Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Cameroon, Chimpanzee, Simone de Vries | Date: May 16 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Thursday morning 14^th May three two-year-old chimpanzees were confiscated from an logging camp in Cameroon. The Italian owner of the chimpanzees was arrested. The three are in quarantine in the LWC and are doing well. Ngambe Tikar, where the logging camp is, is not close to Limbe. Veterinarian Dr. John and Head Keeper Jonathan had travelled the day before from 5 in the morning until 9 in the evening to get near the logging camp. The confiscation and arrest was done by an official arrest team from Yaounde, while our guys were there to take care of the animals. While the confiscation and arrest went smoothly, the way back to Limbe was full of obstructions. First of all there were administrational matters needed to be solved, but when that was done and the journey had started a much bigger problem arose. On one of the rivers that needed to be crossed with a ferry, a truck loaded with wood had fallen in between the ferry and the land. For three hours John and Jonathan were sitting and waiting, while trying to keep the stressed chimpanzees out of sight of the public. Then the problem was solved and the journey continued. On Friday 1.30 am our team arrived with the chimpanzees and the chimps were put in a nice big cage in the quarantine. The chimpanzees, two males and one female, are about 2 years old. One of the males was a bit dehydrated, but they are all doing well. Here you see pictures of Tikar, Ntui and Ngambe.

Best wishes,

Simone

Tags: chimpanzee confiscation cameroon