Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Anne Sofie Meilvang, Cameroon, endangered species, rehabilitation | Date: Oct 28 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Within the last couples of months we have received three small dwarf crocodiles here at LWC. One was caught by some children in a river; one was given as a present to a chief of a village. His son came here to sell it, but we convinced him to donate it. The last one was brought here during the night. We don’t know its story. Yesterday, we released two of the crocodiles back to the wild.Unfortunately the last one has some serious wounds after being tied up with ropes around its legs. We will not release him yet, as we are worried that the wounds will get infected.

The two crocodiles were released in the nearby Bimbia Community Forest. In the forest is a river, a perfect habitat for dwarf crocodiles. We wanted to release the crocodiles weeks ago, but the road to the forest is really bad during the rainy season, so the river has not been accessible for months. But now the dry season is finally here, and the road is better.

The release team consisted of keeper James, Driver Egbe, volunteer Yana and me, Sofie. The crocodiles were loaded in seperate transport boxes on the back on our truck, and we were ready to go.

Although the road was much better than in the rainy season, it was still pretty bad and sometimes the ride was a bit scary. The road was very muddy and slippery with big potholes.  It is a stunning tour though, in a very hilly area with the view of Limbe, Mt. Cameroon, the sea and rainforest.

After 1.5 hour’s drive we reach the river, and it was time for the crocodiles to be released. We simply open the transport boxes, and the crocodiles could finally enter the water. It was so nice to see them back in their true habitat, and they both swam away right away. Hopefully they will have a safe life in Bimbia Forest now. Good luck crocodiles!

Best wishes,

Sofie   

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Category: Anne Sofie Meilvang, Cameroon, endangered species, rehabilitation | Date: Oct 07 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

I just want to show you some more photos of Ndogpassi Jake, the mandrill we received a month ago.

Jake is doing fine. He is still in quarantine and has more than two months left before he can move on to the enclosure with the other mandrills here. We are trying to give him a lot of enrichment, branches, frozen fruit etc to keep him busy and he loves it! But most of all he loves company and is very happy when we sit outside his cage and talk to him.

We did his health check a few weeks ago, and he seems to be in a good condition, though a bit underweight. While Jake was sedated for the health check we could finally remove the piece of rope he had around his waist when he came here. He looks much better without it!

Best wishes,

Sofie

4 responses so far

Category: Anne Sofie Meilvang, Cameroon, Chimpanzee, rehabilitation | Date: Sep 22 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

The three baby chimpanzees, which were confiscated from a logging camp in May, have finally moved out of quarantine. They spent a longer time in quarantine than our animals normally do because we found some strange lumps on their stomachs when we did their first health check. We were afraid that these could be tuberculosis lumps. Fortunately, after doing several tests and examinations, our vet team found out that the lumps were caused by worms which could be treated. This meant that the babies could be moved.

Tikar, the biggest, went directly to the big enclosure with the adult chimpanzees where he is now slowly being introduced. He moved there together with Mbam, a male from the baby group, who was getting too big and too strong to stay with the other babies. When Mbam first came to the satellite cages with all the adult chimpanzees, he was very scared. The adults were very excited about the newcomers and screamed very loudly. Mbam refused to let go of Killi, his keeper from quarantine. But the day after he was fine and had made good friends with Tikar.

The two smallest chimpanzee babies, Ntui and Ngambe, are now in the baby chimp enclosure together with Mayos, a young female. They still need milk twice a day and are too small to be introduced to the adults. They really enjoy their new life, and spend the whole day playing with each other and on the climbing structures. Mayos seems to be very happy about her new friends. She is normally a bit shy and unsecure, but now that she is the one who has been in the baby enclosure the longest, she acts very confidently. The first day Ngambe and Ntui were outside she showed them around and taught them how to use the climbing structures.

 In the picture you see Ngambe  

And here Ntui

Best wishes,

Sofie

2 responses so far

Category: Anne Sofie Meilvang, Cameroon, endangered species, rehabilitation | Date: Sep 14 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

A few weeks ago one of our keepers went to Douala to visit some family. Near their house he discovered an adult male mandrill tied up outside a house. It is of course illegal to keep mandrills, which are endangered animals, in private houses. Therefore we contacted the Chief of Wildlife in Douala to help us with a confiscation. The confiscation and the legal prosecution are not done by us, but by officials working for the government. Last Thursday two of our keepers and our veterinarian went to Douala to take care of the animal during the confiscation and to bring it back to the wildlife centre.  We expected that we needed to sedate the mandrill to get it in to the travel box, but the mandrill has been living as a pet in the house for seven years and was very tame.  He just walked into the box.

The owner told us that he was using the mandrill as a guard to take care of his house. He even told that he sometimes left his children alone in the house and put the mandrill outside to protect them. The mandrill lived as a part of the family and was eating the same food as them. They even gave him beer. He seems to be in a good condition though.

The mandrill is called Jake and is a beautiful fully colored adult. We have added Ndogpassi to his name, as he was confiscated in the Ndogpassi area in Douala. He is now in our quarantine where he has to stay for 3 months, so that we are sure he hasn’t got any diseases he can spread to the rest of our mandrills.I worry about the day when we have to introduce him to our mandrill group. First of all we already have adult males in the group, and secondly Jake clearly does not know that he is a mandrill. He is so used to living with humans, and he probably has not seen other mandrills for the last 7 years, so it will be difficult for him to understand their “language” and their behavior. Hopefully he will learn it!

I will keep you updated on Jake.

Best wishes,

Sofie

One response so far

Category: Anne Sofie Meilvang, Cameroon, Chimpanzee, Gorilla | Date: Sep 06 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

We are now rebuilding our old chimpanzee enclosure. The chimpanzee enclosure is next to one of our gorilla enclosures with a group of four gorillas. Before the two enclosures were separated with fence and a corridor, but now we have build a wall between the two enclosures. This means, that the gorillas had their enclosure expanded with roughly 100 square meters a few days ago. It is not much, but for the gorillas it has been very exciting and very good enrichment.

The new area is quite muddy, and the silverback Arno has spent the last days jumping and rolling around in the mud - Having a great time. Every time he is feed, he brings the food to that part of the enclosure, so he can sit and eat with his back against the wall.

On the picture you see him covered in mud – he is normally quite black, but today he is brown from the mud.

The other gorillas have also been very interested in the new part of their enclosure. Especially Tinu, one of the females, love to bang on the new wall, making a lot of noise. When the chimpanzees return to their enclosure on the other side of the wall, I am sure that both the gorillas and the chimpanzees will have great fun communicating with each other banging on the wall.

Best wishes,

Sofie

One response so far

Category: Cameroon, Simone de Vries, rehabilitation | Date: Aug 30 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Today we moved a palmnut vulture from the quarantine area into the flight cage of the Fraser’s eagle owl. The very young palmnut vulture was brought to us by a man who seized it from some other people who had pulled out the wing feathers. It is not quite clear what these people wanted to do with the bird, but fortunately the man interfered. We hope that his feathers will grow back, so we can release him back to the wild.

In the last months we have fed the vulture with meat and palmnuts. This species of vultures is the only one not feeding strictly on meat. As a matter of fact, our palmnut vulture really likes palmnuts a lot! In the area of Limbe a lot of rainforest has been cut in order to space for oil palm plantations. It is therefor not a surprise that palmnut vultures are common around here.

The rehabilitation of this particular vulture takes a long time. He arrived in the LWC in April, but after 4 months the wings show very little progress. As the feathers were pulled out at a very young age there is a possibility that the wings will not completely recover.

We have now moved him to a bigger space where he can move around more. We hope that this will help him to stay healthy and strong. He is now sharing an enclosure with our Fraser’s eagle owl. We did not know how they would respond to each other, but they seem to be fine together. In the beginning the owl made himself really big by putting up all his feathers, but then he realized that it was okay. The upper branches are for Fraser, the lower ones for the vulture.

On the picture below you can see that the wings still have a long way to go.

Best wishes,

Simone

Tags: palmnut vulture, rehabilitation

One response so far

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

2 responses so far

Category: Bush meat, Cameroon, Simone de Vries, endangered species | Date: Aug 23 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

In less than two years time this blog has become a major fundraising activity for the Limbe Wildlife Centre. While the credit crisis is having an impact on the possibilities to fund projects, this blog is proving that lots of small donation make a big difference. First of all I would like to thank everybody who has donated money through the paypall option on this page. You have made it possible that we are taking care of more than 200 primates and other wildlife species! For all our other readers, I would like to say: please make a donation now. I will explain why this is so important for the LWC.

Every month we are faced with the payments of salaries. Pandrillus, the NGO that manages the Limbe Wildlife Centre, employes a veterinary surgeon, a vet nurse, keepers, education officers, etc. Our staff is truly amazing. They are the most dedicated people I have ever worked with and the LWC would not have been what it is today without their passion and perseverance. Nevertheless, raising funds for salaries is very difficult. Therefor this blog has been invaluable for us in this matter and I hope it will be in the future as well.

Another big chunk of our expenses has to do with veterinary care. All animals that arrive at the LWC go through quarantine and need several health checks before we start introduction into a resident family group. Anaestatics, TB-tests, etc. have to be brought from Europe or America and are very expensive. And in a time like this, with so many animals on treatment for respitorial diseases, a lot of money goes into medications. Again, the money sent through this blog has been incredibly helpful and we need your ongoing support.

So please, if you all give a small donation now, the Limbe Wildlife Centre will be able to continue its work. Our animals deserve the best possible care and together we can give it to them.

Finally, this blog is not only about money. I really appreciate all the comments to our stories. It is good to know there is so many people out there who care and support what we are doing. It gives us the strength to go on and do what we need to do.

Thank you so much!

Simone

Tags: Cameroon, conservation, help

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Category: Cameroon, Chimpanzee, Simone de Vries | Date: Aug 21 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

I am very happy to tell you all that Banyo is getting a little better every day. She is looking brighter and her breathing is much better. She still coughs but it is not as rough anymore as a few days ago.

Apart from this good news, we have a whole list of animals who are coughing and sneezing. Both chimpanzees and drills, while we normally never have these problems with drills. Our vet team, at the moment two vets and two vet nurses, are very busy administering all the drugs to the different animals. For the chimpanzees, who all spend the night in the nighthouse, it is given in a cup of juice through the bars. The chimpanzees always like to drink juice, so that is easy. With the drills it is more difficult because they are not locked inside during the night; they always have the choice to be inside or out. For them the vets make peanutbutter and oats balls, with the medication in it. They throw the balls to the animals that need to be treated when they are close to the fence.

This year’s rainy season has been particularly heavy. Limbe is very close to the wettest place in Africa, also the second wettest place in the world. Per year we have around 10,000 mm of rain, which is really quite a lot. Nevertheless, this should not be a problem for our animals, because they naturally live in the forest on Mount Cameroon. With the roofs we provide them you would even expect them to be better off than their conspecifics in the wild. Contact with human beings is probably a more important factor in this case. We have strict rules for our keepers: wearing masks and gloves when cleaning, stay away from the animals when you have a cold, etc. Still many chimpanzees catch a cold every year.

But at least Banyo can make funny faces again!

Best wishes,

Simone

2 responses so far

Category: Cameroon, Simone de Vries, drill | Date: Aug 17 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Even while I was writing the blog yesterday, a drill was brought into quarantine. Ndokbangengue, or shortly Ndok, was breathing with difficulty and coughing badly. Treatment was started right away and she got her own cage next to Banyo. While Banyo seemed to get a bit more strength, Ndok was playing around a bit.

But very quickly her condition deteriorated, until the end of the day when Ndok suddenly collapsed. She was put on a drip and the whole night and following morning she was on oxigen. At 2 pm she died.

We are all very sad. We have gone through a lot with Ndok. She came to the LWC in the beginning of 2008 with a broken arm. For weeks her arm was in a cast, while one of our volunteers, Roseanna Agnew, took care of her 24 hours a day.

She grew up well, became big friends with an older female called Eyumojock. She learned the escape trick from Eyumojock, but also went in easily. Althought drills are not easy to know by name (we have 63) everybody knew Ndok. We will miss her.

Banyo is doing a little bit better than yesterday. We hope she is on the way up. These are tough times!

Best wishes,

Simone

2 responses so far