South Africa

Sue and Rusty Knight live in Rumbek in southern Sudan. Their life changed overnight a couple of years ago when their home y became a halfway house for young chimps. Here she tells of the second group of chimps she cared for until their trip to the Sanctuary in June this year.

After the first five chimps in my care left for JGI SA Chimpanzee Eden last year, we were left with Bruce and Mowgli.  Bruce died, leaving Mowgs on his own for a few weeks which was not good as he was becoming too used to being with humans.

 We then heard about Bazia, named by the Wildlife officer who cycled with her for days to get her to Wau Zoo.  She was found on the border between Congo and Sudan and was in fairly good health. She took easily to baby formula, which has all the nutrition needed by baby chimps and makes life so much easier.

Bazia travelling back from Wau

We fetched Bazia from Wau and then lost a car wheel so eventually only returned to Rumbek after midnight.  Bazia was so aggressive that I could not get her out of the car and she slept there for the first night.

Bazia and Mowgli were great friends from the start and it was so good for him to have a mate of his own kind.  Bazia was very independent and would not come to us for months. This was great because she taught little Mowgli how to be a chimp again!

The next chimp to join us was Tamu.  He had been taken out of the zoo in Wau and looked after first by the manageress of a Lodge there, and then by Annie, who was running a camp over the Christmas season in Rumbek.  When I arrived back from Kenya, Tamu joined Bazia and Mowgli who treated him like the baby he was in comparison to them.  He rode on Mowgli’s back and Bazia fussed over him all the time.

Tamu has a funny little character and likes to act and joke around.  He did not like to be tied and got very depressed when he was, so he roamed around on his own.  Tamu was not a naughty chimp but just liked to do his own thing.

Not long after Tamu joined us we got Mary and Marco. 

I had met Mary before when I went to try and fetch her from Juba.

Mary is a very affectionate chimp

At that stage Wildlife would not release her because they had an animal expedition and wanted her present.  When I saw Mary in Juba she was in a tree and would not come down so they had to bribe her with a kilo of raw meat.  She was fearful and I think she had been teased.

Mary settled in with the group and is a very affectionate chimp.  She got on well with the others and thrived on this interaction.

Marco was the biggest chimp I have had in my care.  He came from a town on the South Congo/Sudan border.  He was found in a small wooden crate with not much light, and was probably a handful for the owners.  He had teeth problems which affected his sinuses.  I did not know if he was in pain, or suffered headaches, but he would snap and lose his temper very easily.  He has a very playful nature and that is how we controlled him.  Marco needed entertaining so we had to keep coming up with new toys that he would not destroy in two seconds.  I would give him banana leaves to make nests, boxes to play in, he had a brush to comb his hair, a basin of water to swim in, an old tyre and wooden poles to pole vault, which he learnt from Mowgli. 

Tamu would play with him and was the only chimp who could put up with his rough ways when out in the trees. 

Marco was too dangerous to put near the other chimps as he would grab their ropes and drag them around.

Charlene did often decide that Marco was going to be her bosom buddy, as she did with the others.  Marco was at first very soft and loving towards her, but he soon got too rough and dragged her around screaming by the leg or arm.  This put her off and she would scuttle off as fast as she could to the safety of Mowgli, Bazia or Mary.

Azzie was the next new arrival.  She was kept by the director of Wau Wildlife’s family. I think he knew she needed special treatment.  Azzie was one chimp to give me sleepless nights.  She got very sick soon after she arrived. 

We started injecting her with antibiotics, recommended by a doctor friend who helped me as much as she could with the chimps.  I was trying to keep her alive by feeding her any liquid she would take, getting it into her using a leaf.  After long days and nights she slowly recovered and then started to eat pineapple, which she became obsessed with, often raiding the fridge. It also took Azzie a long time to trust us and come for a hug.  She has a very fiery little character and the other chimps love to provoke her.

The last chimp to join the new family was Charlene.  Charlene was in the cage that Mowgli had been in, in Juba, and was very ill.  A friend took her in and looked after her until she was a little better and we could get her to Rumbek.  Charlene arrived and was hampered with a form of paralysis.  She had strength in her limbs but seemed to have a co-ordination problem.

It soon became apparent that she should be with the other chimps.  She improved rapidly and the other chimps found a place for her in their group.  Tamu at first was very cruel but by the time they left Sudan they were great friends.  The first chimp to take her in was Azzie who protected Charlene from the rough play of the others.

We now have no chimps at the house.  It is very weird, as for the last two and half years we have always had one or two.  I am sure we will get a call and start all over again.  This really depresses me because it means that the bush meat trade is still going strong and more chimps are being taken out of the wild and sanctuaries are filling up.