Care for Orphan Chimpanzee in Senegal

We are working on finding placement for orphan chimpanzee Toto who is now over 2 and 1/2 years old. He spends all of his days out "en brousse" (in the bush) where he plays and climbs trees. He now displays like a male chimpanzee, complete with pant hoots! 

We are currently exploring the possiblity of sending Toto to an established sanctuary, as he is too large to be considered an infant by wild chimpanzees in his natal group, and the ongoing gold rush in southeastern Senegal means that the increasing human populations could endanger Toto as well as the chimpanzee group he was born into. Since Toto was not seized by poachers but instead rescued by humans he was familiar with as observers of his social group, he has had no negative interactions with humans and, while he shows an aversion to strangers as all chimpanzees do, he is not fearful. This could be to his disadvantage since many of the gold miners in Senegal now are from countries that do not have the same taboos against eating apes that the Senegalese people do. In addition to endangering Toto, placing him in conditions where he might encounter people that would like to capture him would also endanger his fellow group members, as they would surely come to his aid.

We would like to place Toto with other chimpanzees as quickly as possible but as is the case with most chimpanzee orphanages in Africa, the ones on West Africa are full to capacity. More news to come on Toto's fate, but know that he is happy and healthy and doing well thanks to the generous donations of people like you!