by Didi Crailsheim (primate carer)

Bachelor group: The boys are doing very well and Bongo and Marco’s relationship seems to get more relaxed every day. Even though, we do still find from time to time some minor injuries when we arrive in the morning (probably from some quarrels they have had during the night). And Juanito, a 7 year old male, who just joined this group some weeks ago, is making excellent progress. His earlier shyness has gone completely and he has started to associate himself more and more with the boys and he has even started to step over the line from time to time again. But as hoped when he does cross the line by for example stealing food from others or making displays, most of the time there is one of the older males to tell him off. But Juanito is quite clever and he usually finds a way around the situation, so instead of stealing he will wait and collect the rest of the enrichment others have left behind (because the older boys sometimes just don´t bother about the little leftover bits). (Click here to see our short video in which Juanito is using a stick to extract the goodies from a filled hose – being clever he is not only using a stick to extract what is left, he also uses even a leafy branch – very effective).

Victor fighting                                                                    Victor playing with Nico

Family group: In the family group we met a surprise when one of the students who are conducting observations told us that Victor has become one of the most social chimps in the group. That´s surprising because when he arrived at Mona years before he basically didn´t know how to communicate and interact with other chimpanzees. And even though he has been steadily improving, he was taking small steps at a time. He still has times when the sociability of others is overwhelming for him and he starts panicking or he gets frustrated when he tries to interact in his limited way but doesn´t get the reaction he had hoped for from others. Anyway, seeing the improvements in him and hearing from an objective scientific observer that he s getting significantly better means a lot to everyone in MONA.

Tom the new arrival: Tom is a fantastic chimp and we are happy to have him here in Mona. He has met all the chimps in his new group now but as he is a quite passive chimpanzee and he needs a while to connect. It looks like he has already found his favorite in the bachelor group which is Toni. Right in the first session they had together everything went so well that we could lift the separating door and allow them full body contact. This was the better than anyone had hoped for because right after the door between them opened they started playing chase. Please click here to see our video of Tom and Toni playing. So this was a great start and we are really looking forward to strengthening Tom’s bonds with the group. Never the less we have to give him more time to adapt to his new home and introductions to his new friends.

Volunteer: We are still low on long term volunteers but thanks to the hard work of everyone at Mona, everything is somehow getting done. Lately we have had a bit like a revival in Mona as many former volunteers have came by to visit or to attend to some of the courses we provide at the sanctuary. It´s always nice to see former volunteers and to hear how they are getting on…

Wish list: We are currently searching for material or funding to create some water and refreshing enrichment for the chimps and Barbary macaques. Basically what we need is water dispensers and a lot of normal gardening hoses so we can fix some of those hoses on top of the enclosure overhang so that we can spray water down on the chimps (like artificial rain).