Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Felix Lankester | Date: Nov 19 2007 | By: admin

Hi all,

thank you for making comments on the LWC’s new site. It is great to know that there are people out there reading our profile and keen to know more. In answer to your question, Xavier, Limbe is very safe to visit and is really easy to get to. It is only 1.5hrs drive from the nearest international airport, Douala, and the town and surrounding area are very safe. Limbe, a bustling fishing port, is within the Mount Cameroon ecosystem, that boasts one of the highest levels of biodiversity in Africa (IUCN 1972). However this precious ecosystem is under threat from the high human population density of this coastal region. As such the LWC finds itself very well placed on the front line of conservation, at the interface between fragile ecosystems and a growing human population. Consequently we place a lot of emphasis on conservation education, utilising the captive wild animals at the LWC as ambassadors for their species. The responses that we get from local people who visit our project (over 30,000/year) and from the schools that we visit are very positive, with most people being very receptive to the idea that their forest ecosystems need to be protected for future generations. However creating conservation results from simple enthusiasm is the challenge that we now face. The future of the Cameroonian rainforests depend on how successful we are!

Also in response to your request I am uploading some photos of our drills: The drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus) is one of the most endangered primate species in Africa, with current estimates reckoning that there are only 3,000 to 6,000 left in the wild. The LWC, which is situated within the natural range of this species, has the second largest captive breeding group of drills in the world and hopes one day to be able to release many of them back into the wild. The largest breeding group are found in the LWC and the Pandrillus Foundation’s sister project Drill Ranch in Nigeria.

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