Limbe Wildlife Centre

It has now been 18 days since the 7 month old female western-lowland gorilla, Bolo, arrived at the LWC. Since her arrival she has spent 24 hours a day with our very dedicated volunteer Sandy Jones, who is helped by our head keeper Jonathan Kang (JK). In the beginning Bolo was really timid and unresponsive but slowly as the days have passed she has become more relaxed and more trusting of Sandy. Now Bolo is a completely different gorilla from the frightened and unresponsive gorilla that we received. She is now playing and climbing and to hear her laugh as Sandy tickles her simply melts your heart.

We have asked Sandy and JK to spend time each day sitting with Bolo by the gorilla enclosure so that all of our resident gorillas can see her and can get used to her presence in the hope that the familiarity will make her eventual introduction in to the group easier. The only problem with this plan is that all the gorillas are so fascinated by Bolo that they come over and huddle together and stare at Bolo for as long as she is sitting there. This is great, but it means that the visitors who come to see the LWC can not get a good look at the gorillas since they are all sitting watching Bolo. But we don’t mind too much as it is great to see that the our gorilla group seem so interested in Bolo, with a few of the adult females making very positive sounding noises whenever Bolo creeps towards them. We hope that in the future, when Bolo is old enough, we will be able to foster her onto one of our females in the group. The indications so far are encouraging.

Gorilla infants are extremely vulnerable to stress and, in our experience, are much more sensitive than orphaned infant chimpanzees. When we rear chimpanzees after about a month or so, depending on their age, we are usually able to place the infant with other young chimpanzees and thus begin the process of reducing the amount of human contact that they require each day. However with gorillas the hand-rearing process is much more complicated and they tend to require much more intense one-on-one care. Without this level of care they very quickly become stressed which predisposes them to all kinds of illnesses. It is frightening how rapidly infant gorillas can become fatally sick. Consequently we insist on placing orphaned infant gorillas with a particular human carer for 24 hours a day for as long as is necessary. In this way they can form a bond which gives them the comfort that they clearly need. Because Bolo is so young her hand-rearing period is going to be a very protracted and difficult process and we are only just starting out. Sandy, with the help of JK, will literally have to become Bolo’s mother for the foreseeable future, a challenge that is not easy but one that we are confident that she will be able to meet.

Thank you all for your kind donations towards Bolo’s care. Every cent is used judiciously to buy her milk formula or fruit and veg or to pay for diapers that she must wear at night when she is sleeping with Sandy on her bed. Without your support we certainly could not provide Bolo with the care that she is getting. Please do keep the donations coming.