Ngamba Island Caretaker for a Day Program
Our journey to Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience! The kindness shown to us by the chimpanzee caregivers and vet, the hospitality of the Wild Frontiers staff at our luxury tent camp, and the interactions we had with the chimpanzees have all made for a thrilling weekend.
Ngamba Island C. S. is a rescue centre for orphaned chimpanzees and others who have been confiscated from poachers or illegal markets / homes. Because chimpanzees are a complex species with intricate social systems, it is vital that they live in social communities and feed on their natural diet. N.I.C.S. is doing a wonderful job of rehabilitating these animals and providing them with as close to a natural life as possible. None of the animals will be able to be released into the wild due to their familiarity with humans and their enormous strength as adults. Chimpanzees have a 50 year lifespan. The oldest chimp on Ngamba Island is 24 years old.
One of the most informative and exhilarating experiences while we were there w
as taking part in the Caretaker for a Day program. Emma and I joined this program to learn as much as we could about chimpanzee conservation and biology and to interact closely with the staff.
We were thrown into the thick of things the first evening by helping prepare the evening meal of millet porridge. The chimps spend the day roaming, feeding, and playing in the forest and then around 6 to 6:30 p.m. return to the holding area where they are fed and monitored. The adult chimps all put their arms out the bars of the holding area to receive a bowl or two of the porridge, which they happily drink up. On certain evenings they also receive a cob or corn, an egg, or green beans. Even more thrilling then feeding the adults, was preparing and feeding milk for the two babies, Afrika and Mac. They are kept in a separate area and do not go out into the forest or mingle with the adult community yet. With big eyes they reached through the bars to us and held our hands or touched our faces while we held cups of milk for them to drink.
On Saturday, after our forest walk, Emma and I were given brooms and spent an hour helping to clean out the holding facility now that the chimps had left for the forest for the day. Working with the men was fun and they enjoyed telling us stories about the chimps and about their time on the island.
After breakfast, we went to help prepare the food for the 11 a.m. feeding. We weighed and chopped 8 kg of bananas, 8 kg or cassava, 10 kg of papaya and 10 kg of jackfruit. The jackfruit here are ENORMOUS, e.g. 20 kg each, and are the hardest things in the world to chop. And disgustingly gucky! However, this is one of the prized foods of the captive chimpanzee (Ficus species are the natural preference) as we saw when we went to feed them. The animals come to the fence at the forest edge when it is snack time. The food is thrown down to them from the observation platforms. This time is a good time to see many of the interesting social dynamics within the population. Often, Mika, the alpha male would reassert his dominance with the other males if they came near his preferred females or took food that he wanted.
During the afternoon, we prepared food for the 2:30 p.m. feeding, this time mostly vegetables: 5 kg carrots, 5 kg tomatoes, 8 kg eggplant, 8 kg pineapple. It was really cute to watch them eat the carrots. Many of them, already full on the other vegetables, would lie down on their backs, gather as many carrots onto their laps as possible, and then carefully nibble away at them. Others would stuff a carrot in between each toe and walk back into the forest to savour them later.
The last duty we did as caretakers was to entry daily observation records into the computer. A journal is kept for each chimpanzee (they are all named) and when there is time or extra people around, the logs are entered. We chose to enter the journal for Billi, an eight or ten year old female who came with us on the morning forest walk. We recorded the records from January 1st, 2008 to present and it was fascinating to learn more about chimpanzee behaviour.
We will have many more details of our time on Ngamba Island when we return home. We were pleased to be able to help out in a small way, and in doing so to learn so much.
Alie
Our journey to Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience! The kindness shown to us by the chimpanzee caregivers and vet, the hospitality of the Wild Frontiers staff at our luxury tent camp, and the interactions we had with the chimpanzees have all made for a thrilling weekend.
Ngamba Island C. S. is a rescue centre for orphaned chimpanzees and others who have been confiscated from poachers or illegal markets / homes. Because chimpanzees are a complex species with intricate social systems, it is vital that they live in social communities and feed on their natural diet. N.I.C.S. is doing a wonderful job of rehabilitating these animals and providing them with as close to a natural life as possible. None of the animals will be able to be released into the wild due to their familiarity with humans and their enormous strength as adults. Chimpanzees have a 50 year lifespan. The oldest chimp on Ngamba Island is 24 years old.
One of the most informative and exhilarating experiences while we were there w
as taking part in the Caretaker for a Day program. Emma and I joined this program to learn as much as we could about chimpanzee conservation and biology and to interact closely with the staff.We were thrown into the thick of things the first evening by helping prepare the evening meal of millet porridge. The chimps spend the day roaming, feeding, and playing in the forest and then around 6 to 6:30 p.m. return to the holding area where they are fed and monitored. The adult chimps all put their arms out the bars of the holding area to receive a bowl or two of the porridge, which they happily drink up. On certain evenings they also receive a cob or corn, an egg, or green beans. Even more thrilling then feeding the adults, was preparing and feeding milk for the two babies, Afrika and Mac. They are kept in a separate area and do not go out into the forest or mingle with the adult community yet. With big eyes they reached through the bars to us and held our hands or touched our faces while we held cups of milk for them to drink.
On Saturday, after our forest walk, Emma and I were given brooms and spent an hour helping to clean out the holding facility now that the chimps had left for the forest for the day. Working with the men was fun and they enjoyed telling us stories about the chimps and about their time on the island.
After breakfast, we went to help prepare the food for the 11 a.m. feeding. We weighed and chopped 8 kg of bananas, 8 kg or cassava, 10 kg of papaya and 10 kg of jackfruit. The jackfruit here are ENORMOUS, e.g. 20 kg each, and are the hardest things in the world to chop. And disgustingly gucky! However, this is one of the prized foods of the captive chimpanzee (Ficus species are the natural preference) as we saw when we went to feed them. The animals come to the fence at the forest edge when it is snack time. The food is thrown down to them from the observation platforms. This time is a good time to see many of the interesting social dynamics within the population. Often, Mika, the alpha male would reassert his dominance with the other males if they came near his preferred females or took food that he wanted.
During the afternoon, we prepared food for the 2:30 p.m. feeding, this time mostly vegetables: 5 kg carrots, 5 kg tomatoes, 8 kg eggplant, 8 kg pineapple. It was really cute to watch them eat the carrots. Many of them, already full on the other vegetables, would lie down on their backs, gather as many carrots onto their laps as possible, and then carefully nibble away at them. Others would stuff a carrot in between each toe and walk back into the forest to savour them later.
The last duty we did as caretakers was to entry daily observation records into the computer. A journal is kept for each chimpanzee (they are all named) and when there is time or extra people around, the logs are entered. We chose to enter the journal for Billi, an eight or ten year old female who came with us on the morning forest walk. We recorded the records from January 1st, 2008 to present and it was fascinating to learn more about chimpanzee behaviour.
We will have many more details of our time on Ngamba Island when we return home. We were pleased to be able to help out in a small way, and in doing so to learn so much.
Alie
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