Beyond the reach of bloody conflicts in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), rescued apes swing from one branch to another under the leafy canopy at a wildlife sanctuary.
On the edge of a national park that is home to endangered gorillas, the Lwiro Ape Rehabilitation Center (CRPL) has for two decades nursed wounded and traumatized animals to recovery, and taken in orphans.
The center houses scores of chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos among its wards, often saved from poachers in a region where illegal activities go largely unchallenged in the insecurity caused by many armed groups.
Photo: AFP
During a recent visit, half a dozen apes gathered behind a fence to choose the best banana to peel and eat after a fresh food delivery.
Female chimpanzees walked around, carrying their babies on their backs.
Each of the 110 chimpanzees at the sanctuary in South Kivu province eats 6kg of fruit, cereals and vegetables a day, the staff said, adding that the infants are bottle-fed.
Photo: AFP
“These orphaned baby chimps are coming to us because of insecurity and war,” center manager Sylvestre Libaku said, urging the government to secure the region to “let the animals live peacefully in their natural habitat.”
Weeks or even months of effort are needed to stabilize an animal in its new home. Tarzan, a chimpanzee collected in June last year from Bunia in the troubled Ituri province to the north, still lives in quarantine.
The ape has unhealed wounds on his skull, but “is doing better. The hair is starting to grow, but he is still kept in his cage, as we wait for him to be able to mix with the others,” Libaku said.
However, Byaombe, another injured chimpanzee picked up more than a year ago, is a source of worry. The animal receives care every day, but “without success — its future is not reassuring,” he said.
In his laboratory, Damien Muhugura handles samples taken from sick animals.
“We do parasitological analyses to search for intestinal worms,” among other bacteriological and biochemical risks, Muhugura said.
The facility extends over 4 hectares inside the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, named after two extinct volcanoes and listed as a UN World Heritage Site.
Animals brought in from large forests, where they roamed freely, “feel trapped” on the small terrain, veterinarian Assumani Martin said.
Thirty-nine grey parrots were in November 2020 released into the Kahuzi-Biega forest, after a stay for adaptation at the center, founded in 2002 by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature and the Center for Research in Natural Sciences.
Since then, no animals have been introduced to the reserve because of the insecurity in and around the protected domain, Libaku said.
Covering 600,000 hectares, the national park lies between the extinct Kahuzi and Biega volcanoes, and provides a sanctuary to a remarkable diversity of wildlife, including about 250 eastern lowland gorillas, the last of their kind.
UNESCO describes the park as “one of the ecologically richest regions of Africa and worldwide,” but it is also one of 52 sites on the World Heritage endangered list for the planet.
WARNING: Research in the journal ‘Geophysical Research Letters’ said due to climate change, heat would become ‘extremely’ dangerous for ‘hajj’ pilgrims later in the century The death toll from this year’s hajj has exceeded 1,000 on Thursday, more than half unregistered worshipers who performed the pilgrimage in extreme heat in Saudi Arabia. The new deaths reported on Thursday included 58 from Egypt, said an Arab diplomat who provided a breakdown showing that of 658 Egyptians who died, 630 were unregistered pilgrims. About 10 countries have reported 1,081 deaths during the pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam which all Muslims with the means must complete at least once. The hajj, whose timing is determined by the lunar Islamic calendar, fell during the oven-like Saudi summer again this
MONEY MATTERS? Hanoi said the US and Vietnam talked about developing their partnership, which involves significantly more trade than with Russia A senior US diplomat on Saturday held talks in Vietnam and said that the trust between the two countries was at an “all-time high,” just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Hanoi. US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said that his trip was unrelated to Putin’s visit on Thursday. Vietnam last year elevated the US to its highest diplomatic status, comprehensive strategic partner, putting it at the same level as China and Russia. The elevation of the US ties suggested that Vietnam wanted to hedge its friendships as Western companies look
A 17-year-old vocational school student from rural China became a celebrity on social media after reaching the final round of a math competition, beating many others from top universities and raising questions about the education system. Jiang Ping (姜萍), who is studying fashion design, finished 12th in the Alibaba Global Math Competition, one of 802 who made it to the final round — an eight-hour test that took place yesterday. A video that included an interview with Jiang got more than 800,000 likes and 90,000 comments after it was posted on social media by Damo Academy, the organizer of the contest. Most
When invading Russian troops advanced toward Kyiv and the first explosions rang out in the suburbs, Daria Zymenko took refuge in Gavronshchyna, her parents’ village near the Ukrainian capital. The Russians took control of Gavronshchyna soon after. One day several soldiers, drunk and armed, burst into the family’s home, saying that Zymenko, an illustrator, must be taken in for questioning. What happened to the young woman next forms part of what Ukrainian authorities say is a widespread, systematic campaign of sexual abuse by the Russian invaders. Zymenko is one of the survivors who have overcome their fear and shame to speak of the