by bulldozer onto a trolley.

The final June arrivals were seven chimps who had been in the care of Sue Knight in Rumbek, Sudan. 

“We never really know where or how the chimps end up as orphans because they go to the Wildlife Department first and I assist them to take care of the chimps,” says Sue.  “It is assumed they end up as orphans due to the bush meat trade.  They are brought into Sudan from neighbouring countries, maybe en route to the port in the north.  The zoos and Wildlife Dept. offices notify us that they have received a chimp and then we collect it. 

“We notice an influx of chimps in the dry season as the people struggle to feed themselves,” she says.

The oldest of the group is Marco (male, 5). The others are Mowgli (male,3), Mary and Bazia (females, both around 3), Tamu (male, about 15 months), Azzie (female, also just over a year), and Charlene (1).

Little Charlene has no coordination, and moves a bit like a sloth. She will need extensive rehabilitation but Phillip believes that within a year she will probably be fine.  She can only be properly assessed after her spell in quarantine, however.

Dr Greg Simpson was the vet assisting on this mission.

“We had no drugs with us to sedate the chimps for the blood tests, and had to get some flown in from Nairobi,” says Eugene.  “We ended up with only five hours to put all seven chimps down.  With no dart gun, it was a real challenge to get them all injected.

“Greg and I worked as a team to get the job done as quickly as possible.”

While Eugene was there, Tamu went missing.

“We all ended up running and driving all over Rumbek to look for him.  In the end, he returned to Sue’s house with someone’s pants – he had just been out there being naughty,” says Eugene.

He says there are many, many challenges looking after chimps in a place like Sue’s halfway house because there are no proper barriers.

“While we were waiting for the flight back, there were several escapes and we had to take drastic measures to get them back in the enclosure,” he says.

Eugene also points out that North and South Sudan are at the brink of war again.

“We were a mere 100km from the 'frontlines',” he says.  “The UN was mediating to ensure that war does not break out but the state veterinarian urged us to leave ‘as soon as possible’ as soldiers were being called up.  Getting these chimps out might have be our last rescue before conflict occurs again.  We have received news that already another chimp has arrived at the halfway house and I'm afraid it will not be so easy to get this chimp rescued if the political climate in Sudan worsens.”

There is no direct flight from Sudan to South Africa, and the stopover with the chimps in Entebbe, Uganda, was a ‘bureaucratic nightmare’, according to Eugene. 

“SAA kindly sponsored the last leg of the chimps’ trip from Entebbe to Johannesburg.”