Roy, the new baby chimp, has just completed a successful first phase of his introduction, and is now spending his days outside with the rest of the juvenile group. Part of his orientation in the room involved the “fence-training” procedure in which a small frame fitted with wires resembling the outside enclosure’s electric fence, is put in one corner of his room and charged with just enough voltage to make it slightly uncomfortable to touch. This deters the chimpanzee from touching any such wires in future, a process that is crucial in preparing new chimps for the outside enclosure, which is surrounded by an electric fence with higher voltage.

However, for chimpanzees that are born in the sanctuary, this procedure is not possible - with mothers being naturally protective of their young ones the babies hardly move more than a foot away from Mum until around six months of age. Interestingly, though, our "fence training" is not actually necessary for these young ones because their mothers seem to do a very good job of it themselves! Recently my colleague Charles Musasia watched as Ajabu, Mwanzo’s one year old daughter, picked up a stick and proceeded towards the fence, apparently in an attempt to touch it. Her mother Mwanzo suddenly made some strange noise and went onto the ground flat on her stomach, and Ajabu immediately stopped the attempt and ran to her, obviously having understood the message from her mother!