Visitors, Travel and Mayhem

by Jane Dewar, 4Jul2002

Yikes.  My last update was almost 2 months ago and yet when I sit down to write this one, I haven’t a clue what’s been keeping us all so busy during May and June 2002. We’ve had our usual array of houseguests and visitors, including Leonie Vejjajiva of the Wild Animal Rescue Foundation of Thailand (www.war-thai.org) and her husband, Peter, son, Paul and granddaughters Kimberly and Nicole.  The first visit Leonie and her family made was a late arrival at a party we held for another houseguest, Ugandan vet, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka (see below).  Then Leonie returned for another visit during the day, when Stephanie Scanlin, a former vet-tech keeper from Gladys Porter Zoo was just leaving, in what seems to be our revolving door of visitors and guests.

May flew by in a blur of road travel, hospitals, grave yards and faces from the past.  My beloved Aunt Doris went into the hospital in early May and by May 13^th she had succumbed to a variety of ailments, leaving us much too soon and unexpectedly.  I drove to Ohio to see her at the Cleveland Clinic before she died and we had a nice chance to talk, before she lapsed into her final sleep.  On May 13^th, the night Doris died, I was in Atlanta attending a lecture by Sheila Siddle of the Chimfunshi Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Zambia, with Sue Woods, a professor from the University of Colorado, who was visiting GH.  Afterwards, Sue and I were invited to a dinner of ape language study professionals, including Penny Patterson (gorilla Koko), who I hadn’t seen since 1989, Lyn Miles (orangutan Chantek) and Sue Savage Rumbaugh (bonobo Kanzi, et al), the latter two ladies having visited GH previously.  After the GH visit, I drove Sue Woods to Knoxville Zoo where she was continuing her studies of Ernie and Bibi, two gorillas there, and continued on to Ashland, Ohio for Doris’ funeral.  The last time I’d been to Doris’ home was in 1988 when my Uncle Chris died, so it’s fair to say I don’t have fond memories of Ashland, where I only seem to meet relatives at funerals.

Somewhere in the month of May between all the guests and traveling, Steuart and I went to Nashville for one of his computer meetings, discussing his latest product, Datebk 5, which was in the news when a competitor tried to misdirect potential clients to his own website and products by registering domain names using Steuart's program names.  Steuart’s business doubled, thanks to the dedication of his clients and the outrage they felt over the dubious business practices of his competitor.  Most people were disgusted that someone would go to such trouble to “steal” money from a non-profit charity (all Steuart’s proceeds from his Pimlico Software go to support GH), supporting wildlife and conservation. We later learned one business associate who did business both with Steuart and this competitor was removed from the competitor’s website, since they supported Steuart and his wildlife causes.  Amazing.  And people wonder why I prefer gorillas....

On June 8^th, we had a party for Gladys Kalema, who many people might know from wildlife TV shows featuring a young Ugandan woman studying to become a vet, reaching her goal, then working with the Ugandan Wildlife Authority and helping mountain gorillas in Bwindi’s Impenetrable Forest.  Gladys and her husband, Lawrence Zikusoka were visiting GH for the weekend from their home in North Carolina.  I’d known about Gladys for a while, being impressed by her dedication and determination to save wildlife. We met her at the IPPL meeting in March and invited her to visit GH and were thrilled when she did.  She’s agreed to be on the GH Board of Advisors, after seeing GH first hand and understanding our dedication not only to individual gorillas, but to the species and their habitat in general.  Eleven veterinarians from the two local animal hospitals attended the party for Gladys and Lawrence and a total of 28 people helped make them feel welcome for their brief but enjoyable visit to GH.

Photo right taken in GH Administration building underneath the Ugandan flag on a batique made especially for Gorilla Haven by Ugandan wildlife artist Francis Tebandeke

Another trip to Ashland to help close up Doris’ home took up more of June – this time Steuart came with me, after he attended yet another computer conference in California.  Besides running Pimlico Software (which supports GH financially) and supervising construction and development of GH, and handling all financial duties most companies have a full time employee doing (ie: payroll, taxes, investments, etc), Steuart has been instrumental in helping me with my big project, Gorilla Gazette, a newsletter for professionals in gorilla research and husbandry.  The Gorilla Gazette has been my main ‘job’ since January, scanning archives and laying out the latest issue, putting together the subscription lists, etc.  It’s actually a wonderful job for me and I’ve enjoyed it immensely.

Another trip to Ashland in August is planned to hopefully finalize things and help my sister close up Doris’ house.  I missed the CPR/First Aid Red Cross class Steuart, Pete and Kelly took (dealing with Doris’ affairs), so that’s scheduled for me the end of August, plus another trip to New York and New Jersey to take a Safe Capture Course (Pete and Kelly and one of our vets already attended one), where we’ll learn about darting animals and, as the course title says, safe capture of non-human primates including gorillas, hoping we’ll never need to use any of these lessons, of course.

Another stray dog was seen living on our property for about a week or so and we finally caught her.  We named her Maddy and she was covered in fleas and ticks, just skin and bones, but a good flea dip, spaying, lotsa food, love and attention has her thriving.  She and Rosemary are best buddies and they are in with old lady dog Ginger, who tolerates the two younger ones with the patience of Job.  Two days before we caught Maddy, I’d agreed to take in 2 six-week old male kittens, figuring they’d make good playmates for Julicat.  I was wrong.  Julicat hated the identical all black kitties, hissing at them and glaring at me as if to say “What were you thinking, lady? Don’t you know I’m the baby??”  After a few weeks, however, I often find Julicat watching Sootie and Cinder playing and the hissing has subsided, so perhaps a friendship will be forged after all.  That makes 10 dogs and 20 cats and I think we might be over our limit, as alliances and behaviors are changing although a delicate balance continues to hold.

While putting together the mailing list for the Gorilla Gazette, I discovered gorillas in places I hadn’t realized they were living, in captive settings.  Besides Seoul, South Korea and Brasil, I inadvertently stumbled on 4 gorillas living at the Taiping Zoo in Malaysia. When I asked the zoo director for specifics of names, ages, birth place, parentage, etc, he couldn’t/wouldn’t tell me.  I found out why soon enough. 

http://www.ippl.org/may-02-01.html Please take the time and go to this page on IPPL’s website to learn more about the outrageous misconduct of people who should be conserving endangered species. 

Bottom line:  Four baby gorillas survived (how many died as this deal unfolded, could be as high as 40 to 100) a CITES approved transfer from a zoo in Nigeria to a zoo in Malaysia, with South African and other authorities not bothering to question the legitimacy of the paperwork accompanying these babies.

 You don’t have to be a genius to question the status of the four baby gorillas, who were listed as “captive born.”  Why?

1. There are no captive breeding programs for gorillas in Africa.  Some sanctuaries have had captive births, but this is due to the gorillas’ themselves, not a deliberate program to breed this endangered species.
2. Ibadan Zoo (Nigeria), which claimed to have bred these 4 babies, has one elderly female gorilla and no prior record of any gorilla births.  Since babies take 9 months to gestate and there was no male to impregnate her (she’d never had babies before and her ability to conceive is even questionable), this must be classified as a miracle, to either have quadruplets of different ages (from 1 to 4 years of age) or to produce “captive born” gorillas so quickly!
3. Taiping Zoo (Malaysia) maintains this is a classic, straight-forward zoo animal exchange program and they did nothing wrong.  Since gorillas are so rare in zoos and so endangered, one must question the intelligence and/or the honesty of the zoo officials involved in both countries.  Indeed a Ibadan Zoo worker told the Associated Press they could get more gorilla babies from Cameroon any time someone had enough money or power to ask for one.  Amazing.

After IPPL and other animal welfare organizations publicized this deal, the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria (WAZA) denounced this exchange and have demanded answers to the obvious questions about the legitimacy and origin or the baby gorillas, who remain sequestered at the Taiping Zoo.  Public outcry is needed before more gorilla killings occur to satisfy the demand for gorillas in zoos like Taiping, so please take the time to learn more about YOU can help.

Work on the Gorilla Haven facility continues at the fastest pace we can safely manage. The redesign on the surgical facilities is complete, and with all the revised electrical work completed for the X-Ray machine, and the piping for anesthesiology in, we'll start drywalling surgery, patient prep and the pharmacy lab. When that is complete, the X-ray machine will be installed, and the Vet facility will then be virtually complete. Then we paint the Recovery/Necropsy facility and the installation of the steel recovery cages starts a day later. Meanwhile electrical work is beginning on Silverback Villa - the last item to complete prior to "skinning" the interior walls. Then we have to install the sprinkler and mister systems in Silverback Villa along with various safety sensors and monitoring devices.  The good news is that we are now crossing off more items on the master project list than we're adding, and our goal for being ready this year still looks attainable.