Auction of Medina the chimp and Nuwa Nnyanzi Wamala

medina art

Medina one of our chimpanzee at Ngamba island is talented in using brush and paint. Her work has generated a lot of impressive art illustrations. Nuwa Wamala Nnyanzi a renowned artist in Uganda has worked with Medina to create impressive and meaningful pieces.

We shall be auctioning some of Medina’s work in our Wildlife exhibition on the 26th May 2016 as a fundraiser for the medical ward.

1.5% is the difference between a Chimpanzee and a human being. But that small difference does make a big difference in terms of health for Chimpanzees because in their community, it is dangerous to fall sick lest you face beating, aggression and reintegration.

It happened to Oketch, a Chimpanzee at Ngamba Island who suffered Kidney failure in 2014 and was withdrawn from the Island and taken to recover at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre animal recovery ward.

When he was brought back in 2015, most of the Chimpanzee rejected him. He was beaten, had his food taken away from him several times during feeding and totally alienated by his old friends.

This is because in the chimpanzee world there is a lot of competition in regard to ranks. When a high ranking male like Oketch falls sick and is withdrawn from the Island, other Chimpanzees who are below him in rank have their ranks rise in the community.

It is those Chimpanzees that were willing to fight Oketch hard because they viewed him as a threat to their current positions in society. They did that to prove to the other Chimpanzees that Oketch didn’t deserve to retain his old position.

That is why the care givers had to withdraw him from the group and reintegrated him in the community for several months by pairing him with friendlier Chimpanzees in the holding facility to see which chimpanzees would be more accepting of him.

Oketch is currently a low ranking male at the Island and always stays behind during feeding to pick up small pieces of food after the rest of the group has finished eating and headed back to the forest.

His no longer confident in himself that is why we don’t want what happened to Oketch, to happen to other Chimpanzees at Ngamba Island, It is the reason to why we are inviting you to join us as we raise money for constructing a recovery ward, at Ngamba Island because falling sick is part of our lifecycle but also to help sick Chimpanzees like Oketch retain their ranks in the community.

Will you join us today as we help save our closest relatives?