Limbe Wildlife Centre

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, 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, 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: Chimpanzee, Simone de Vries, endangered species | Date: Aug 16 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Yesterday was my off day, but Sofie called me to say that Banyo was taken to quarantine because she was very sick. Like several other chimpanzees, she had been coughing and sneezing for a few days. Unfortunately, Banyo has now developed a pneumonia, which can be very dangerous. She is in intensive care, on a drip and getting medication. The whole night keepers have been sitting with her to make sure she was fine and doesn’t pull out the drip.

The rainy season in Limbe has been very tough this year, which resulted four times in flooded enclosures. The combination of rain and cold is very hard on the animals and every year a lot of animals get colds. But Banyo is really very ill now. She is just lying and sleeping, breathing fast and shallow. We are all very worried, but doing what we can to help her. I will keep you all informed.

Best wishes,

Simone

Tags: chimpanzee illness

4 responses so far

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

At the Limbe Wildlife Centre we do a lot to keep our animals busy. The chimpanzees sometimes get coconuts and it is great to see how they deal with them.

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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: 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 

One response so far

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

3 responses so far

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

One response so far