Christmas Is Over and the
New Year Has Begun
All photos by Jane, Steuart Dewar, or
Kelly Maneyapanda,
unless otherwise indicated.
Note: almost all photographs are
thumbnails that you can click to bring up a larger version!
by Jane Dewar,
07Feb2004
|
Joe's
first Christmas at GH |
|
Like everyone else during the
holidays, we were overbooked, overwhelmed and exhausted, but we wanted to make
sure Joe enjoyed his first Christmas at GH, so with a little ingenuity, we
created a fun experience for us all.
A
couple days before Christmas several large branches from our 100+ year old pine
trees by Lake Bwindi blew down. Kelly and I had been discussing finding a small
pine tree on the property to cut for Joe, but when I saw this "suggestion" from
nature, she agreed we could fashion a tree from the limbs, which were about 4 to
6 inches in diameter. Putting the branches in a large plastic barrel, standing
on its end, we fashioned a "Christmas tree" for Joe, complete with a paper angel
on the top, made by Kelly’s husband (thanks, Jeremy!). We piled hay around the
barrel, sprinkled popcorn all around, and distributed boxes of goodies for Joe,
including combinations of his favorites, such as green beans, peanuts,
cranberries, raisins, cut up pomelo (Malaysian grapefruit), red, yellow and
orange peppers (Joe doesn't like green peppers), etc. We hung a huge stocking
with his treat log inside it, so Joe had plenty to keep him busy, and he seemed
to quite enjoy the celebration. Just like a kid on Christmas morning, Joe went
for the biggest boxes first, picking out the favorites and discarding it, and
then
ripping into another box, before going back to look for what he’d missed the
first time around. It was a wonderful holiday for us all.
Joe’s acreage is now ready for him to
be allowed outside in the habitat, so at this point the only thing stopping us
is the weather. The entire 8.5 acre habitat is sealed too, just in case Joe
finds a way out of his two acre area, which has two separate fences of hotwire,
so that seems an unlikely scenario. We’ll also do a “dry run” before we let Joe
out, including having our vet team in place (again, in the unlikely event
they’re needed), as well as having cameras set up at various angles to record
the historic event. This probably won’t happen until spring now, to ensure the
weather is warm enough, in case Joe decides he doesn’t want to return to his
warm villa. As with everything we do here, we prefer to err on the side of
safety and caution. When Joe first had access to his outdoor cages last April,
he refused to come into the indoor cages for about 3 hours, and we couldn’t
really blame him. But when night time winter temperatures drop here in the
mountains, they can drop fast and dramatically, so we’re waiting until night
time temperatures are warm enough to be safe for Joe, in case he decides to stay
outside.
The
water features in the main habitat are also almost ready (although these won’t
be part of Joe’s Acreage). These include two pairs of ponds connected by a
spillway, with running water for gorillas to splash in or drink from. The ponds
turned out better than we’d hoped for and once spring is here and grass starts
growing, they should look fabulous! Photo left shows the spillway between the
upper ponds. Steuart’s long-lost second cousin, Sheila Engel (photo right shows
the two of them by the lower ponds with Silverback Villa in the background),
visited us last month along with Steuart's brother Robert, also visiting Gorilla
Haven for the first time. We had a wonderful family get together getting to know
Sheila and sharing photographs we had of Margaret Stobie Keith (Steuart, Robert
and Sheila's common great grandmother) and other family members.
Meanwhile, steel for Emma Villa is
being fabricated, and during the spring’s wet weather, we’ll be starting inside
construction and framing in of the remaining 3 villas of Phase 1. And as soon as
we get a dry patch, we will finish the fine grading of the group building and
pour the slab for it. More “boring” but important work, so there won’t be too
many exciting things to report for a while, as we continue to peddle as fast as
we can to welcome the gorillas on our “candidate” list, waiting and hoping for a
spot at Gorilla Haven.
A
couple days before Christmas several large branches from our 100+ year old pine
trees by Lake Bwindi blew down. Kelly and I had been discussing finding a small
pine tree on the property to cut for Joe, but when I saw this "suggestion" from
nature, she agreed we could fashion a tree from the limbs, which were about 4 to
6 inches in diameter. Putting the branches in a large plastic barrel, standing
on its end, we fashioned a "Christmas tree" for Joe, complete with a paper angel
on the top, made by Kelly’s husband (thanks, Jeremy!). We piled hay around the
barrel, sprinkled popcorn all around, and distributed boxes of goodies for Joe,
including combinations of his favorites, such as green beans, peanuts,
cranberries, raisins, cut up pomelo (Malaysian grapefruit), red, yellow and
orange peppers (Joe doesn't like green peppers), etc. We hung a huge stocking
with his treat log inside it, so Joe had plenty to keep him busy, and he seemed
to quite enjoy the celebration. Just like a kid on Christmas morning, Joe went
for the biggest boxes first, picking out the favorites and discarding it, and
then
ripping into another box, before going back to look for what he’d missed the
first time around. It was a wonderful holiday for us all.
