Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary

The Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary opened in 1993. Lonrho Africa, the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) and the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) established a facility to receive and provide sanctuary and housing to an original group of 3 chimps orphaned at a young age by the bush-meat trade. The facility now has more than 40 chimpanzees. The facility is housed within the Ol Pejeta Conservancy which is a 90,000 acre wildlife conservancy situated between the foot hills of the Aberdares and the magnificent snow-capped Mount Kenya .

The Kenya Wildlife Service veterinarian based at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy provides veterinary health care in the bigger mountain Region, of which Ol Pejeta Conservancy is part of the area of his jurisdiction.

On Friday 22^nd June one Chimpanzee (Max) was involved in a fight and pushed to the wall by a fellow chimpanzee. The veterinarian was called in and by the time of arrival the animal manifested signs of pain. An X-ray was paramount to establish the cause of pain. X-ray revealed a fractured left humerus.

Pre-operation x-ray

Management of fractureWith the help of Prof. Susan Mbugua, a renowned veterinary orthopaedic surgeon and a Professor in the Department of clinical studies in theUniversity of
Nairobi, we were able to fix the fracture by means of direct pinning where two intramedullary pins and cerclage wires were put.

Post-operative X-ray

Post-operative care

The animal is now back at Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary and is on antibiotics, sedatives and analgesics.

We are pleased to mention that, at the time of writing this report, the animal has shown tremendous recovery progress.

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