Finding the time

Trying to get back into the blog again has been fun, if not as productive as I'd hoped. But the combination of finding the time to write, balancing hobbies with work and embarking on a course outside of both areas has made me think a little about where I work best. I have come up with the following poles: The ideal place to work, and the totally hopeless place.

Good space: The room isn't exactly tidy, but there is enough space to breathe and think. There's space on the desk for the laptop, but ultimately she ends up using pen and paper, sitting on her bed. The pillow is propped up against the headboard as a back suport. Snuggly socks and a cooler-than-boiling cup of tea get her in a good mindset for creating. Everybody is out of the house. It's raining outside and she's confident that the only place to be is inside, writing.

Bad space: She sits at the lunch table, notebook visible to all. It lies between an unidentified sticky patch and a coffee stain. She can feel the eyes of her colleagues intruding on her work. "What are you doing?" It's crowded and people are coming and going, chatting and speculating. Nothing gets done.

Writers out there...where do you work best? How do you fit everything in?

Enrichment Boxes for Orangutans

The Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Project work tirelessly to rescue and rehabilitate wild orangutans that have become tangled up in the human world. Many of them have been pets, and all of them have been separated from their forest homes. The process of getting these animals back to the wild is a difficult one, and equipping them with the skills needed to survive in the forest is vital to give them a good chance of survival.

The SOCP temporarily house the orangutans in a specialist centre prior to release. Whilst here they spend important time with other orangutans, learning important social skills with other youngsters of a similar age. The centre is currently raising funds for some new enrichment boxes. These provide the orangutans with fun ways to learn new skills and encourage problem solving to access their food, something which will be vital back on the forest.

If you would like to find out more about this project, or donate towards the orangutan enrichment, click here. To specifically sponsor a feeding box, you can donate through the Confiscation & Quarantine PayPal link.

Tough times for rescued primates in storm beaten Cameroon

Ape Action Africa rescues orphaned and injured chimpanzees and gorillas and offers them refuge at a sanctuary in Mefou. They are cared for until they are strong and healthy enough to be introduced to others and live together in the forest.

This week tragedy has struck the rescue centre, with storms causing damage to the enclosures and injuring the primates. A large tree damaged the chimp enclosure and the chimps got out. The staff are still searching for 12 of them, but with damaged enclosures to return them to they are in need of quick financial help to fund the repairs. One of the chimpanzees, Bertie, sustained significant injuries, including broken ribs and is in need of medical treatment.

Ape Action Africa have launched an emergency appeal on their Facebook page. If you can help to fund Bertie's treatment and the vital repairs at the sanctuary, please visit their website.

Thank-you.

Another Celebrity, Another Exploited Primate

It has been a while, and for that I apologise. I have found myself at a time in my life where it has not been possible to write everything that I would like to. Earlier in the year I met up with several amazing people who brought this blog back into the forefront of my mind, so I've dusted off the keyboard (with thanks to Haji for all of her technical help and guidance), oiled the cogs and wound up the starting handle to resurrect the writing machine.

The picture that caught my attention on social media this week was of Gordon Ramsay (British Celebrity Chef) with his daughter, holding a young chimpanzee with the caption "Someone's been very naughty".
View One of the pictures here

Well yes, Gordon, yes they have, and it is certainly not the chimpanzee. We see so many images of celebrities posing with exotic animals at the moment that if you didn't know better you could be forgiven for starting to think 'it's not too bad'. But we do know better, and it is. When you're aware of how damaging it can be for these animals to grow up as a pet or in the entertainment industry, it's frustrating to see. When you've seen the physical and behavioural effects of enduring this sort of existance first hand, in animals that have later escaped the exploitation, it is heart breaking.

Chimpanzees are intelligent, sociable animals. They have the mind and the instincts of a chimpanzee, not a human, and they are best off living with other chimpanzees to express themselves as just that, a chimpanzee, not a human in Gordon Ramsay's kitchen. When celebrities pick up a cute baby animal and hire them for a photo shoot, or 'have them round for dinner', they not only have an effect on that individual but on the trade in exotics on a broader scale. It's easy for those of us who can see the damage it does to the individual to get angry and mutter about how stupid people are for keeping pet primates, but if you don't know the dangers to the animal (and the owners) and you see public figures parading around with their menagerie in public, it probably seems reasonable to do so. They have been set an example. Celebrities that have photo shoots with these animals are setting examples, bad ones. These examples are adding fuel to the fire that is the primate pet trade, encouraging people to get hold of these animals and bring them into a life that isn't suitable for them, a life that for a chimp can lead to fifty years of solitary confinement when they're no longer cute and cuddly ad no longer safe to visit Gordon for tea. And if a chimpanzee is too expensive, well that's when the little guys are targeted. The smaller primates like the monkeys and prosimians that end up neglected and isolated in someone's spare room when the novelty wears off, or the starstruck slow loris who'll never know what it is to forage at night in a rainforest, but has sure got a lot of YouTube hits for his owner.

There are plenty of celebrities who use their popularity to do wonderful things and promote worthwhile causes, and there are others who really need to do better.

The Run!

So, did I do it?

Yes!

Somehow, despite a road closure adding an extra kilometre to the route, I completed the Great Gorilla Run 2011!

I won't lie, it wasn't easy. There is definitely not enough room for a human head and sufficient oxygen to run five miles in a gorilla mask. It is also nearly impossible to run up and down stairs when the eye holes are so small that you can't even see the stairs until your big furry feet are tripping down them. In addition, it's very difficult to drink the bottle of water kindly placed into your enormous gorilla hands when you have a plastic gorilla face plastered over your own. If I've learned anything from this experience it is never to entertain the possibility of running the London Marathon in a gorilla costume. Or even a half marathon, or a less than half marathon, for that matter.

That said, it was quite a lot of fun careering around the posh business bit of London with hundreds of gorillas in fancy dress. My gorilla pirate received huge amounts of attention from passing children, many of whom seemed to think I was the real Captain Jack Sparrow (the fact that I was a gorilla seemed to go un-noticed). Something else I had to get my head around was that there will undoubtedly be hundreds of photographs of me-dressed-as-a-gorilla-dressed-as-a-pirate in Facebook albums of people I don't know, all over the world. The tourists at Tower Bridge seemed to find the peculiar British past-time of running in gorilla costumes more interesting than the architecture!

But most importantly, we helped raise lots of cash to help The Gorilla Organization with their work to protect the gorillas and support sustainable development in their last remaining strongholds. I do not yet have a final total, but I will let you know when I do. In the meantime if you would still like to sponsor me retrospectively, you can do so at This Address!

If you have been kind enough to sponsor me already, thank you very much!


^ Me!

^ Fellow Gorillas

^ Lonely Gorilla

Six Weeks To Go!

With only five weeks and six days left to go until The Great Gorilla Run I still have work to do. In the last month I have acquired my gorilla costume and begun a (small) amount of training, but it's not going to be enough! So this week I need to amp up my running/jogging/flailing about, make my gorilla into a pirate and step up the fundraising efforts! I currently have a long way to go to meet my target of £400, but thanks to the people who have already sponsored me I'm off to a flying start!

But I've decided it's time for an incentive, so if we can make it past the £100 mark then I'll post something a bit more exciting on here, in the form of a video message from your very own pirate gorilla... Still not convinced? Read on to find out about what your kindly donated cash is going to help towards.

The Gorilla Organisation in Uganda
The Gorilla Organisation currently has projects in Cameroon, Gabon, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda.

In Uganda the projects involve supporting Ugandan rangers, investing in wildlife clubs to encourage conservation awareness from a young age, farmer training, mushroom growing, beekeeping and supporting the indiginous communities living in the Mgahinga National Park, home to remaining populations of the Mountain Gorilla, by supporting the education and health facilities available to them.

Growing mushrooms provides a source of protein for local people and reduces the likelihood of harvesting wild mushrooms in the gorilla habitat which causes damage to the area. Beekeeping also generates income for people and apiculture workshops are run for people wishing to keep bees and sell honey!

Supporting the rangers is also a very important part of the Gorilla Organisation's work in Uganda. The rangers collect information on the local gorilla populations, remove dangerous traps that can cause horrific injuries to the animals and monitor their health and progress.

And these are just some examples of the work The Gorilla Organisation does in central Africa! Please donate to my fundraising appeal and help protect the last remaining gorillas. Anything you can spare to contribute to the future of these magnificent animals and their forest homes will be greatly appreciated (and it also means that I won't be dressing up as a gorilla and hauling myself around London for no reason)!

Thankyou

Click here to donate (or check my progress)!

(Image courtesy of The Gorilla Organisation)

A New Mission

Hello! First of all, thanks to those of you who have loyally followed the Monkey Mission Blog since it first appeared in 2008, your support is very much appreciated. If you've noticed a 'radio silence' recently it's because I have been lacking in interesting primate related adventures, or at least ones I'm allowed to write about! However, all of that is about to change as I present to you:

The Great Gorilla Run

On Saturday 24th September I will be running through London in a gorilla suit. I will not be alone, there will be 799 other Gorilla Runners with me. All 800 Gorilla Runners are doing so to raise funds for The Gorilla Organisation, who work internationally to help protect the last remaining wild populations of gorillas and their habitats. They do this in several ways: By undertaking research and implementing conservation measures, educating local people and the wider public, and funding development projects including microcredit schemes, bee-keeping and agricultural training.

The route is only 7 km long, but in light of the facts that:
a) I don't run
b) I will be wearing a gorilla suit and
c) I don't run
it actually seems like quite a challenge (If you have, for example, climbed Everest or run the London Marathon dressed as an otter for charity please refrain from commenting!!!)

Over the next couple of months I will use this blog to keep track of my fundraising efforts and preparation for running in a gorilla suit. I'll also be exploring the work of The Gorilla Organisation.

If you would like to sponsor me, then you can do so at: http://events.gorillas.org/gorillapirate
If not, perhaps I can persuade you over the next month or two... watch this space!

Much love,
Rach x