J.A.C.K.

Dear All,

The 3 expected chimps from Kivu didn’t arrive. Chimps being unpredictable, we have been told one chimp refused to get into the crate.

Franck and I were very disappointed as the last three weeks had been constant work to finalize everything before the arrival of the new comers…

We still don’t know when the animals will come. The flying company we have worked with so far no longer flights between Goma and Lubumbashi and it won’t be easy to find another company ready to board 3 chimpanzees and Faustin…

© 2009 Pierre

I’ll keep you informed once we get confirmation of transfer. I don’t think it’ll be for this week….

Thank you,

Roxane

Dear Friends of J.A.C.K.,

Some of you know already about the primates near Goma that have been abandoned by their owners wishing to start a sanctuary and who left the DRC because they ran out of money.

5 chimpanzees (2 adults and 3 youngsters), 1 red-tailed guenon and 1 black mangabey were found in bad conditions (dehydration, malnutrition)  –  some even showed signs of depression, especially the adult chimpanzee female…

female© 2010 MGVP

Thanks to a solid team made of PASA and different local organisations (Virunga National Park, the Africa Conservation Fund, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project and the Congolese Wildlife Authority-I.C.C.N.) the abandoned animals have been given proper food, water and attention for the last weeks.

The red-tailed guenon and the mangabey were sent on January 18th to the Lwiro Primate Center.

mangabey and red-tailed guenon© 2009 ICCN

The two adults should be sent to proper sanctuaries ready to accommodate them and the 3 young chimpanzees will be transferred to J.A.C.K. in a near future (next week!).

adult male© 2010 MGVP

Faustinis already working with the chimps in Goma and tries to get a good contact with them as he’ll fly over to J.A.C.K. too. We hope he’ll stay a bit longer this time!

Although J.A.C.K. recently had to cope with  6 new  comers in 6 weeks, we agreed to take these 3 younger ones to give them a new chance.

3 youngsters© 2010 MGVP

That’s why J.A.C.K. has been building extra quarantine facilities and has improved former facilities to make them stronger ) and more adapted to the growing chimpanzees of our sanctuary (the chimps at J.A.C.K. are getting older and develop their strentgh every day!).

We also had to accelerate the introduction programe as to get more space in the quarantine area… But the alpha male is giving new comers a hard time and things have to be slowed down on that side… we don’t want babies to be hurt, nor traumatised!

Since end 2009, we have been working hard to welcome these 3 new comers and I hope they’ll settle in fast as they are quite older (5 to 6 y) than the orphans we have rescued till now…

The story of this poor animals is a real nightmare: they have been the victims of human ignorance. Running a sanctuary isn’t an easy task and you can”t start “something” with wildlife like this!

3 young chimps next to boat construction area – imagine the dust, the paint, and the noise….© 2010 Virunga National Park

We haven’t finished building yet and we still urgently need  funds. We still need you! Thanks to you, we have been able to start constructing the quarantine facilities and we hope we’ll be able to end these on time again thanks to your participation.

new quarantine facility

I’ll send more soon,

 Thank  YOU for THEM

 Roxane

Another seizure!

Yes, dear Friends, J.A.C.K. has welcomed 3 new babies in nearly 3 weeks time and this represents a lot!

Joma had been seen in Lubumbashi some days ago by local authorities. His cage was high above the wall of his owner’s house and any person passing by could see the young male on top of his enclosure. 

Joma is a young male of about 3 to 4 years old. According to the Ministry of Environment inspector who seizes all the chimps, this baby is one of the babies J.A.C.K. had heard about in 2006 and that had disappeared from the city shortly after investigation. It very often occurs that some animals are seen but immediately moved once inspectors start investigating and do their paperwork…

Joma’s seizure is also the first one JACK has been allowed to film.

Joma is in good condition although quite thin. He eats everything, seeks contact at any time but isn’t as playfull as Eliawho arived a few days ago.

One thing though we are worrying about is his eyes. Joma had no roof on top of his big cage and since his arrival at the refuge his eyes have been crying a lot. Eye drop training has started in case he needs further treatment.

Thank you for reading us and for helping us – especially Theresa S, Brigitta S, Kevin C and Oliver T who kindly donate every month! Our Refuge now looks after 26 orphan chimpanzees and  our NGO J.A.C.K. can’t work without your donations…

Roxane

Friends of JACK,

Romeo arrived two days ago at J.A.C.K. But Romeo isn’t a chimpanzee. Romeo is a galago.

A Congolese farmer had found a very small bushbaby on his field and came to us for help. He had heard there was a project at the Lubumbashi Zoo taking care of seized galagos.

Franck was very surprised to be handed such young animal and knew from the early beginning this case wouldn’t be easy at all. So, at home, we gave the baby his first diluted milk (70% boiled water and 30% milk)and it was obvious the little bushbaby had been separated for too long from his mum and that he hadn’t had food for several hours.

The baby drank easily with a sterile syringe. Because of the severe dehydration of the little one, our vet Jean-Claude cautiously administrated him subcutaneous fluids.

Although exhausted, Romeo seemed full of life, made a lot of baby galago noises once hungry.

Franck had organised a puppet in which he had put a clock to simulate the regular heartbeats of Romeo’s mum and the baby loved the cling to the puppet.

Both Franck and I had hope and to be sure we would work in the perfect way to save Romeo, I managed to be in touch with two wonderful people of the Duke Lemur Centre (North Carolina), Julie and Bobby.

Bobby is a veterinarian and gave us tons of interesting details and we learned a lot! His advice was most welcome: it was the first time we had to deal with such young baby…

But from the beginning, Bobby had also mentioned this rescue would be difficult and that the baby might not make it.  Franck put extra attention on the baby and fed Romeo every 2 to 3 hours day and night.

Yesterday, all went well except in the evening. Romeo didn’t want to drink. We were worried. Even at night, he refused his milk and hardly ever made galago noises.

Romeo left us at 4 o’clock this morning and must be with his mummy now who has surely been killed and eaten up. Congolese people like galago meat. That’s the reason why this species is also considered as endangered species in the DRC and this is also the reason why we started this project: to stop the slaughter and to teach people how to preserve and respect their environment!

Thank you Bobby/Julie for all this energy spent in helping us so hard!

Good bye little Romeo… we are so sorry

Roxane