Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Cameroon, Chimpanzee, Simone de Vries | Date: May 16 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Thursday morning 14^th May three two-year-old chimpanzees were confiscated from an logging camp in Cameroon. The Italian owner of the chimpanzees was arrested. The three are in quarantine in the LWC and are doing well. Ngambe Tikar, where the logging camp is, is not close to Limbe. Veterinarian Dr. John and Head Keeper Jonathan had travelled the day before from 5 in the morning until 9 in the evening to get near the logging camp. The confiscation and arrest was done by an official arrest team from Yaounde, while our guys were there to take care of the animals. While the confiscation and arrest went smoothly, the way back to Limbe was full of obstructions. First of all there were administrational matters needed to be solved, but when that was done and the journey had started a much bigger problem arose. On one of the rivers that needed to be crossed with a ferry, a truck loaded with wood had fallen in between the ferry and the land. For three hours John and Jonathan were sitting and waiting, while trying to keep the stressed chimpanzees out of sight of the public. Then the problem was solved and the journey continued. On Friday 1.30 am our team arrived with the chimpanzees and the chimps were put in a nice big cage in the quarantine. The chimpanzees, two males and one female, are about 2 years old. One of the males was a bit dehydrated, but they are all doing well. Here you see pictures of Tikar, Ntui and Ngambe.

Best wishes,

Simone

Tags: chimpanzee confiscation cameroon

6 responses so far

Category: Chimpanzee, Gorilla, Guenon, Simone de Vries, endangered species | Date: Mar 27 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

In the last months we have received a lot of money via this blog. We are really grateful for these donations and would like to thank everybody who contributed. The work we do would not be possible without you! Let me tell you about the animals that are doing really well thanks to your donation.

Gorilla Adjibolo (foto by George Logan), who was rescued in December 2007 when she was half a year old, is growing well. She still takes her milk in the morning and the afternoon, but for the rest she is just like a big gorilla. She is very happy with her two adoptive mothers Abby and Tinu and the playful Arno. Here also a picture of her moms.

And a picture of Arno. Ever since he has his own family you can just see him grow. Pretty soon he will develop as a silverback!

Preuss’s monkey Bobendina is now 8 months old and is growing as well, but she still sucks her thumb. She is in a group with the one-year-older male Bobo and four females.

Mayos is still the baby in our infant chimpanzee group, but she is already 14 months old. She is starting to be more assertive and when the boys bother her she just goes after them. Ilor, the oldest infant, is her biggest friend.

And finally, our youngest gorilla, born on 3rd March 2009 in the LWC, has a name! In memory of the two gorillas that died last year, we call her Atinbi, which means replacement. Atinbi is doing really well and the whole group of gorillas is very interested in her. Especially Chella, her father, is hanging around all the time to make sure she is okay.

And then something completely different: the Limbe Wildlife Centre has a new website. Please have a look at www.limbewildlife.org.

Best wishes,

Simone de Vries

Assistant Project Manager

6 responses so far

Category: Cameroon, Chimpanzee, Simone de Vries, endangered species | Date: Mar 11 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Last saturday 7th March was a very exciting day. After three and a half years of building we finally opened the new island chimpanzee enclosure. Without a doubt, the building of this enclosure has been the most ambitious and difficult project in the history of the Limbe Wildlife Centre, but we can say that the result is magnificent.

The enclosure, known as the island enclosure, has been funded by generous donations from the Born Free Foundation, so we were delighted that a representative of this organisation could participate in the opening. In his opening speech, Ian Redmond explained that also for the Born Free Foundation this project has been an enormous undertaking. Further, we were honoured by the presence of the Director of Wildlife of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, the Divisional Delegate and many other invitees. In a joint effort a ribbon was cut and the new chimpanzee signboard was revealed. Subsequently the chimpanzees were released from the new satellite enclosure into the new outside enclosure.

The new enclosure is large, but only until we saw the chimpanzees run into it we realised how large. The chimpanzees just seem to disappear in all the space they have now. It is an absolute pleasure to see the chimpanzees run around, play with each other and in the water, and explore all corners and hiding spots. Especially with the tall vegetation this enclosure is a true chimpanzee jungle.

We would like to thank the Born Free Foundation for their endless support and great patience. The work that we do can only be done because of sponsors like them and we are extremely grateful. With the completion of this job we now have time to start planning the building of a new guenon enclosure (see blog of ). We welcome all donations for this new project.

Best wishes,

Simone de Vries, Assistant Project Manager

7 responses so far

Category: Bush meat, Cameroon, Chimpanzee, endangered species, illegal trade | Date: Oct 29 2008 | By: limbewildlifecentre

I just returned from a four weeks leave in the Netherlands and it feels good to be back at the Limbe Wildlife Centre, Cameroon. A lot of things have happened while I was away, like the integration of four infant chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). It is great to see that the two new infants play with the older two and have become a little bit less dependent on people. Nevertheless they still need a lot of extra care, milk etc., which costs a lot of money. If you want to sponsor milk for our infants, please make a donation. Milk for one infant costs 15 euro per month.

Our frequent readers know the stories of Mbam, who was very afraid of people when he arrived, and Mayos, the four months old baby that needed 24-hour care. When Mbam was still in quarantine he spend a lot of time with Mayos and her caretaker Sandy. Although Mayos is a lot younger then Mbam, she seemed to understand the social chimpanzee rules a lot better then Mbam. We suspect that Mbam has spent a long time with people in a very bad situation. After his quarantine period he moved to the infant enclosure where he met Ilor and Nanga. Just before my leave Mbam was still a bit afraid of these big infants (2 1/2 years old!), but they now play together like they’ve known each other for years.

Mayos has been with Ilor and Nanga in the daytime for a few months now, but now she is fully integrated into the group. She gets an extra bottle of milk during the day and the security staff gives her another bottle late at night. She also needs to sleep for an hour during the day and she prefers to do that on one of the keepers’ laps. She is very confident with the older chimpanzees, more so then Mbam, and she is developing very well. It is great so see that our two new chimpanzees are growing and adjusting so well.

Best wishes,

Simone de Vries, Assistant Project Manager

Tags: bushmeat, Chimpanzee, conservation education, pan troglodytes, Pandrillus, pet trade, vellerosus

2 responses so far

Category: Chimpanzee | Date: Sep 17 2008 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Running a sanctuary is hard work and it is not always easy to make time to write about it. We have had some sick animals in the last months, which is normal in the rainy season, but it seems that we have had the worst now. Because of the relative cold the bananas did not ripe well, so we had to find alternatives and cook lots of potatoes and cocoyams. That is back to normal too. This summer we have also been busy with four very successful Holiday Workshops and now we are starting up the next school year’s Outreach Program.

As I have some time now, I would like to tell you about Gah. People who watch the series ‘Going Ape’ will remember the baby chimpanzee that was completely paralysed when he came to the Limbe Wildlife Centre. When his mother was shot he had received bullits in his spine. Only with a lot of veterinary care, physiotherapy and patience of our quarantine keepers, Gah slowly started to move again. First his arms, later his legs, but he will always have a silly walk.

Gah is now almost 4 years old now and a few months ago we decided that it was time for him to move on from the baby group to the youngsters group. Most young chimps make this transition without any problems, but for Gah it was hard. Chimpanzees always play rough with eachother and Gah did not respond well to this. We started the introduction with the smallest chimpanzee: Mbu. She had spent a long time with Gah in the infants group and right away they became friends again. But after that it became more difficult, because all the others just banged on Gah’s head to see how he would respond to that. Having Mbu as a friend did not help, because she was too small to interfere with any of the others. At some point we had to take a step backwards and begin again. Each time we added one chimpanzee to the couple Mbu and Gah and observed how it went. When they were fine for a few days we added another. It took a long time, but the result is that now all the chimpanzees accept Gah as part of the group. Okay, he has a silly walk and does not run very fast, nor climb very high, but he is just Gah. They don’t bother him now very much anymore. Slowly he is developing a friendship with George, who is normally very oriented towards people. George normally spends most of his time sitting in front of the fence looking at the visitors and the keepers. It is good for him too, to have a new friend.

Best wishes,

Simone de Vries (Assistant Manager)

7 responses so far

Category: Chimpanzee | Date: Aug 05 2008 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Last Thursday I was called by a man in Bafoussam, who said he had a baby chimpanzee that he would like to donate to the Limbe Wildlife Centre. He had tried to find a good place for it for more then a month, but it was not until he emailed the IFAW office in France that he found out about the LWC. On Friday our head keeper travelled to Bafoussam to meet the man and bring back the chimpanzee. They arrived on Saturday in Limbe. The man told us that he had bought the chimpanzee from someone in Mbam forest, where he often goes to find herbs. He had paid 50,000 CFA (75 euros) for it. He told us that it was not the first time he had seen a young chimpanzee in that forest. The first time he had not bought the animal and when he came back a few days later the animal had died. This is why he felt he had to buy this chimpanzee to save its life. The Limbe Wildlife Centre never buys animals because it encourages hunters to get more animals from the forest. The man understood this, but he had felt like he had no choice. Just as we were listening to the man’s story, his phone rang. It was the man from the forest, saying that he had another chimpanzee for sale. This is a very sad illustration of the fact that buying animals really creates a market. We will of course try to get this chimpanzee as well, but then through confiscation. 

We have called our new chimpanzee Mbam. He is around one and a half years old and in good condition. He does not trust people yet and does not like us to touch him. No wonder after what he has been through. We take shares sitting with him and let him come to us. Today he started licking my hand, so I am sure he will soon come around.

Best wishes,

Simone de Vries

Assistant Project Manager 

10 responses so far

Category: Cameroon, Chimpanzee | Date: May 30 2008 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Last Thursday at the end of the day I got a phone call from an American missionary who works in the forest of the eastern province. He visited the Limbe Wildlife Centre a few months ago with his family and at that time Sandy and I talked to them about the problem of orphaned baby chimps and gorillas. They told us that they had seen hunters with baby chimpanzees close to where they live, so we said that if they would ever see that again they should call us. And so they did…

On the morning of Saturday 12th May a hunter in Mayos took a baby chimpanzee back from the forest. He had killed the mother and wanted to sell the baby. Fortunately for the infant the American family heard about this and they were able to convince the hunters that it would be much better for the baby to be brought to a sanctuary. So they took the baby home and took care of it until they travelled to Douala. As soon as they were in reach of a telephone network they called us that they were on their way.

Sandy and I drove to Douala to meet them and there we found a very little, female chimpanzee. Sandy took her over and immediately the little infant seemed to be comfortable. It is quite clear that the family has done a good job taking care of her.

We are very happy that the American family decided to support Mayos financially. This will help us to pay for the food and the veterinary care, but it will not cover all the costs. Especially the quarantine period, when many tests and vaccinations need to be done is a very expensive period. The total costs of the first three months at the Limbe Wildlife Centre will probably be around $800. We would be very greatful if you would like to help us take care of Mayos by making a small donation.

Mayos is in good health, but so young! When we had a close look at her teeth, we estimated her age at four months. She is not very mobile yet, just sitting and observing the world around her. Her legs are not yet strong enough to stand up, but if she holds on to something she can move around a little bit. Sandy has built a tiny little climbing structure for her, but most of the time she prefers to sit on her lap. At the end of the day she goes home with Sandy and she sleeps through the night in a box, holding on to her toy gorilla that was given to her by the American family.

Simone de Vries

Assistant Project Manager

5 responses so far