Face to face with our closest living relative by @DannysTravels
A few months ago I was asked to work on a project at the Chimfunshi
Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Northern Zambia on the border of the Congo.
This was a life changing opportunity to come
face to face with our closest living relative.
face to face with our closest living relative.
Chimfunshi
After a gruelling two-day bus journey right through the heart of Zimbabwe we finally reached our destination. It is a lonely place in the middle of the bush that has been poached of almost all wildlife. There is an on going battle between conserving Africa’s wildlife and extreme poverty - who could blame someone for killing an antelope to feed their family when 95% of Zambians are unemployed.
Chimfunshi sprang into existence when a badly wounded infant chimpanzee was brought to the cattle farm of David and Sheila Siddle in the 1980's. Prior to this they had been travelling through Africa and had settled in this forgotten corner of Zambia. The wounded chimpanzee was nursed back to health and a tradition of care and respect that forms the legacy of the sanctuary today was formed.
Meeting Sheila
I had the amazing opportunity to meet Sheila who is now in her 80’s. I had read her book In My Family Tree – A Life with Chimpanzees on the long journey up and I was equipped with questions. She couldn’t wait to share her fascinating stories and fond memories.
I couldn’t resist asking Sheila to sign my copy of her book – even if it was a little akward!
Picking Fruit
I was acting as a volunteer during my stay which meant some hard graft - picking fruit for the chimps’ insatiable appetites in the sweltering heat and cleaning up their feeding enclosures (which is not for the faint hearted!) It was all for a good cause and feeding them the fruits of our labours - quite literally - was incredibly rewarding.
The Future?
The Chimpanzee’s live in four huge forested enclosures, the biggest up to 500 acres. On one of the days we did a boundary patrol to check if the fencing was in need of any repairs. It took 45 minutes to walk around and we didn’t see one chimp in sight. From a selfish point of view I was very disappointed not to see them, but it was comforting to know that they were living in such a natural environment, and could remain undisturbed by humans.
With so much land encroachment and poaching I wondered whether this could be the future for Africa’s wildlife - large sanctuaries that are kept as close to their natural environment as possible, and where they can live at a safe distance from mans destruction.
