Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Chimpanzee, Simone de Vries, endangered species | Date: Jun 19 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

The famous Dutch football hero Johan Cruyff always says: ‘Elk nadeel heb z’n voordeel’, which could be translated as: ’Each set back have advantage’ (and don’t blame me for the pour grammar). This week we have started the rebuilding of the outside enclosure for the chimpanzees and the new fence is going to be much better then the old one.Between the gorillas and the chimpanzees we will now build a wall instead of an electric fence. And an important construction project like that cannot start unless a libation ceremony is performed. This ceremony has to be performed by a son of the soil, a member of the Bakweri tribe. So yesterday we got together with all the construction workers and Stephen, who is born and bred on the Cameroon Mountain, talked to the forefathers to bless the work and the wall.

A small offer is necessary, so during the ceremony some whiskey was poured on the fundaments of the wall. I had the honour to apply the first bit of cement. With the help of the forefathers we are confident that the wall will be very strong and no animal will ever escape over it.

Best wishes,Simone

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Category: Cameroon, Chimpanzee, Simone de Vries | Date: Jun 14 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Two weeks ago Limbe was taken by surprise when an extremely violent storm hit the coastline. The Limbe Wildlife Centre suffers from a great deal of damage to trees and enclosures. Especially the chimpanzees are badly affected, because there outside enclosure was completely destroyed. It will take a long time and a lot of money to repair all the damage. We really need all the help we can get, so we appreciate all donations. When there is a storm in Europe or America you watch the weather news at night and you get a complete explanation. Here we have no weather (wo)man to confirm that it has been really bad and to give a name to our bad luck. We don’t know if it was a tornado or something like that, but it is clear that it was really bad. The storm did not last very long, 30 minutes at most, but it was very strong. Many people saw there houses destroyed and, while the chimpanzees were inside, their outside enclosure was completely leveled. The fence went down and their favorite shadow tree was uprooted. This is the old chimpanzee enclosure, luckily the new Born Free chimpanzee enclosure suffered only minor damage and has already been fixed.  But with our ever-growing group of chimpanzees, there are 53 now, we still need the old enclosure, so it will have to be completely rebuilt. Storms are normal at the beginning of the raining season, but everybody agrees that something like this is exceptional.Best wishes,Simone

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Category: Anne Sofie Meilvang, Cameroon, Chimpanzee, Uncategorized | Date: Jun 03 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

I want to give a little update on the three baby chimps that we received three weeks ago. All the chimps seem to be doing fine, and it seems like they have adapted to their new home at Limbe Wildlife Centre. We are now slowly getting to know them and their personalities. 

Tikar is the biggest of the three chimps, and he seems to be the dominant animal in the group. He is full of character and very confident. He is not scared of anything. Like the two other chimps he eats everything we give him. Tikar loves to be groomed and when he sees anybody near the cages he runs to the fence to get their attention. We have to be careful though, as he bites if he gets the chance. 

Ngambe, the female, is not as confident as Tikar, but she is not scared of humans. The babies have apparently not been feed from a baby bottle before they came here, but Ngambe quickly learned to drink from the bottle. We use the baby bottles to feed them milk and yoghurt. Ngambe is very good friends with Tikar.  

Ntui is the smallest chimp and also the most submissive. He seems to have a good character, but is a bit shy. We try to let him come to us, instead of going to him, so that he does not get scared. He is a little underweight but has a very good appetite. He actually eats all day so hopefully soon he will have a normal weight.  We will keep you updated on the chimps. 

Best wishes,Sofie

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