Chimpanzee sanctuary

So today another early start for a rhino tracking session, we saw the usual giraffe, buffalo, impala etc and an exciting addition was three giraffes (twigga in Swahili) and their calf!

Burchell's Zebra (crossing)

Me, Jonathan and a reticulated giraffe

reticulated giraffe and calf

We finally found our rhino a little later on, the guides who do the rhino patrols are amazing, the detail they see and hear is one I could only dream of! In the distance we see a rhino and it heard us, from about 50 m away. Rhinos have very bad eyesight, but amazing hearing and smell, and as they are not particularly bright animals, they can be very aggressive, particularly the black rhinos. We see it start to paw the ground in the distance, and realise its getting ready to charge (not to self, if a rhino charges, run around it, not in front as it will easily outrun you, by running around it it gets confused, and then you should climb a tree). So we slowly backed away, remember it has bad eyesight, so hasn't actually seen us, it just knows there is something around. Thankfully after we were very quiet and moved away it ran off in the other direction, we were then able to walk back to where it was and lo and behold, scrapes in the mud! Amazing!

We came back to the research centre for lunch, which was traditional Kenyan ugali-baked maize flour and water in a lump, which you dip in a type of bean and meat stew-delicious! I started to do some research on drones for the article I am writing for Ol Pejeta, will fill you in when I find out more. 

Later today, I went to the chimpanzee sanctuary, but first a little bit of history. Chimps are part of the old world apes, none of which have tails, not originally from Kenya, but rather from west and central Africa. They used to live in 25 countries but have now become extinct in four of those. Their biggest threats are habitat loss, and being captured-for bushmeat when they are older, or sold as pets when they are younger. Bush meat is actually cheaper than buying farmed meat, so it is steadily increasing in demand. Chimps are our closest relatives, sharing more than 98% of their DNA with humans. There are only 200000 chimps left in the wild, 85% of those in Congo, which is a very precarious situation for the species to be in. If something happens there, a huge proportion of the species could be wiped out. Many chimp sanctuaries have been set up around Africa, three countries-South Africa, Kenya and Zambia have set up sanctuaries even though the apes don't come from their countries. When the political situation in Burundi escalated in the 1990s,a group of chimps were brought over from Bujumbara, when the staff working at the research centre there were told they had to leave the country, they wouldn't without the chimps. There were some UN troops that had enjoyed visiting the chimps, and decided to bring a chimp out of the country each, instead of a suitcase-much to the annoyance of the UK govornment trying to evacuate the humans. Ol Pejeta was owned by Lomro and was used for cattle ranching, but a chimpanzee sanctuary had been set up in Sweetwaters (a closed off area to the east of the park-now it is all open) mainly to attract tourists. Lomro was called, and with a lot of difficulty managed to get a plane to Burundi to save the chimps. There are now over 40 in the sanctuary, which opened in 1993. Many of the other sanctuaries work to release their chimps, however Ol Pejeta has become the last resort for them, as the ones who come here will never be released, they are either too traumatised from an experience in the black market, or have become too used to humans, and thus have lost many vital instincts to survive alone. It is said that for every 1 chimp that survives in the black market, 10 have been killed.

So we went to the sanctuary, and got to just observe them for a while. We then got to see them being fed, obviously not feeding them myself as they can only be fed by people they are used to. They eat bananas, papayas, oranges and ugali. I had to take care to stand in the middle (as there were enclosures on either side) as chimps are four times stronger than people, and can certainly kill you. It disarmed me watching them, seeing just how smart they are, they really do communicate with each other, and are so clearly aware of us and their surroundings.

On the way back, we passed four lions and three cheetahs, both in one area. They are such breathtaking animals, cheetahs are so sleep and athletic, with the most gorgeous faces, while lions are...lions. Hands down my favourite, completely majestic and just stunning stunning creatures!