Volunteers visit Chimpanzee Eden to learn about primates, behaviours and conservation stories
We visited Chimpanzee Eden which is a Jane goodall institute and the only chimpanzee sanctuary in South Africa. Chimpanzees are not indigenous to South Africa so this sanctuary is a safe haven for the chimpanzees who are unable to be released back into the wild due to various individual stories of rescue.
The sanctuary has a permit to house a specific number of chimps but wishes to expand this in the future by gaining more land and building more enclosures.
The volunteers stayed overnight at the chimpanzee sanctuary and enjoyed learning about the chimps on the organised tours which run throughout the day by experienced handlers and managers of the sanctuary.
We were lucky enough to speak to several of the experienced staff and managers who taught us a lot about the behaviours that they have observed in the chipanzees who have all had different stories of rescue. Many of the chimpanzees stories that they spoke to us about were very relevant to our aims and objectives for the use of communication actvities for children who we are supporting with the use of relating primates feelings and behaviour to that of children.
They spoke alot about their experiences of various cases of chimpanzees who presented with various forms of post traumatic stress disorder due to their previous life experiences and traumas. They have found that many of the chimpanzees have still got old habits and triggers that come from thier past. They descibed chimpanzees having depression and how long they would take to recover from this. This was a different amount of time for various chimpanzees but we were told that they had observed chimpanzees who wanted to commit suicide by trying to starve themselves or making themself sick.
They told us of their own observations that animals recover more quickly from depression to that of humans, due to the fact if they want to live, they will need to get on with their life in order to become part of their troop and to eat well. This comparison to humans tells that humans , when depressed from a trauma are supported by friends and family etc, who may bring them food and comforts to help them through this time. Chimpanzees however, will not do this for the depressed member of the group. 
Chimpanzee Eden appears to be a very well managed sanctuary and thier chimpanzees are cared for very well by their experienced handlers.
They were very welcoming and it was a pleasure for us to be able to speak to them about their experiences and observations when working with the chimpanzees.
We are hoping to arrange a visit for the children we are supporting next week to see the chimpanzees at Chimp Eden , for what will maybe be the first, and only time in their lives.
By Lindsey and John, March 19, 2010 @ 6:24 pm
Your experience at the sanctuary sounds really worthwhile.We’re looking forward to hearing the children’s reaction.