Thursday, 9 October 2014

Chimps and Rhinos

We visited a Chimpanzee Conservatory that was started by Jane Goodall. It was originally in Burundi but was  moved to Kenya during a time of conflict.  The CC is the only place in Kenya where there are any chimps. They are typically found in the tropical rain forests in East and Central Africa.The resident chimps are either injured or were previously pets that as they grew,  turned out  to be more than their owners could handle. The Chimps  are endangered as they are killed for their meat and for use in traditional rituals. The attraction with the  meat is  that is half the price of beef or other meats. 
This guy was pretty excited to see us. Chimps rarely stand upright so it was a unique photo op.

We also visited a rhino sanctuary. The rhino, Baraka is 20 years old and has been at the sanctuary for 6 years.
 He is a black rhino. The first rhinos seen in Kenya were called black rhinos and they were browsers or leave eaters.



 When a different type of rhino was discovered it was called the white rhino. The white rhinos are grazers or grass eaters. Baraka came to the sanctuary after he lost a fight with another male and his right eye. He later lost sight in his left eye to cataracts. Although Rhinos have very poor eye sight and rely more on smell and hearing his blindness still made him vulnerable. He would lose a fight with any other male. In order to breed he would need to first fight with and conquer a female. It would be unlikely that he could do this. Once at the sanctuary the  wardens sawed off part of his horns to reduce the risk of poaching.  


We did the tourist thing and both fed Baraka. His mouth looked like short version of an elephant trunk.

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