Ngamba chimps undergo 'family planning' surgery, medical checkups

As Uganda joins the global celebration of World Chimpanzee Day today (July 14, 2025), resident chimps at Ngamba island are undergoing their annual health checks, which are to last 20days. 

The ongoing exercise will also see enhanced protocols with specialised veterinary attention. 

In a step to manage the sanctuary population and ensure space for future rescues, the veterinary team is adopting a new surgical implant method for contraception.

Dr Joshua Rukundo, the executive director for Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Non-Government Organisation (NGO) which manages Ngamba chimpanzee sanctuary, made the revelations, Sunday (July 13). 

The new procedure comes in the wake of failed implants, as a family planning method, which has seen eight chimps born in captivity, bringing a total of 54 chimpanzees currently kept at Ngamba Island.

"This innovative approach is expected to be more effective, reinforcing the sanctuary's no-breeding policy and its mission as a safe refuge," Rukundo said.

All the primates born at Ngamba come as a surprise since the sanctuary was established to accommodate only rescued chimps. Therefore, an implant is inserted in every grown female chimpanzee as a birth control method. 

However, the female chimps have always found a way of removing the implants from their bodies. The first primate born on the island was named 'Surprise' because it caught everyone unaware.

Several others later followed this, including 'Easy,' Ruparelia, Tam Tam, Bolly, Themba, Silver and the latest yet to be named. 
"Chimps have a thinner skin than that of humans, making it easy for the implants to be removed while grooming," Rukundo said.

Last year, the management of Ngamba Chimpanzee sanctuary contemplated the use of vasectomy among some of the male chimps as another family planning method.

However, there were reservations on such a family planning method, because vasectomy is irreversible. 

"That is an avenue we will explore later because we do not necessarily want to permanently disable these chimps from producing. Ideally, we hope that one day we shall be able to integrate them back into the wild," Rukundo stated last year.

Whereas there are other family planning methods, such as injections, Rukundo, who is also a vet doctor, said most of these methods are not long-term, which will make it expensive.

Meanwhile, sanctuary manager Dr Aaron Bataamye said the ongoing health checks will also focus on assessing and treating other possible illnesses as well as enhancing research on the chimpanzee behaviour. The veterinary team, led by Rukundo, is also being beefed up by a team of scientists from US-based University of Minnesota to carry out the mandatory health checks.

An implant being inserted into a chimpanzee at Ngamba Island Sanctuary during the ongoing health checks. (Credit: Julius Luwemba)

Chimpanzee Day

This year's Chimpanzee Day is being celebrated under the theme: Celebrating Progress, securing the Future.

Chimpanzee Trust spokesperson Dorothy Basemera said the theme acknowledges the positive strides made in chimpanzee conservation from increased public awareness and advanced research to successful community-led initiatives.

"It also serves as a call to action against persistent threats like habitat loss, illegal wildlife trade and diseases, ensuring a sustainable future for chimpanzees both in the sanctuaries and in the wild," Basemera expressed.

Uganda Wildlife Authority executive director Dr James Musinguzi said July 14 was gazetted worldwide as Chimpanzee Day to commemorate the day Dr Jane Goodall first arrived in Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park in 1960, to study wild chimpanzees.

"This day aims to raise awareness about chimpanzees, their unique qualities and the threats they face in the wild, while also advocating for their well-being in captivity," Musinguzi explained.

Chimpanzees in Uganda

"Chimpanzees are important in their own right, not because they bring money into the country but because each one of them is an individual with his or her own place on the planet," Goodall said, adding, "Because of the growing number of humans and an increasingly lavish lifestyle with some people, we are making too great a demand on the natural resources; taking up too much habitat away from animals and then we get wildlife-human conflict."

The world-renowned ethologist echoed the concerns while launching the abridged National Chimpanzee Conservation Strategy for Uganda during her latest visit to the country in 2023.

Goodall further noted that animals invade people's crops because their own food source is vanishing. Uganda is estimated to have slightly above 5000 chimpanzees.

The Chimpanzee conservation strategy for Uganda provides a framework to coordinate efforts among stakeholders, including central and local government agencies, non-governmental organisations, private sector companies, researchers, and local communities to protect chimpanzee populations and their habitats, promote sustainable and conservation-compatible land use practices, and support communities' coexistence with chimpanzees.