The group of chimpanzees is stable and in public view because these events happen in nature and are accepted by the animals.
Just a month ago, On February 14, two chimpanzee twins were born, a truly extraordinary event within the international EEP conservation program of the subspecies Pan troglodytes verus, the most endangered of the four that exist. Sadly this weekend they both passed away.. The technical team observed a sudden change in the vitality of the first of them and finally its immobility could only be verified a few hours later. At those moments the situation only makes it possible to maintain surveillance of the mother's activity to try to recover her body. The experienced mother focused her attention on the deceased and neglected the second calf, leaving it in the nest and not responding to its cries, so, following the protocol, in agreement with various international experts and those responsible for the Preservation Program, the decision was made. decision to intervene. The procedure is the usual one in these cases, and requires anesthetizing the mother to separate her from the dead calf and care for the other. In this action it was verified that the mother had milk and that the calf was sucking normally when placed with its mother, so it was decided not to reverse the anesthesia so that the female would wake up on its own and to keep the calf with its mother so that natural breeding will continue. Furthermore, the characteristics of this strongly bonded species require that the group stay together and minimize any type of intervention. Within the extraordinary trance, the situation remained calm until that moment and nothing could predict that one of the females would cause an altercation during which, unfortunately, the death of the second calf occurred.
Today the group is stable and in public view well in nature These events happen and are accepted by animals. On the contrary, despite being used to working with animals, the technical team is very emotionally affected. Now we have to continue and maintain the illusion with the growth of the little 7 month old chimpanzee Coco and persist in the hope that new offspring will arrive given the recognized fertility of the reproductive group.
Conservation of this endangered species is not only of great importance in the park, it is also carried out through BIOPARC Foundation with participation in Conservation programs situ in Senegal, collaborating with the Jane Goodall Institute.
