I am very happy to tell you all that Banyo is getting a little better every day. She is looking brighter and her breathing is much better. She still coughs but it is not as rough anymore as a few days ago.

Apart from this good news, we have a whole list of animals who are coughing and sneezing. Both chimpanzees and drills, while we normally never have these problems with drills. Our vet team, at the moment two vets and two vet nurses, are very busy administering all the drugs to the different animals. For the chimpanzees, who all spend the night in the nighthouse, it is given in a cup of juice through the bars. The chimpanzees always like to drink juice, so that is easy. With the drills it is more difficult because they are not locked inside during the night; they always have the choice to be inside or out. For them the vets make peanutbutter and oats balls, with the medication in it. They throw the balls to the animals that need to be treated when they are close to the fence.

This year’s rainy season has been particularly heavy. Limbe is very close to the wettest place in Africa, also the second wettest place in the world. Per year we have around 10,000 mm of rain, which is really quite a lot. Nevertheless, this should not be a problem for our animals, because they naturally live in the forest on Mount Cameroon. With the roofs we provide them you would even expect them to be better off than their conspecifics in the wild. Contact with human beings is probably a more important factor in this case. We have strict rules for our keepers: wearing masks and gloves when cleaning, stay away from the animals when you have a cold, etc. Still many chimpanzees catch a cold every year.

But at least Banyo can make funny faces again!

Best wishes,

Simone