J.A.C.K.

Dear Friends,

This short footage just to show you how the young rescued chimp of our nursery group do enjoy selecting stick to ‘fish’ for honey . Every morning, we fill the fake ant hill with treats so that the orphans keep their instinct of hunting for food…

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Even baby Luna does her best and rather stays with older friends of her group to be sure to have some honey too…

Thank you,

Roxane/ J.A.C.K.

Sunny weather this morning and the little ones of the nursery group really enjoyed their fresh leaves… see by yourself!

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Roxane

I don’t think much has to be said… Young female Maïka was probably scared she wouldn’t have enough cabbage for her meal and tried to collect as much cabbage as possible…

Bon appétit, Maïka!

Yes, dear Friends, this is wonderful news: young female Kina who was recently suffering of severe eye infection is now back in her group which we hope will help her recover totally!

Kina isolated

Because Kina’s eyes had been terribly swollen and because she had been kept isolated in a semi-dark quarantine facility, Kina pulled away some small parts of skin around her eyes as if she had been trying to facilitate her sight. Local antibiotic ointment worked very well. Her infected eyes and open wounds were cleaned on a daily basis and the vet decided she would return into the group to make her recover more easily…

Kina back with the others!

Kina’s eyes are being cleaned every day, especially in the evening when back in the night facilities, and antibiotic ointment is still used to be sure no other bacteria might interfere in the eye recovery…

Kina enjoying enrichment

Today, Kina has a very particular look: her eyes are have now a slight pink colour where he has pulled away the skin… We really hope this nightmare will come to an end very soon because Kina has given J.A.C.K. team sleepless nights!

Kina’s new “look”

J.A.C.K.

Dear Friends,

Kelly lives in Australia . She is a vet student and wishes to work one day with primates.

Earlier this year, she decided she would do something to help J.A.C.K. and therefore started collecting vitamins. In a few weeks time, Kelly’s package was ready: she had gathered  1 year of kid vitamins for about 40 individuals! She added extra medical stuff inside the big box  (skin ointments, bandages, emergency blankets, blankets, etc)  and one of her friends, Deborah, offered additional  kiddies’ vitamins.

The parcel was shipped via a wellknown company used to provide international express mail services but it took nearly a month before the parcel reached Lubumbashi as it got lost in Kenya, Zambia and South Africa before arriving in Lubumbashi where it was stuck days and days at the Customs…

When J.A.C.K. finally got hold of the box, it was like Christmas before Christmas! There were plenty of good things inside for the chimps AND a huge surprise for us: a wonderful frame of SANTA, the little one who died several months ago of a birth difect…. Kelly knew we have been deeply affected by the sudden passing of SANTA and therefore framed her picture with a short notice ” SANTA , leader of hug trains”.

Since the parcel has arrived, the chimps are getting their daily vitamins and, believe me, once they see the small yellow boxes, their eyes are getting bright and their noises of contentment make you understand that they are very, very, very happy !!

Again many thanks to Kelly and also to her friend Deborah for their Love and wish to give our boarders the best! Thanks to people like you we can bring a difference in country where things aren’t that easy!

MERCI for THEM !

Roxane/J.A.C.K.

Dear All,

Let me introduce you Océane, young Belgian girl living in Lubumbashi and extremely passionate about J.A.C.K. !

A few months ago, she decided she would do something to help the orphan chimps residing at our sanctuary and, together with her Mum Eva, she has planted strawberries in our green garden to provide treats for them.

Isn’t that wonderful???

THANK YOU soooo much, Océane, for your wish to help! We are very proud of you !!

J.A.C.K.

If I can give you some advice, well, please, never leave things close to the fence: chimps are too curious and will always try to run away with your belongings !!

When checking the electrical fences yesterday I also took the opportunity to make nice pictures of the nursery group. Pundu and Dian were far behind: they were standing just in front of my camera bag and you could see in their eyes that they were plotting something…

Pundu is extremely curious, gentle but can sometimes be full of misschief!!! Dian is usually very quiet, solitary and we have never seen her in a plot. This time, they sat together ready to take something out of the bag and to have some extra enrichment for the day!

Pundu grabbed a wooden stick and tried to reach the bag…

… of course, he had to look behind him to see where the dominant and his other friends were as I’m sure he didn’t want to share his trove with the others…

Their plan actually didn’t come out positively: Tika came to see twice what they were up to and Pundu had to abandon his stick and his wonderful ideas twice…

So sad the two youngsters didn’t reach their goal, but on the other hand I was glad they didn’t steal or ruin anything from my bag…

Hi All,

Most of you who are following us must still have in mind the sad story of Tommy the baby chimp we rescued in 2010 and who had had a pellet gone through the right humerus.

Papa Augustin & Tommy

Today, 2 years after Tommy arrived, his arm is doing a lot better and the bone is still recovering! Tommy is now a normal chimp again, playing and enjoying life like all the other young chimps of his age!

Tommy is a real ‘miracle’ and we are so happy for him and for Nalia, his best friend, who can’t stay 5 minutes separated from him!

Tommy (right) and best friend Nalia

J.A.C.K.

Yes, dear friends, today, July 24th 2012, it’s been a year that the authorities of the DRC handed baby Luna over to us: Luna was seized by DRC authorities of the city of Kongolo and flown to J.A.C.K. on a cold night of July 2011.

2011 – Luna arriving from Kongolo late one night

Remember, she couldn’t walk, was extremely young and was so sick…

2011 July – Luna couldn’t walk and was badly sick

Today, Luna has become a healthy little female chimp and her strong personnality helps her go through a lot of new experiences!!! She is now OK with most of the youngsters of the nursery group although one female can sometimes be very naughty with her: Africa, who is actually among the oldest females of the group….

Luna July 2012

J.A.C.K

Dear Friends of JACK,

I hope you are all doing fine.

Here, at JACK, things are ok except that Luna has started flu and that she has now been isolated from the others for about a week now.

She first had a runny nose and coughed sometimes….

This lasted  about  a few days when suddenly,fever arose and her coughing and breathing became worse. Maman Angeline did all she could to keep Luna’s temperature down: she either wrapped up Luna in a wet towel or tried to keep a wet cloth on Luna head….

… but tricky Luna rather had the cloth in her mouth! This of course seems funny, but, believe me, Mama Angeline was really upset as Luna had clearly decided she’d use all her misschief to get the cloth in her mouth and NOT on her head!!!!

Although Luna was not doing great, she was still very active and playfull. If you look on the video located on the following link (sorry, I can’t attach it as I’m not a computer professional!) you’ll see she is now healthy and running all over the place!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_5LH8B17xI

I think that if Luna is totally fine, she’ll leave the quarantine early next week. But I’ll keep you posted as usual…

Thank you all again for following us,

Roxane