A memory…
Category: bonobos | Date: Mar 27 2008 | By: admin
Thank you everyone, for your kind words, they have made me teary all over again and I have sent them to Claudine. Brian and I are just witnesses, like you. We go to Lola once or twice a year to study bonobos and learn about them. It’s the staff who need your messages, Mama Yvonne and Henriette who nursed Malou through her terrible arrival and two operations, and Jean Claude and Amos, the guardians of group three who watched over her with the other juveniles. I will translate your words into French and send them to the sanctuary. Also Claudine, who has an extra halo and pair of wings in my eyes every time something like this happens. I couldn’t do what she does, I just don’t have the strength.
All we know about Malou’s death is that she was very sick on Tuesday. Crispin, the vet, called Michel, a French vet in Germany frantically to see if Michel could help. But by the next morning Malou had died.
Brian spoke to Crispin yesterday who said the staff are all very sad. I know all of them have a thousand stories of Malou that would break your heart, but I’m going to share one of mine that is a precious memory and at the same time a confession.
Brian was totally in love with her. I don’t think it was quite reciprocated - Malou was a little flirt with all young men, Michel the French vet was also one of her favourites. But every time Brian came up to the nursery she would run up to him, climb into his arms and start bouncing. And he would throw her in the air, as high as he could, and she would be squirming and laughing hysterically. When he caught her, she would still be laughing, and she would bounce up and down until he threw her again.
Being very possessive over her beaus, if I came anywhere near Brian in the nursery, Malou would slap me. Seriously hard. And if I still didn’t move away from him, she would jump on my head, grab fistfulls of my hair and then jump off, using my hair as bungee ropes.
You can imagine the things I said to her. If you’d asked me last week whether I even liked her that much, I would have called her a little wretch and said no. But I cried all day yesterday when I heard she was gone. I’m still crying. And I’m sorry I didn’t realise how much I would miss her. Or that I loved her. And I would give anything I have, anything, if the next time I go to Lola, she would be there, to climb up my shoulders and thread her fingers through my hair, preparing to jump.
Here are some photos of her. The last ones anyone will take.
Malou when she was rescued from the Russian couple who were trying to smuggle her through Paris
arriving at the sanctuary. Covered in burns from where she probably stumbled into a fire or tipped a pot of boiling water. Malnourished, dehydrated and almost dead
Looking a lot like little Lomela when she first arrived.
with Claudine a year later. by now one of the most beautiful bonobos at Lola. the mamas call her ‘La Parisienne’ and sing songs about her trip to Paris.
with her little fingers in someone’s hair like usual
meditating in group 3.
Malou
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 26 2008 | By: admin
I have some very sad news. Malou died. For those of you who don’t know, Malou was the little female bonobo who was rescued at the Charles de Gaul airport in Paris. We spoke to Crispin, the vet at Lola, and he said they didn’t know what happened. She was very sick yesterday and then she just died.
Brian, my husband, was nearly crying on the phone. Malou always used to jump up and do soumersaults from his head. i used to tease him because i said he loved Malou more than me.
She was also Claudine’s Christmas miracle, she had to fight to get her from Paris back to Congo. In the end there was a telephone to Jacques Chirac, the French President and Malou was brought home. When she arrived,she was so weak and sick, Claudine thought she would die. She was covered in horrible burns and was severely dehydrated.
But she fought and she lived, and became one of the most beautiful bonobos at Lola. If you could have seen her, you would immediately have fallen in love with her impish spirit, the way she bounded towards you with mischief in her eyes, longing to play.
She was one of the most wonderful creatures I have ever met. I hope the rest of the bonobos out there make it somehow. I hope we manage to save bonobos. Because somewhere in the Congo basin, I like to think there might be another little Malou out there, with her mother living, her skin unblemished by the burns of a human fire, and smiling her impish grin.
Goodbye Malou,
We love you.
Bonobo fan
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 20 2008 | By: admin
I just want to rave a little about one of our sponsors, James Brooks. James has adopted, one of our little terrors, Boyoma. Since visiting bonobos in Iowa, he has raised $1200 for the Great Ape Trust. Which is impressive once you know that he is only 10.
Yep, James raked leaves and gave up his allowance to raise money for great apes. I only wish I had been that concientious when I was 10. I think I was playing Donkey Kong all day.
Anyway, James wants me to let you know that he has made a website (can you believe it?) at www.apeaware.org
This is what he says about it.
‘It is a site for both kids and adults since not many ape websites are there for kids. There are lots of things in the Fun Stuff section I think kids will like! Try the quiz! Please tell all kids and other ape lovers who you know who might interested about the site.
Please sign the guestbook if you can!’
He signs all his messages ‘Bonobo fan’.
This one is for you, James. It’s Mwanda getting tickled:)
Tigers in the backyard
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 14 2008 | By: admin
hi guys,
sorry i haven’t been posting, i’ve been so busy with this grant about our new exciting education projects, which i promise i will update you with soon. first of all thanks to Lucia C who gave us $30 for baby bottles and toys, Theresa S who gave us $50 for baby bottles and toys , BrigittaS , Sheryl B who continue with their $10 monthly donation, and then Theresa S AGAIN for your $25 monthly donation. you guys are awesome, thanks!
yesterday i went to a public hearing in North Carolina. There is a new law that bans the private ownership of exotic animals and the senate is trying to push it through in our state. this came because a few years ago, a little boy was killed by someone’s pet tiger.
A lot of you will probably be surprised to know that anyone in north carolina can get on the internet with a credit card and buy a baby tiger.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,453035,00.html
You can also buy chimps, monkeys, crocodiles, and any other kind of exotic animal you want, to keep in your backyard.
For example:
http://exoticpetco.com/index.html
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200508/17/eng20050817_202976.html
Of course they have to be ‘bred in america’ but we heard a woman speak at a hearing yesterday who was a journalist investigating the black market pet trade in america, and she said the ownership of exotic pets is very poorly regulated and easy to forge.
In other words, little Malou, the five year old bonobo who was caught being smuggled in a bag at the Charles de Gaulle airport, was on her way to being someone’s backyard pet.
People opposed to the bill included pork farmers who didn’t want Californians telling him what he could and couldn’t have, which didn’t really make any sense except he thought if they were banning chimps from being pets, whose to say pigs wouldn’t be next. then there were people who owned private zoos and hence bought and sold tigers, lions, chimps etc and claimed the bill was putting them out of business.
It can be hard to define why exactly it is wrong to keep wild animals as pets, as this blogger for the nytimes pointed out
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/whats-wrong-with-this-chimp-photo/#more-246
but if you ever need to argue with someone who is about to buy an exotic animal as a pet, or thinks that backyard zoos are ok, here is some info taken from our statement yesterday:
First, it is a fact that domestication is the process of changing an animals DNA so that chemicals in their brains prevent them from being impulsively aggressive towards humans. All of the animals listed in the bill are wild and cannot be trained or raised to be less aggressive. There DNA and brains are built for impulsive aggression to survive in the wild not with humans.
Second, it is a fact that because of this aggressive temperament people who sell these animals as pets must do so when they are adorable and harmless infants. There customers do not know the level of aggression these animals are capable of or there strength.
Third, it is a fact that even accredited zoos and universities struggle to pay the expenses required to house wild animals humanely and safely. The vast majority of pet owners do not have the resources to assure the welfare of their wild pet and the safety of their neighbors.
Fourth, It it a fact that ALL primates potentially carry diseases deadly to humans including herpes B, yellow fever, monkeypox, Ebola, Marburg, SIV, and tuberculosis.
Fifth, it is a fact that the pet trade is an international problem that threaten many species with extinction. Conservationists are trying to stop this trade in developing countries where people kill endangered wild animals to sell as pets at home and abroad. But politicians in these countries point to the lack of laws in the United States and ask why someone in North Carolina can have a pet monkey or tiger but a Congolese or Brazilian cannot. My hope is that we will set an example for the world for the humane treatment of wild animals – their very survival depends upon it.
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