PhD Research to help Orphan Chimpanzees

I'm raising money to help fund my PhD research in chimpanzee behaviour to help orphan chimpanzees in sanctuaries who have lost so much. I hope to help them learn the skills they need, as adult chimps, that would have been taught to them by their family. It's research that can be a huge help to chimps but as a long-term study will cost a lot which is why I am asking for your help, please. Any donation amount no matter how small will really help.

Chimpanzees across Africa are under threat. Their homes are vanishing due to habitat destruction, and entire families are lost to poachers. Adult chimpanzees are killed for meat and infants are taken to sell as pets. Many orphans witness the slaughter of their families before spending the rest of their lives as pets in horrific conditions all alone.

As highly social animals this harrowing experience has long-lasting effects with many orphans suffering physical and psychological trauma leading to abnormal and stereotypical behaviours. The lucky ones are rescued and relocated to a sanctuary such as Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Tacugama helps orphans and introduces them into a new social group of other orphans who will become their substitute family. Sadly, the orphans are taken from their wild families too early to learn many of the social and physical skills required as an adult chimpanzee.

This is why I am hoping to help chimpanzees in sanctuaries by conducting long-term research for my PhD, at Tacugama, on how to teach vital and often unique behaviours to orphan chimpanzees who have lost so much. I hope through my research I will be able to find a way to help these traumatised orphans learn what their mothers, siblings and extended family would have taught them.

Specifically, I want to help maintain their cultural heritage in relation to tool use. Chimpanzees use tools differently depending on their sub-species but many times this can be lost when they are housed in sanctuaries, due to lack of funds and time as so many sanctuaries are overstretched helping chimpanzees. I am hoping to find an economic and realistic way to maintain the differences that make these chimpanzee sub-species so unique. Giving back what man has taken away.

It's a study which could improve the lives of chimpanzees not only at Tacugama but other sanctuaries too, as the results will be shared with sanctuaries across Africa. The data I gather will help other projects too, as I will be collecting data for a year for my PhD at Oxford Brookes University, and sharing this with other researchers. So, by helping support my project you will help support a multitude of research into the behaviour of our closest relatives, chimpanzees, helping to understand more and help protect this endangered species.

However, long-term studies like this cost a lot of money, and whilst I am doing all I can to reduce costs as full-time student I desperately need your help. I am working hard to raise funds via grants and part-time work alongside my studies, but I still need your help to help the orphans of today and tomorrow.

Whilst we may not be able to stop the influx of chimpanzees arriving at sanctuaries, we may be able to help them live a more natural life by helping them learn the skills their families would have taught them.

The money raised will fund my project for a year which includes:
- hiring a local research assistant for a year
- buying equipment including; a video camera, 9 hard drives for data storage, 8 memory cards for videos, 4 replacement batteries for video cameras, solar power cells to recharge batteries plus
- enrichment for the chimpanzees
- transport to the site
- basic accommodation
- insurance
- permits and visas.

Your donation will go directly to my research in helping chimpanzees in captivity. Please note any funds donated above my target will be used to support the vital work of Tacugama in helping chimpanzees or can be returned.

So please help orphaned chimpanzees today by donating whatever you can towards my research costs – it’s a large target but every little bit helps, so please donate whatever you can afford – I do really appreciate every donation.

Thank you from me and all the chimpanzees you are helping with your generous donation.