This young chimpanzee is cared for at Lwiro Primate Sanctuary in eastern DRC. He is kept permanently chained by the neck as the fledgling sanctuary has no other way to keep him from raiding neighbours' crops.

Ian Redmond, one of the worlds leading great ape conservation experts, has made a personal promise to Gentil to get him off that chain (see pic above). Like the other primates at Lwiro, Gentil was born in a forest and cared for by his mother. But she was killed, probably for bushmeat, and Gentil was sold illegally as a pet. Luckily Congolese authorities confiscated him and brought him to the sanctuary.

Now Born Free is raising money to remove Gentil's chain and build him a large enclosure. With enough funds Born Free could create a permanent forest sanctuary in DRC for all Lwiro's primates.

For the launch of the Caribzones group of websites we will work in association with Born Free towards this vision.

Follow Ian's training and lead up to the London Marathon

Ian says "I’ve promised to remove the chain from Gentil’s neck – will you help me? Please sponsor my run in this April's London Marathon and help protect our great ape cousins.

Using a Born Free Foundation 'Golden Bond' place, I’m seeking sponsorship from ape-lovers everywhere. Funds raised will be divided between the Ape Alliance and Born Free Ape Projects great and small - from Gentil and other chimp orphans at Lwiro Sanctuary in Congo, to the UN Great Apes Survival Project.

Apes are in crisis and there’s no time to lose. Chimps, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans face imminent extinction due to human exploitation. We destroy their forest homes, hunt them for ‘bushmeat’ and steal their babies for pets.

The world must act together NOW to stop the slide to extinction. I’ve been hooked on great apes since working with Dian Fossey in the 1970’s to protect the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. I’m determined to do everything I can to save our great ape cousins. Please help me.

April 18th 2004

Celebrating his 50th birthday, Great Ape ambassador and all round favourite conservationist, Ian Redmond, completed the London Marathon for the first and only time on Sunday 18th April 2004 in a time of 4 hours 47 minutes.

"It exceeded all my expectations but was harder than I ever managed" said Ian seconds after arriving at Born Free's encampment at the end of Bird Cage Walk. The furthest I had run in training was 8 miles so the last 18 miles was uncharted territory".

Ian is recognised by conservationists and animal lovers around the world as one of our leading Great Ape experts having introduced Sir David Attenborough to gorillas for his famous sequence in Life on Earth. Ian is also the United Nations Environment Programmes Great Ape Survival Partnership Technical Team Director and has spent the last two years criss-crossing the globe promoting the conservation of our nearest non-human relatives.

Caribbean Holidays

"Born Free had made me a super big banner with an ape on it", said Ian "Originally I had thought I would run for a few miles and then discard it but the public's reaction everywhere I ran was immense and shouts from the public to keep going for the apes made me stick with the banner!! It slowed me down and was positively a hazard to other runners as whenever the wind caught it it threatened to decapitate several other competitors at a single go but in the end I became very attached to it".

In recognition of his achievement Born Free is keeping open Ian's Just Giving website to receive donations and gifts to help the apes so if you would like to reward Ian for completing the London Marathon 2004 (he was on his back unable to move with a spinal injury just two weeks before!) then please go to http://www.justgiving.com/redmond and if you are UK tax payer, simply hit 'Gift Aid' and we can recover more from the Government at no cost to you.