CHIMP ISLAND

In fact, there is only one chimpanzee left. Poor Ponso is the only survivor of a colony of twenty primates relocated here in 1983 after having been used as guinea pigs in medical experiments. He lost his partner and two children a few years ago and has been living alone on 5 hectares of land since then. If previously his feeding was allowed, we can no longer approach the island or throw fruit, because it is disturbed. But we may have the chance to see it while walking in a dugout canoe nearby. In addition to poaching and deforestation, the isolation of this nearly 40-year-old monkey is becoming problematic. Since 2015, the association Les Amis de Ponso (Facebook page: SOS Ponso) has been funding his food and helping his guardian, Germain Djénémaya Koidja, a retiree who considers Ponso a member of his family, as well as the entire village community on the island. Associations have considered transferring Ponso to a sanctuary in Zambia and then to Liberia, but all have been rejected, as Ponso is considered an untransferable Ivorian citizen. Specialists are not convinced of the viability of repopulating the island, worrying about the serial deaths that have occurred in the colony. In 20 years, the chimpanzee population in Côte d'Ivoire has dropped by 90%. A sanctuary for orphaned chimpanzees rescued from poaching, run by the NGO Atiaka, opened in 2017 in Côte d'Ivoire in the classified forest of Yapo-Abbé (donations welcome).