As mentioned previously, baby Mata is the latest arrival of our sanctuary. We don’t know much of his past; the only information we managed to collect is that the young male comes from Kindu (Maniema Province) and that he belonged to someone of the DRC army.
Mata arrived several weeks ago in a very bad condition. He took some beofre trusting humans again and he is on the good way since he is now interacting a lot! The fact we take care of him 24hours a day even seems to have given him selfconfidence back which is a good step forward!
Today, Mata has put up some weight (600g in 3 weeks) although he is a fussy eater. He only wants sugar cane, wild figs, guavas, pineapples and mangoes. J.A.C.K. is growing sugar canes, wild figs and guavas so this isn’t a big problem. But pineapples come from other DRC provinces and the mangoes are imported from South Africa because we can’t find any here at this period of the year. We have tried many different local items (fruit & vegetables), but all are rejected … Even apples and oranges are put aside, not even touched or looked at!! A few days ago, he discovered grapes (also imported) which he loved of course immediately!
click on the picture to see the video of Mata
Although Mata has this attitude towards food today, we keep on hoping he will be better soon: slowly by slowly he is gaining weight and confidence and he is also very interested in the other chimp boarders of our sanctuary… these are all great steps and we are happy for HIM! Maman Angeline and myself take care of Mata every day and Fabienne regularly helps too! Mata is a very curious chimp who loves to explore his environment…
Before I end I wish to remind you that you can help J.A.C.K. by giving these orphans the best. J.A.C.K. lives on donations only and every little bit represents a lot! So, please, join us on our ‘How to help’ page.
Thank you for THEM!
J.A.C.K.