A Tour of Ngamba Island

A tour of Ngamba Island

When you arrive at the dock, we were welcomed by a very friendly staff. Bruce took us to an education room where he explained to us about the threats facing chimpanzees. He talked about habitat destruction due to expanding urban areas and the cutting of trees for making charcoal, poaching and the bushmeat trade, the capture of baby chimpanzees for pets or zoos, regional conflicts in areas where chimpanzees are living, and chimpanzees getting caught in snares and traps set for other game. He talked about how, through education, the situation in Uganda is improving - but it has not been erased - there is still more to be done.

We then went to the A frame to meet Patrick, our guide from Wild Frontiers. We sat and enjoyed a cup of tea or coffee while Patrick introduced us to the island. This is where we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner. We then went to see the 2:30pm feeding - I will tell you more about this later.

Patrick then showed us to our tents where we were able to unpack and get ready for the feeding. We met Fred, the veteranarian on Ngamba Island, and he talked to us about how we felt about meeting the chimpanzees, our thoughts about our stay in Uganda as well as our thoughts about conservation.

Fred invited us up to see how the evening feeding differed from the morning and afternoon feedings. We helped to mix the porridge (for the older chimpanzees and the milk for the baby chimpanzees). The older chimpanzees are fed from a metal bowl and the babies (Mac and Afrika) were fed from a cup. The older ones would take the bowl and feed themselves while the younger ones would need you to hold the cup for them - however, sometimes, they gave you a hand - reaching through and tipping the cup up. When I was feeding Mac, he reached through and rubbed my chin - I think I must have had some dirt there. In this picture, you can see Fred tickling Afrika. The chimpanzees like to be tickled and are especially ticklish around their neck.