Apparently, during hurricane Hannah, two baby tigers were born at “TIGERS, The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species” in South Carolina. Their mother was too stressed, they said, so they separated the cubs and humans began caring for them — that is — until 2-yr-old chimp Anjana stepped in.
She feeds the babies milk with a bottle, lies with them, plays with them and in other ways acts as a surrogate mother.
But wait a second, aren’t chimps notoriously really aggressive?
Yes, they hunt and kill monkeys to eat. They beat each other up as part of dominance struggles, and they stalk other chimp groups and kill them gang warfare style.
They are also very affectionate and as far as parenting goes, tend to be very attentive caregivers. Like humans, mama chimps differ in parenting styles and attentiveness. First time chimp mothers often don’t seem to know what they’re doing. They hold and carry the baby wrong. Fail to respond to cries. Accidentally sit on the babies – you name it. But, chimps who have babysitting practice, seem to get it. They are more attentive, more patient and also less likely to use aggressive ways of disciplining their babies.
For example, some mama chimps bite their babies during weening to get the babies to stop whining and begging to nurse. Others lay their chest down on the ground or cover their chest with their arms.
Young chimps are fascinated by babies. Older siblings seek out their younger siblings to play with and practice parenting skills by babysitting them. And, evidence such as this case along with many others like it, suggest that chimps (like other apes like gorillas and humans) don’t seem to care what species the baby is.
Koko, the gorilla who was taught sign language at an early age, had a pet kitten that she treated like a baby.
Of course, both of these young apes grew up learning from humans so that has something to do with it. Wild gorillas and wild chimps would never even have the chance to care for another species, but there are a few scattered reports I recall of juveniles accidentally coming across babies of other species. The reports indicate the instinct seems to be one more of curiosity than of murder.
**** Say it isn’t so…
Unsurprisingly, the chimp in this case appears to lack upper teeth, something that is not normal at this age. They may very well have been pulled, a practice routine with chimps used in show business. It makes them less dangerous to work with as they grow older and stronger.
Googling this TIGERS place, and reading their website, makes it clear to me that it is very much like other fake animal sanctuaries that skirt the line of legality and ethics. Rather than being places of genuine research and sanctuary, they are in actuality roadside zoos and excuses to keep exotic animals as pets where laws prohibit it. They are not a non-profit organization. They don’t list what percent or even exactly to whom they make charitable donations for conservation. At best, they merely educate people that wild animals can be trained to do extraordinary things.
The TIGERS website has a page where they advertise the animals have appeared in commercials. “One of the series of commercials that our animal actors have starred in recently is for Schweppes Tonic Water,” they proudly say.
Don’t bother looking at their website to learn more about animals or even conservation, you won’t find it.
In any case, I’m glad you’re reading this and hope you found value to it. You can probably guess that I’m pretty passionate about this stuff. Please do chime in with comments.
Mountain Gorillas in Peril: Congo rebels take over park
Even though our country’s economy appears to be in a downward spiral and wars are being fought in the name of terror containment on two fronts and are spilling over into previously uninvolved countries, this lesser known problem has me worried too. It’s escalated in recent days and the fate of the mountain gorilla is at stake.
Left behind are some 300 mountain gorillas now left with no protection. Why is this significant? Without anyone around to stop them, the rebels can shoot gorillas and eat them as bushmeat. This has happened in the past and could easily start happening again. What also happens is that mothers with babies are shot and the babies are stolen to sell on the black market. That money buys more weapons, making it harder to stop them. They also chop down trees to make charcoal, which is used for heat for shelter and food.
It’s a really ugly situation brewing in the Congo. The park is a World Heritage Site and is home to the highest level of biodiversity in Africa.
According to an old AP story, hippos in the Congo are also on the verge of being wiped out with more than 400 killed last year, mostly for food. It’s estimated that only 900 hippos are left, a massive decrease from the 22,000 reported there in 1998.
Since the on-again-off again civil war erupted in the Congo in 1998, more than 5 million people have been killed. Not many people are employed as park rangers, so the figure that 110 of them have died in their line of work in the last decade is sobering.
Poachers and deforestation have wreaked havoc in the Virunga National Park for more than a decade. Occasionally it spills across the border to Rwanda, making the Rwandan side of the Virunga park a dangerous place too. The situation in Rwanda has improved tremendously since the end of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Even so, that conflict saw millions of refugees spill across the border to Congo, sometimes right through the park, burning and looting along the way. Some say it marked the beginning of an era of unrest, lawlessness and clashes between militias and myriad rebel groups in the Congo.
The rebel leader, Laurent Nkunda, was a general in the Congolese army until he defected. He says he’s protecting the Tutsi minority from the Hutus, the ethnic group responsible for the Rwandan genocide. Nkunda told the AP he wants to liberate the Congo from its allegedly corrupt government. During his four-year rebellion, the AP says Nkunda has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He dismisses those accusations. “The International Court conducted investigations and did not and has never found proof against Laurent Nkunda,” he says. “It’s normal for the Congo government to accuse its opponents.”
According to the AP, experts don’t think he’ll march on to Kinshasa, the captial, and depose President Joseph Kabila — the nation’s first freely elected leader in almost half a century. He would need more soldiers, even help from the Rwandan or Ugandan army.
Who knows what the future holds for the Congo. It is an area rich with mineral resources, which may be what the rebel leader is after. According to Ben Abelson, writing for Resource Investor, the Congo may be one of the most important mineral vaults the word has yet to open. It has copper, cobalt, diamonds, gold and coltan — a mineral used in cell phones and missile guidance systems. Most of these resources are in the east and south of the country, where three rebel groups are vying for control. Le monde diplomatic has a terrific map that shows where the minerals are. The purplish squares on the map represent coltan, also called niobium. That’s where the rebel forces are concentrated.
Next door, the country of Rwanda, bolstered by a president in favor of conservation, has managed to build mountain gorilla tourism so well that it is now the country’s third largest source of foreign revenue. Gorillas are a source of pride for the people, contributing to a positive image of the country. They’re even on the country’s currency.
Perhaps in time, gorilla tourism could replace mining in the Congo too.
You can get daily updates about the impact of the Congo situation on the gorillas, the park guards and their families by visiting the Virunga National Park’s staff blog:
http://gorilla.cd/blog/