At the time of birth both the mother and the baby were in good health, although like all new mothers,Surprise didn’t know how to breast feed her baby something which worried the care givers and Veterinarians who decided to bring in a new mother from Kiimi Island (an island neighbouring Ngamba) to help Surprise learn how to feed her baby.Through behavior imitation, within no time, Surprise was breast-feeding her baby.Early last year we had a surprise birth of a baby boy by Afrika, a juvenile chimpanzee. The circumstances of his birth necessitated that we separate him from his mother for better medical attention as he had a broken arm. Now we are in the process of integrating the two baby chimpanzees into the community within the next months.
Chimpanzees are a very social species, they thrive better in a community other than as loners. It is therefore important that we have the babies join the group into the forest. This is a gradual process because chimpanzees do not easily accept new members into their already established communities. We shall introduce them first to the females with whom they create a bond in order to be protected against any future attacks from high ranking males.
