It has been almost two months now, since Roy, a 3-year old orphaned chimpanzee, set foot in his new home at the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Most likely orphaned by the bushmeat trade, Roy was confiscated from an illegal owner by the wildlife authority in southern Sudan and brought to Ol Pejeta. On December 14, 2009, Roy arrived on Ol Pejeta after having completed his quarantine period at the Kenya Wildlife Service facility in Nairobi. He was held in that facility for about three months for health monitoring and evaluation. After a clean bill of health, Roy was released to the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary – his new permanent home!

Roy received a warm welcome from the other chimpanzees on Ol Pejeta. On January 20th, he was first introduced to 5-year old Romeo, an equally playful chimpanzee. The two animals hit if off immediately, running around after each other excitedly and climbing up and down the sleeping platform with incredible speed for most of the day. Roy had not been in contact with any other chimpanzee since the death of his mother, so all of us watched in awe at his playful and confident behaviour.

Roy has since been introduced to a larger group of chimpanzee and is doing extremely well.  Below are some photos taken on February 15th, showing Roy amongst his new family:

If you would like to find out more about our Chimpanzees and keep in touch with their progress, please join our Chimpanzee Chat, written by David Mundia, the Senior Supervisor at the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary.

The Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary was set up in 1993 to provide safe refuge for orphaned and often abused captive chimpanzees, mostly resulting from the bushmeat trade that has pushed this species to the “critically endangered” category. Sweetwaters is currently home to 44 chimpanzees.