Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Anne Sofie Meilvang, Cameroon, endangered species, rehabilitation | Date: Aug 25 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

A few weeks ago we told you that we had released our two civet cats back to the wild.Only a few days after, a man came to the centre with two small civet cats. The man has a cane rat farm, and some farmers brought these civet babies to him. They had been working in their fields and saw that the mother of the babies had run away, so they decided to pick up the babies and bring them to the owner of the cane rat farm.Unfortunately this is the kind of story we hear often. If the farmers would have left the babies the mum would probably have returned later to take care of them.

Now the two civet babies are in our quarantine and they are doing fine. We feed them milk and fruit. As soon as they are old enough to be released, we will take them back to the wild.

Last week we received another wild animal: a dwarf crocodile. A man brought it here. He bought it from some children who were catching small crocodiles on hooks in a river.  He actually bought two crocodiles, but the other one died quickly after he got it. Of course this man had only good intentions when he bought the crocodiles – he wanted to save them and bring them to a safe place.

Unfortunately it is not a good idea to buy these animals as it encourages the children to try to catch more crocodiles and sell them.This crocodile was lucky to survive, and as soon as we can, we are also going to release it back to nature.

These stories make me a bit sad, but they also remind me why our education program is so important. I really hope one day that people will understand how special these animals are, and why it is important to keep them in the wild.  One day!

Best wishes,

Sofie