UWEC Day 6

I finally had a chance to sleep in this morning. I think I have beaten my jet lag. Those high potency melatonin pills really make a difference! I had to head back to town to get my USB stick, if I was to make any progress on uploading photos and keeping in touch with family. I was able to finally get one and get it all set up. Wow, this internet access I know had proved to be much better than relying on Wi-Fi. I retuned from town just in time to grab lunch at the staff canteen. It is nice that lunch was offered free to staff and people like me staying more long term. The food was sort a tad repetitive, but I was not going to complain about free African cuisine being offered to me. Usually a stewed meat, matoke, posho, rice and maybe some cooked beans at times. As it was very starch and protein rich, I filled me right up. This usually called for a light dinner, or sometimes none depending on how much I ate. I was fortunate to run into Angie, one of the chimp keepers, and I asked if I could hang out the with baby chimps for a time today…. Not a problem she said!

Baby chimp frenzy!

After getting changed into more appropriate clothing, I headed over to the chimp house. So, as I may have mentioned before, UWEC has a troupe of 11 adult chimps. They also have 4 babies that are all male and range from 2-4 years old. They were also rescues that were hand raised, which again meant that they could not be released back into the wild. This did, however, allow them to be used for educational outreach.

Now, because they were so young, they could not be mixed with the troupe right away, because serious fighting would ensue and they would likely be killed. So once they were older, they could slowly be introduced. As part of enrichment, the chimps are supposed to have 30 minutes of human contact time 3 times per week so that they may become comfortable around humans, especially for veterinary staff that need to be able to handle them. I was warned that once I entered the enclosure, they may get a little excited and jump and bounce everywhere until they eventually calm down. Well, they did just that when we finally went in. I had them reaching their arms up wanting me to pick them up, or some would just taking a running jump onto me. A few would also bang on my shoe and pull at my pants. What curious little creatures they were. When you get to be that close to them, you see that they truly act like little children and you really start to see the resemblance they have to us. I could never argue that they are not our evolutionary cousins! I was also given some ground nuts (peanuts) to give as treats. We rough housed with them, played tag, and just sat with them on our laps as they relaxed. Being this close to these primates was truly an eye opening experience.

 

One of the chimp keepers was also on night shift, so I went with him to feed all the chimps again, the rhinos and the carnivores (hyenas, leopard and lions). After a long day I finally had some time to relax, catch up on this blog and chat with family. Who knows what will be in store for UWEC this week. Stay tuned.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there reading this blog!