A few weeks before the arrival of the new guests, I kept on talking with them and explained who would come to live there. I pointed to the picture of a lion, of a tiger and of a bear. In the School there is a painting of a lion in the wall.  When I showed it and said that he would live there, Emilio jumped and beat on the lion painting, which was near the ceiling.
 
Some days ago the behavior of the chimpanzees changed. The ones who used to sleep in a room in the School – Guga, Carolina, Cláudio and Emilio – disappeared. When I arrived to early, when it was still dark, nobody was there. Everyone had taken their blankets and had gone away to sleep on the top of the houses in the open area for a matter of protection. They knew that on high there was very little risk.

Perhaps the first roars of lion Zeus alerted them that the dangerous visitors had already arrived. Dolores is the only one who does not care about the situation. She lived in a circus during some years and shared a truck with a tiger and a bear. So she had lost the fear she could feel about them. During the day she climbed on the biggest platform of the enclosure, clapped hands and moved a blanket to call lion Zeus\’ attention, so that he would appear in a window from which he could see her enclosure.

The transference of the animals from Magical Circus Moscow, who were living in temporary installations in Vargem Grande Paulista since the beginning of 2008, was concluded this month. Lion Zeus, tiger Chetara, bear Fofa and baboon Chiquinho are properly housed in big enclosures, with a lot of green grass to run and play, swimming pool – specially for the bear and the tiger – and the baboon is surrounded by others of his species (we have three groups of baboons in the sanctuary) and will be awarded with company in the next few days.

Little by little the normal routine of Guga\’s enclosure is coming back. They keep on sensing more confident that the danger of the new guests was not what they imagine. Now they are Nature partners that will be together with them in the life in captivity, which, in reality, was a situation imposed to them by their real predators, the unconscious humans.

Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian
President, GAP Project International