Another step forward in 2012!

After Bingo’s successful introduction to Chippie’s group that we mentioned to you in our last post we’re very happy to report another successful introduction! The case of Sunny and Blama has been much tougher; these two females were rescued by us over two years ago, they were being kept in terrible conditions as our original post about their rescue shows. As a result of their captive conditions these two girls had become extremely dependant on each other and our attempt to introduce them to Philip’s group, where we felt they would best fit, was unsuccessful. Despite us having spent many, many months carefully increasing their exposure to the dominant females in that group it was not to be; Sunny’s over-protectiveness of Blama thwarted our efforts and finally meant that we had to look for an alternative option.

The sad events of last year, where we suspect EMCV claimed the lives of three chimps in Gorilla’s group, it became a group of just 3 males and so a new opportunity for Sunny and Blama emerged. Over the last few months they’ve been gradually meeting Gorilla, Zack and Salva through separate dens so that they’ve had the chance to get to know and groom each other but with the safety of a separating grille. Eventually Sunny seemed to accept the boys as posing no substantial threat to her relationship with Blama and we judged that it was time to remove the physical barriers. It’s always a nerve-wracking process introducing older chimps but our patience was finally rewarded when all 5 chimps finally came face to face; it was just over a week ago that they joined forces and they’ve not looked back since! We hope you enjoy the photos below of their first day together in the enclosure!