Into the Wild: The Congo’s Uniquely Successful Chimpanzee Reintroduction Program

December 2007

Benoît Goossens and Aliette Jamart, HELP Congo

The return of trafficked primates back to a life in the wild is the gold standard of primate protection. When wild primates are poached from their natural habitat, only a lucky few end up in a reputable sanctuary. But for many reasons—the difficulties of fully rehabilitating injured or psychologically traumatized primates, the expense of repatriation, the lack of secure release sites—only a few sanctuary residents ever have a chance to roam free again. That’s why HELP Congo, a small non-governmental organization working in the Republic of the Congo, is so remarkable: not only has HELP rescued dozens of chimpanzees from the bushmeat trade, HELP has rehabilitated and reintroduced many of them back into the wilds of a protected park.

When little Maï grows up, she could be the first daughter of a rehabilitated chimpanzee to reproduce in the wild.

Even more significantly, for the last decade, HELP has used dedicated trackers to monitor the behavior of the radio-collared chimpanzees as they continue the reintroduction process on their own terms. The data HELP Congo has collected over the years will be of immense value to other organizations that hope to reproduce HELP’s successes.

Habitat destruction and the subsequent increase in the illegal (but lucrative) bushmeat trade continue to threaten wild chimpanzee populations across Africa. Sanctuaries have been created to provide a safe haven for young apes whose parents have been killed for meat, but the high financial burden of keeping chimpanzees in captivity, frequently in politically unstable countries, means that a longerterm solution is urgently needed. In that context, HELP (Habitat Ecologique et Liberté des Primates) Congo developed a reintroduction program in the Conkouati- Douli National Park (CDNP), Republic of the Congo, to address the fate of chimpanzees orphaned by the bushmeat business.

Between November 1996 and November 2001, HELP released 37 rehabilitated chimpanzees (27 females and ten males) into the wilds of the park. They had been rescued by the Congolese authorities before being entrusted to HELP. The orphans spent their early years in a nursery, venturing into the forest each day, accompanied by caretakers. By three years of age, they were released onto forested islands in the Conkouati lagoon where the rehabilitation process continued. The final stage of the release process consisted of the identification of a suitable release site (“the Triangle,” located in the forests of the National Park), and the design and implementation of post-release monitoring. It was determined to radiocollar the released chimps and have local trackers follow their progress on a daily basis. Before release, all the chimpanzees underwent several veterinary screenings, and only candidates free of significant diseases were released into the National Park.

As of mid-2007, HELP trackers were still monitoring the behavior and movements of ten (37 percent) of the 27 released females; three are known to have died (11 percent), while 14 have disappeared (52 percent). Photos: HELP International The fate of these females is unknown, but at least some may have integrated into the wild population. In support of this, additional females have disappeared for periods ranging from eight to 21 months before reappearing in the release zone, either back in a group of released individuals or in the company of wild chimpanzees. Other females also have regular contacts with wild chimpanzees and also disappear from the release zone occasionally, reappearing days or weeks later.

Givenour knowledge of wild chimpanzee behavioral ecology, this is not surprising. Wild female chimpanzees disperse permanently into new communities at ten or 12 years of age, around the time they reach sexual maturity, while male chimpanzees remain in their natal community and cooperate in territorial defense against neighboring communities, showing intense hostility to foreign males. Most of our females disappeared when they were sexually attractive to other males. Of the males, four of the ten released males are still being followed. Of the rest, three have died (30 percent), two have disappeared (20 percent), and one was relocated onto one of the islands in the Conkouati lagoon and will be soon reintroduced back into the forest of the Triangle (the release zone of the park). Thus, with help of advanced radio-telemetry equipment and a team of dedicated field assistants, 14 (38 percent) of the chimpanzees are still being followed, confirmed mortality is 16 percent, while the disappearance rate is 46 percent.

As a result of this ongoing monitoring, HELP Congo is acquiring important information for other projects that are planning to release chimpanzees in the near future (particularly the Jane Goodall Institute’s Tchimpounga Sanctuary, also in the Republic of the Congo, and the Chimpanzee Conservation Centre in Guinea). In addition, the daily presence of HELP Congo’s monitoring team has made the Triangle and its surroundings one of the only parts of the CDNP where poaching and deforestation have been substantially reduced. The project is therefore successful in ensuring the effective protection of the release area and adjacent habitats, as well as of all native flora and fauna (including lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, mandrills, forest elephants, and buffaloes) within those areas. In 2006-2007, HELP Congo even carried out several anti-poaching patrols, mainly along the two rivers (Louvandzi and Ngongo); several crocodiles were seized and released back into the wild.

HELP is currently analyzing data on large mammal sightings (particularly those of forest elephants) in the Triangle and its surroundings collected during the last ten years; these sightings are an important marker of an ecosystem’s overall health. HELP is also pleased at the progress of its agro-forestry program, in which 600 eucalyptus, 300 acacias, and 300 fruit trees were planted near a riparian forest that borders the Conkouati lagoon. Now, only five years later, local wildlife is already exploiting the plantation, including deer, elephants, and wild chimpanzees.

The most exciting news for HELP was that, during the last five years, nine offspring were conceived and born in the wild to six of the released females. Four of these infants are still alive as of October 2007, while five have disappeared following encounters with wild chimpanzees. The oldest baby (Maï, 4.5 years old) was born to Jeannette, who was the first to be released in the Triangle in 1996. In a few years, Maï could be the first chimpanzee born to a released female to reproduce in the wild.

Unfortunately, the bushmeat and pet trades have not yet been stopped, and there are still animal orphans suffering as a result. Within the past year, five orphan chimpanzees have been entrusted to HELP by the Ministry of Water and Forests, the most recent just a few months ago; one even arrived with a lead pellet embedded in his forehead. The youngsters are currently being rehabilitated by HELP Congo, which is seriously thinking of starting a new release program and is currently looking for another release site in the CDNP.

However, HELP Congo recognizes that environmental conservation and the protection of endangered species require the active participation of local populations, if the bushmeat trade is to be halted at the source. To promote the education and sensitization of the Congolese people, HELP has set up a new education center in the city of Pointe-Noire. The facility has a space for exhibitions as well as a library. Public awareness campaigns in the Kouilou district (where the CDNP is located), and more specifically within the schools, are already ongoing; recently, HELP has brought schoolchildren out on field trips to explore the mangroves.

As a result of HELP’s years of dedicated work on the conservation and rehabilitation of chimpanzees in central Africa, the organization’s expertise is now recognized around the world. HELP frequently shares its success stories at meetings of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, a network of sanctuaries dedicated to caring for rescued primates across the continent. By supporting the costs of the radio equipment and the chimp tracker salaries, the Arcus Foundation, IPPL, and other sponsors have made it possible for HELP to continue gathering its long-term data and contribute to the well-being of future generations of rescued apes.