by Olga Feliu

Earlier this year Laura Riera, a MONA volunteer for six years and who currently works with the FAAD foundation (www.faada.org), contacted me regarding the situation of three adult chimps, one male and two females, who were living in a private house in the Girona area in Spain. MONA was already aware of these animals but had given priority in the past to other cases with more apparent urgent need of rescue.

Laura explained that she had been in talks with the owner who had finally agreed to allow the chimps to be moved to MONA for their well-being and to contribute financially towards their maintenance.

The chimps are called Tom, Bea and Coco and are all over 20 years old. Their owner bought Tom and Bea from a circus through an intermediary, and Coco came from Barcelona. Both Tom and Bea have CITES permits: the document confirming they are “legal”. Coco does not possess this CITES document and is therefore illegal and, although residing in a private home, is property of the Spanish government.

The CITES Convention regulates the trade in endangered species of both fauna and flora. It was created in the USA in the early seventies and came into force in 1975. Thereafter, any country could join which agreed to take control of exports and imports of endangered species within their territories. Spain joined in 1986. As chimpanzees are considered by CITES as a highly endangered species, any chimpanzee coming into Spain after that date is considered illegal, and cannot be traded. Any animals that had entered Spain before 1986 were automatically “legalised” by the Department of Foreign Trade on request by their owners.

Tom arrived at MONA on the 13th of June and as soon as he has been fully integrated into one of the groups at MONA the other two females will be brought in. We opted to take them in two stages mainly for handling reasons. When a new animal arrives at the Centre, it needs a period of adaptation and this requires them living in an area separated from the other residents at MONA. Once used to their new home and new diet, we can then begin to introduce the animal to the different groups in order to start their integration. It is a long and expensive process. Tom, according to his CITES paper, is a 26-year-old adult male and this can complicate associations as adult males have more difficulties integrating into already established groups. One never knows how successful it will be or how long the period of association will take, but we continue to follow the same procedure we have been doing for several years now to ensure that the association process is as stress free as possible. We will keep you up to date on our progress.