The progressive destruction of tropical forests, poaching, and the illegal trafficking of chimpanzee infants and other primates are the reason why 48% of species and subspecies of these mammals are in danger of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
In the middle of Kahuzi Biega National Park, in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, there is a recovery center for orphaned primates, most of whom come from police seizures. It is the Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Center (CRPL), where Raúl Cabrera Porcel and Laia Dotras, two Catalan biologists, worked as volunteers. While altruistically collaborating with all kinds of tasks, they enriched themselves by learning a way to care for and protect dozens of chimpanzees and monkeys that have been rescued from poachers and traffickers.
And, having seen all the work done at this center, they, together with fellow Catalan biologist Aurora Pazos, decided to launch SOS Primates, a non-profit association, to collect donations to help finance the animals' food and the salaries of the fifty local workers who care for ninety chimpanzees and a hundred monkeys in this home created for them in the rural area of South Kivu. They thus also contribute to improving the lives of farmers in the region, fruit and vegetable producers that the primates need in their vital refuge. From the center itself, they develop projects to help the most disadvantaged local population, such as creating employment for single women and schooling for children, and other collaborations that close a circle of humanity synergies.
In Barcelona, Raúl offers Christmas lottery tickets, t-shirts, calendars, and dolls that are small cloth chimpanzees sewn by women from Congo, in exchange for donations, while raising awareness of the association. These are two of the ways in which awareness of this animal rescue work reaches far from Congo. But Raúl, like other collaborators of the association, also travels the world giving talks about the work in primate rescue centers in different countries, and the numerous ways to provide small financial aid or volunteer work.
The boy who grew up loving animals
Raúl's affection and complicity with animals already existed in his childhood. During summers in Granada at his grandparents' house, he played surrounded by animals. They had goats, sheep, and bulls, and a horse that he rode. His mother's love for the animals they cared for in the village during holidays and the cats and dogs they always had in Barcelona was also a reference, a vital beacon for him, a silent way of learning to love small four-legged living beings.The other determining factor that awakened his interest in animals was the zoo. Having it close to home allowed him to visit it often, with family and friends, also with school, as so many students have done. Only he ended up working there. Raúl is one of the seventy keepers at the Barcelona Zoo, this small natural reserve, a habitat of habitats for so many animal species, which is at the same time a research and pedagogical center for teachers and students. The zoo is an encyclopedia of animals that breathe nature, and the paths of its facilities are an invitation to stroll, to sit on a bench, and to be surprised by the gazes, the scuttles, the routines of birds, plantigrades, felines, reptiles... Raúl's workspace is that privileged place in the middle of the city, with a lower temperature due to the zoo's centenary trees, where we find sculptures at every step.
In the primate area, we find him, explaining the usual tasks of a zoo keeper. And the first thing he wants to emphasize is that at the zoo, work is done every day of the year. Whether it's Christmas, Saint Stephen's Day, or Epiphany, the keepers' work never stops. Neither by day nor by night, with supervision shifts. "We start very early, preparing the primates' breakfast and, before going in to see how they are, we read the previous day's report left by the keeper who took care of them," explains Raúl.
Greeting each of the chimpanzees, monkeys, gorillas, also means checking that they are well. Then it's time to clean the space they move through, first the part that people see and then the sleeping quarters. "Primates are from tropical habitats, so if one day it's zero degrees, they won't go out," the keeper specifies.
Greeting each of the chimpanzees, monkeys, gorillas, also means checking that they are wellHe also explains that the animals eat throughout the day. By observing their mucous membranes and eyes, they see many details about their health. And, "when we clean, we look, for example, if there is a lock of hair, because that could indicate that there has been a fight," he says. And by also supervising the places where they eat, they can see if they have eaten everything or not.
When studying biology, Raúl spent many hours in the library to expand his knowledge. Despite his shyness, in class his desire to resolve doubts by asking questions was always stronger. In his third year of university, a professor told him that they were looking for people to do internships at the Barcelona Zoo. They could be with a bird curator or with a primate curator, and he spent a year as a volunteer working with primates. It was two or three mornings a week that counted as free-choice credits and that would begin to create a bond with all the orangutan and chimpanzee families.
He started at the same time as biologist and primatologist Encar Garcia, who would later found the Jaguar Rescue Center wildlife recovery center in Costa Rica. Together, among other tasks, they contributed to redecorating primate habitats and providing them with tools and instruments, varied toys that need to be changed ---to prevent them from getting bored---, and everything that could make the primates' lives more pleasant. Always under supervision, he acknowledges that they were very fortunate to be able to do everything they did. And between 1999 and 2001, they saw gorillas born who were granddaughters of Snowflake.
As ---he says--- primates learn to raise in groups, and those mothers had not been able to do so, they had to feed the primate babies in the nursery, with a bottle. They wore fur vests emulating gorilla hair so that the small babies would hold on better. "It was a very beautiful experience," he recalls. Raúl is now an expert in these creatures, and he never tires of repeating that, although, on certain occasions, such as specific recovery periods, the babies have to be fed with a bottle because the mothers cannot do it, they must be returned to their group as soon as possible, so that they do not get used to humans. "They are not pets, nor should they ever be," he points out. People connect in a special way with primates because they remind us a lot of ourselves. That's why ---Raúl points out--- we often see people blush when they see a pair of orangutans copulating, for example.
The year after his volunteer period, in 1997, Raúl had his first contract at the zoo as a keeper. Later, he had the opportunity to work at the Mona Foundation, the primate recovery center in Riudellots de la Selva, where he stayed from 2002 to 2005. There he learned to lay tiles, to build spaces, to lead a team of foreign volunteers, in English, and continued to increase his knowledge about primates.
A sponge of knowledge and emotions
The two-year sabbatical trip he decided to take to visit primate centers in different countries, and two and a half years working at the Madrid zoo, especially caring for gorillas, preceded his return to the Barcelona zoo in March 2009. He returned loaded with endearing experiences. But he did not stop making trips to meet primates. And in 2012 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he had already been as a volunteer, led him to co-found the SOS Primates association.Raúl has dedicated almost all his vacations to learning in zoos and recovery centers in different places, such as Holland or Great Britain, Vietnam, Madagascar, Cameroon or Borneo. He felt that "I needed to learn and not stick to one way of working," he argues. And now he often travels to raise awareness and spread what he has been learning: "To give good care to animals, it's not enough to have passion and like them, you have to be trained. For caregivers, continuous training is very important. This way you can help in contexts of other realities those who do not have resources. That's why we travel to do workshops in countries where we believe they can make a good contribution," he points out.
"To give good care to animals, it's not enough to have passion and like them, you have to be trained"He remembers that, as a child, when he went to the zoo, he always wondered where the animals slept. And he still keeps newspaper clippings from the time when Copito de Nieve and the orca Ulises were often talked about. He liked the movie Tarzan, but even more reading Gorillas in the Mist, by Dian Fossey, which -she explains- "they gave away in a literary collection about the environment that I still keep today as a treasure, along with newspaper clippings".
Every day, while doing his job at the zoo, there are park visitors who, when they see him feeding the primates, ask him questions. He also interacts with researchers who come to observe the animals as part of scientific work. And he explains that Fine Arts students are also very frequently seen reproducing situations at the zoo in their paintings. It's a hobby he also has. "I really like to paint animals and then give the paintings as gifts to people I appreciate."
When he talks about animals, he conveys his affection for wildlife, and not just for the ones he knows best. What primates have taught him is very difficult for him to summarize. "Just like us, they have many good days and others when they are angry. They have their point of tenderness, like us, and moments of anger. By observing primates, I have come to know and better understand the human species. The good and the bad. Primates also fight over territory and mates and don't look each other in the eyes when there's no trust, just like people do in an elevator, looking down if we don't know each other," he states.
"By observing primates, I have come to know and better understand the human species"On a more personal note, Raúl has anecdotes to fill a book. But he especially cherishes some moments, like when his mother died and, while feeding the primates, "they noticed I was sadder, and they treated me differently." Or, "when they thought we were fighting with a colleague, and one of those in front took sides with one of us, depending on who they had more affinity with, and started screaming, as if saying, stop arguing."
The impressive memory of primates also surprises. "They never forget if you have treated them well, just as they don't forget who has treated them badly." Raúl acknowledges that he has learned many things from them. "For them, we are part of their family, apart from their group." That's why episodes like the one he experienced once in Holland are not so strange, despite being impressive. "I went to visit an orangutan—Sandy—whom I had cared for at the Barcelona zoo for eight years. To avoid inbreeding in reproduction, we took her to an institution in the Netherlands. I had gone to say goodbye to her when she left. And, after eight years, when I saw her again, it was very emotional. She received me like someone reuniting with a friend. People who saw it cried with emotion."