Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Felix Lankester | Date: Oct 23 2007 | By: admin

Me, performing vetly duties

What we are about

The Limbe Wildlife Centre is a rescue, rehabilitation and release project situated in the South West Province of Cameroon, on the edge of the small fishing town of Limbe, within the Mount Cameroon ecosystem; an ecosystem that, it has been unofficially reported, boasts the second highest levels of biodiversity in Africa. Forest elephant, chimpanzees, drill monkeys, red-eared guenons, and Preuss’s guenons are a few of the endangered species that can be found on the slopes of Mount Cameroon.

However despite this high level of biodiversity and local endemism the entire area of the Mount Cameroon ecosystem has no legal protected status and suffers from illegal logging and high levels of poaching for the bush meat trade that is currently ravaging West and Central African rainforests. In Cameroon the level of trade in bush meat is especially high and, as more and more animals are hunted and removed from their forest homes, the state of ‘empty forest syndrome’ has been coined to describe many of its forests.

Contrary to popular belief however the bush meat trade does not simply enable poor local people to eat protein. Rather much of the meat is smuggled to, and sold in, large cities, such as Lagos, Yaoundé, Johannesburg and even London, as a delicacy for those wealthy enough to be able to afford it. Linked with the bush meat trade is the illegal pet trade, whereby the infant chimpanzees, gorillas and other primate species, that are too small to have a value as a meat source are, having watched their entire families being killed for meat, sold as pets.

The LWC’s very existence is as a direct result of these illegal trades:

Firstly the LWC provides a solution to the problem of what can be done with the infant primates, and other wild animal species, when they are lucky enough to be seized from criminal traders by customs, police or conservation officials. In doing so the LWC supports and encourages the enforcement of the wildlife laws of Cameroon. Without such support the confiscating agencies would soon tire of prosecuting wildlife crime as they would have nowhere to place the animals which they seize.

The LWC provides a sanctuary for these seized individuals, placing them in family groups within enclosures that have outdoor spaces and extensive climbing structures. In doing so the long process of rehabilitation is begun, with a long term goal of the animals being returned to the wild should suitable forest homes be found.

The second aim of the LWC is the utilization of the captive animals as a tool to drive conservation education programs for the local communities. Currently the LWC has three strands within its education program:

1. Saturday Nature’s Club held weekly at the LWC for primary and secondary school students.
2. School Outreach Program – the LWC education team visits local schools and sets up Conservation Clubs, that meet on a weekly basis.
3. Conservation Workshops – each year the LWC hosts conservation workshops, lasting 2 to 3 days.

Living at the LWC

Despite being home to numerous species of endangered wildlife, including duikers, vipers and tortoises, the primary focus of the LWC is the protection of Cameroon’s many endangered species of primate.

Residents include the critically endangered drill monkey (Leucophaeus mandrillus), the critically endangered vellerosus chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes vellerosus), the endangered western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), the critically endangered Cross-River gorilla (G.g.diehli), and several endangered species of guenon and mangabey including the locally endemic and endangered Preuss’s guenon (Cercopithecus preussi).

The Gorilla Enclosure

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