Limbe Wildlife Centre

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

We have an old mandrill here in Limbe Wildlife Centre. He is called “Man alone”.

“Man alone” has been here longer than anyone really remembers. He was already here in 1993, when Limbe Zoo turned in to Limbe Wildlife Centre. One of our keepers has been working here more than 20 years, and he tells that Man Alone was here when he started.  At that time “Man alone” was the only mandrill in the zoo – hence his name. He was then held in a very small cage, where he could not even turn around. Of course this changed when the place became Limbe Wildlife Centre.

In 1996 we received another mandrill, and finally “Man alone” got some company. Mandrills do not live in the area around Limbe, but are found in the southern part of Cameroon. But still we receive mandrills once in a while, and today we have a group of 13 individuals. They are living in a big enclosure next to the baboons. For many years “Man alone” was the dominant male in the group. He was very big and strong, and his face brightly colored as you can see on the photo.

Now he is getting old, and he has lost a lot of weight the last year. He has also developed quite a hunchback. Another male, Prosper, is now the dominant male, and “Man alone” is slowly losing his beautiful colors. He does not move much around anymore, but has a special place in the corner of the enclosure, where he often sits and oversees the group.  Hopefully he will stay with us a bit longer..

Have a nice weekend,

Sofie

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Category: Bush meat, Cameroon, Simone de Vries | Date: Aug 05 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

The two African civets (Civettictis civetta) that were brought to the Limbe Wildlife Centre in March, will be released in the forest today. When they arrived in the LWC they were still babies, their mother possibly killed for bushmeat, but in 5 months time they have grown up enough to go back to the wild.

The civets were reared with puppy milk and later fed with fruits, rats and noodles. With this diet we have successfully reared several civets. They stay in a nice enclosure, that gives them plenty of coverage. We don’t want them to become used to people too much. The civets are monitored closely by our vet team. On the picture you can see how Dr. John is giving one of the civets a last treatment against worms, while keeper James is holding the animal. The very useful gloves were donated by Stichting Aap in the Netherlands (www.aap.nl).

For the reintroduction of civets and other non primate species we work together with the Ebo Forest Research Project of San Diego Zoo. Their research camp is a perfect place to release animals and keep an eye out for them afterwards. Civets that were released here earlier typically disappear right away into the forest, but one of them lingered around a bit and seemed to be doing quite well.

This morning very early our two civets started their travel to the forest in a transport box. They will be fed and watered during the trip, first in the car, then on the head of a porter. It is a long and strenuous walk through a thick forest with a big box on your head!

We will have to wait for two weeks, when this reasearch group comes back from the forest, to hear about how the release went.

Best wishes, Simone

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Category: Cameroon, Gorilla, Simone de Vries, endangered species | Date: Aug 03 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

This morning I thought I would go to the bank, arrange some paperwork for the car, answer emails etc. But it all went completely different. Baby gorilla Atinbi was not with her mother Akiba, because during the night Jumbo had stolen the baby. When Atinbi was born we were afraid this might happen, because Akiba was not a very high ranking female. But in the last 5 months Akiba has been an excellent mom, who always protects her baby very well. Until this morning.

Jumbo, here on the picture with Atinbi, is a very funny gorilla. She is always dancing, moving her body and shaking her arms. This morning she was even crazier than normal and she was giving Atinbi a roller coaster ride, jumping up and down and rolling from one side to the other. Atinbi did not appreciate it and called for her mom. Akiba was nervous, trying to get her baby back, then giving up and walk around. We observed it for a while, but it was clear that this problem was not going to be solved by the gorillas themselves. We decided to separate Jumbo from the rest of the group, so Bama could go in with her and try to take Atinbi away from her. Jumbo is not an aggressive gorilla, but it is always a bit risky to do something like this. Bama tried to grab Atinbi, but Jumbo would not let him. Bama asked me to come in and help, but to be honest that did not help at all. If there is anybody who can get things done from our gorillas it is Bama. I just made a picture of his efforts.

We had already given up and the vet team was preparing to sedate Jumbo, when Bama gave it one last shot. He yelled at Jumbo and acted like the perfect silverback. Jumbo was a bit impressed this time and let Bama take the baby. But as soon as Bama had the baby and headed towards the door, Jumbo came after him and did not want to let him out of the cage. It took quite some effort to get out without letting Jumbo out as well.Akiba is now inside with her baby and her friend Pitchou for company. We wanted to give them some rest, before going back into the group.

Atinbi is getting more and more adventurous, so we think that she must have wandered off a bit, when Jumbo took her. But she is still a baby that needs to drink milk and be with her mom. We will have to keep a close eye on Jumbo, so she does not do it again.

Best wishes, Simone

Tags: baby, Gorilla, infant

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Category: Cameroon, Simone de Vries, education, endangered species | Date: Aug 02 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

The Fraser’s eagle owl at the Limbe Wildlife Centre has a new enclosure. Since his arrival in January 2008 the owl has lived in a cage in quarantine. Now we have build a new cage for him, so he has more space and the visitors can learn about owls.

Fraser was brought to the LWC after some kids had thrown rocks at him. His eye was damaged and as a result he cannot be released. In Cameroon owls are considered to be witches, who bring bad luck. It is very important to educate the people about owls and their place in nature.In order to give Fraser the opportunity to fly we started a training program. Every day his trainer Killi takes him out of the cage to let him fly freely outside. Apart from the welfare issue, these flight shows are an excellent opportunity to talk to the visitors about owls. Yesterday Fraser moved in his new cage and he seems perfectly happy in there, but this afternoon during the training he was a bit confused and not flying very much. Maybe he needs some time to adjust.

On this pictures Killi is showing the owl in front of the new cage. If you want to support the Limbe Wildlife Centre, please make a donation. With the money we receive via this blog we can build other enclosures for our animals. Thank you very much for your support!

Best wishes, Simone

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Category: Cameroon, Chimpanzee, Simone de Vries, Uncategorized, endangered species | Date: Jul 19 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

A few days ago Jo-Jo, a male chimpanzee of about 13 years old, went outside for the first time in a very long time. After years in a cage he could finally feel the grass beneath his feet again.

Jo-Jo was kept by a Greek business man, ever since he was a baby. Over time he became more and more difficult to keep and frequently escaped. When the man left the country he left Jo-Jo with a Cameroonian colleague. The colleague decided to donate Jo-Jo to the Limbe Wildlife Centre. This is how Jo-Jo was kept until then.

Jo-Jo was an aggressive chimpanzee when he came to us. Being in a small cage for a long time had been very hard for him and hours on end he was rattling his feet against the quarantine cage. His rehabilitation has taken a long time, but this week he was finally ready to go outside with the rest of the chimpanzees in the new Born Free Chimpanzee enclosure.

He first hesitated, going out for a few seconds and then run inside again. He repeated that a few times. Then he grabbed Papa, a young male, from the back and walked out with him. Papa guided him around, Jo-jo holding on tightly. Several chimpanzees came up to Jo-Jo and hugged him. It was almost like they were congratulating him: you are outside! Papa walked him all the way down to the end of the enclosure, where Carlos was waiting for them.

Carlos is our biggest chimpanzee and he weighs 84 kilograms. Carlos and Jo-Jo hugged each other and Jo-Jo even climbed on Carlos back. Like that, Carlos walked him around a bit then they went up to a climbing structure. Jo-Jo climbed up and stayed there the rest of the day.

Jo-Jo, who only weighs 50 kilograms, looks quite small next to Carlos.

At the end of the day Jo-Jo did not want to come inside. We could not blame him, because he had been inside for too long. Finally when darkness came, Jo-Jo went in and we closed the door behind him. This routine was repeated the two days that followed, until yesterday when he went inside with the others.

Tags: Chimpanzee, rehabilitation

5 responses so far

Category: Anne Sofie Meilvang, Cameroon, Uncategorized, education | Date: Jul 13 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Our educators here take visitors around the centre every day, and most of our keepers guide visitors around whenever they have time. As Cameroon has both a French speaking and an English speaking part, many of our visitors are French speaking. Therefore many of the tours have to be in French. Until now only a few of the staff have been able to do the tours in French, but this is now going to change.

Thanks to Gwendy Reyes-Ills and her parents who have raised a lot of money for our staff education program, 15 of the people working here, last week started on a French course. The course is four hours a week, and pretty intense.

Here you see the group who started taking the French course;

It is great to see how hard the staff is working to learn French and how enthusiastic they are. Every morning after a class, we all practice what we have learned, so all over Limbe Wildlife Centre you will hear French. I even think some of the keepers started talking to their animals in French!

We are very grateful that Gwendy and her parents are supporting our staff education. Merci beaucoup!

Best wishes,

Sofie

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Category: Cameroon, Chimpanzee, Simone de Vries | Date: Jul 06 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Not one day is the same as the next here in Limbe. When we woke up this morning it was raining heavily, but we are quite used to that. Only when we arrived at the Wildlife Centre we realized how much water had fallen, because the whole place was flooded. The river Limbe, which is most of the year just a small stream, had turned into a massive lake. The chimpanzees will have to stay inside today, because their enclosure is completely flooded. Hopefully the water level will go down soon, so we can clean the fence and get the chimps outside again. The cage of the mangabeys is also standing in the water, but the mangabeys don’t seem to care. Although the rain is still falling they are not hiding under the roof, but just sit high up in the cage.   At least the sky is lighting up a little bit now, so hopefully the rain will stop soon.Best wishes,Simone 

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Category: Anne Sofie Meilvang, Cameroon, Gorilla, education | Date: Jul 02 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

It has been a busy time for the education team in Limbe. Every year we have holiday workshops here at Limbe Wildlife Centre. Last week we had the first one this year, which were for secondary school students. This year’s theme is “Gorillas, research and conservation”. We decide to focus on gorillas, because 2009 is appointed as “Year of the gorilla”.  Our holiday workshops are sponsored by Buschgarden Zoo in Florida, and they came up with the idea of focusing on research. The holiday workshops are free of charge, and it lasts for three full days. They are very popular among the children and adults in Limbe, and every year we see a lot of well known faces from previous workshops. This year more than 50 children signed up for the first workshop. This year the program was very busy. Within the three days, the students had several lectures about gorillas and conservation. They learned how to recognize gorillas from each other, and they did behaviour studies on the gorillas here. They went to a nearby forest to investigate if it was a suitable habitat for a gorilla group. We also had a gorilla researcher, Albert, from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) here to tell about his job. He is Cameroonian and do research on Cross River gorillas. The children loved to hear his stories about counting gorilla nests and analyzing gorilla faeces. Buschgarden Zoo has holiday workshops at the same time as us, and our children always have a chat session with Buschgardens children in Florida. It is a very important part of the workshop, and this year the students discussed everything, from the weight of a tiger and the status of lemurs, to how often people do shopping in Florida and how big a Cameroonian family is. On the last day the children prepared posters showing what they have learned doing the workshop. They all have to present their poster and the ones how had made the best poster, and who did the best presentation got awarded. At the end all the participants are given certificates.Everything went very well, and we are now looking forward for the next three workshops, one for primary school children, one for high school children and one for university students and other interested adults. We are very grateful that Buschgarden Zoo sponsors our holiday workshop, and that so many people are interested in learning about primates and conservation.   Best wishes Sofie

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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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