Saturday, July 23, 2011

Escape to chimp eden a must watch show on animal planet



This animal planet show really opened my eyes to the bushmeat trade
and how these primates are being cared for with Eugene Cussons as their hero.
Eugene goes into dangerous war torn areas like Sudan
and rescues chimps from imminent death.

Chimp Eden shows us that  chimpanzees can be rehabilitated!
Though its not exactly a walk in the park
to build the trust necessary to work with these chimps.
You can watch "escape to chimp Eden" on the animal planet
As this first video was a petetion to bring back the popular show!
Animal planet decided it deserves a new time slot.
I have it on tivo so i never miss a show.

Chimp Eden shows us its not as simple as just flying in
and taking the chimps they have to convince the owners,have to do blood tests
so they don't bring back harmful diseases to the sanctuary.
Then they have to work with local government officials
who are often in no rush to cooperate and one mess up through translation
can send the rescue mission into a back spiral.

One show that left a lasting memory and opened my eyes to Eugene's work 
was a chimp being kept in restaurant cage in Angola
turns out the owner didn't not have the time or know how to take care of chimps. 
The water this chimp was drinking out was black sledge
it is no wonder that this chimp is sick and Eugene came in the nick of time
this chimp was also being teased by pedestrians that passed by
some would throw rocks at her so this will be a special case
as this chimp will find it hard to trust humans again.

In another episode of chimp eden
Eugene Cussons goes searching for infant chimps
somewhere in an african market and is lead to a bush meat booth.
For the first time Eugene comes face to face with dead chimp meat
as he lifts one of the smoked chimp hands this was a sad moment for him
but only made Eugene more determained to save theses chimps from the bush meat trade.

The bush meat trader said the hand would cost 5 dollars pretty cheap
compared to how much a can of beans cost 10 dollars
as now we get to the real heart of the problem is the extreme hunger in Africa.
Until civilians can be protected and more investments into agricultural are made these underlying problems will continue to drive the bush meat trade.




In this next video we see euegene cussons
on the popular Ellen Degeneres show 
In the video you will see one of the first chimps rescued by Eugene 
his name is Cozy. Cozy spent 17 years chained inside of a cage 
and never got to walk on grass or climb trees.
You can only imagine this was a real challenge to get cozy to trust humans 
and is a work on progress to work on Cozy social skills.  
Im a big fan of Cozy as he has become one of my favorite chimps on chimp eden 
as he likes to joke around and turns out to be a great peacemaker 
between  the chimps.  Cozy is the perfect example that 
chimps that have been abused can make a big turnaround when giving the chance.

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