Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Guenon, Simone de Vries, endangered species | Date: Jul 05 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

The rainy season is always a difficult time in the Limbe Wildlife Centre, with many sick animals. This week the rains have been particularly heavy and the results are devastating. Two young moneys, both not even a year old, have died. It is very tough to realize that we have failed to give these animals what they need, but of course what they need most at that age is a mom.

Several times I have written about Bobendina, a young Preuss’s monkey. She was an adorable little monkey, always playing and still sucking her thumb. And although she was with four grown up females who all wanted to fuss over her, she thought she was big enough to take care of herself. A few days ago she was found in the middle of the day lying on the ground. Her breathing was difficult, she was hardly conscious. For about 10 hours the veterinary team tried to keep her alive, but in the end she gave up. The post mortem showed that she had died of pneumonia.

The morning after, Marais was found in pretty much the same condition. Marais came to us as a very small red eared monkey (see blog January 2009). She seemed to have suffered a lot, but after we introduced her to female red eared monkey Aggy, she turned into an almost normal young monkey. Aggy liked to carry her new ‘baby’ and both seemed happy with the arrangement. The only problem was that she refused to take milk from a bottle, so she did not grow very well. In the last month Marais had become more independent and was playing a lot with two young mona monkeys in the same cage. She was quite healthy and lively until that morning. And also for Marais it was too late to help her.

We have buried the two monkeys next to each other with a proper Bakweri ceremony.

It helps to share a ceremony like this with your colleagues, but at the same time I am thinking really hard about the design of the guenon enclosure that we are going to build after the rainy season. The climate in Cameroon is hard, especially for young animals that do not have the protection and warmth of their mom. We somehow have to build something that gives our young monkeys better protection. Should we build in wall heating?

Best wishes,

Simone

2 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, Guenon, Simone de Vries, endangered species | Date: Jan 21 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

This year we will start the building of new enclosures for our guenons. As you can see in the picture the old enclosures are mended many times and the monkeys are great in finding ways out through the damaged mesh. We have already received a large sum of money from Pro Wildlife in Germany, but we need more to be able to construct enough enclosures for all the guenons that are now living in the Limbe Wildlife Centre. If you want to help us build a great home for these monkeys, please give a donation through the paypal option on this blog.

The Limbe Wildlife Centre receives several guenons each year. Some are quite disturbed by the circumstances in which they were kept before their arrival and their rehabilitation takes time. In the LWC they are housed in large groups of mixed species. Already in quarantine we start the process of introducing the newcomers to other monkeys. One of the groups we have at the moment in quarantine contains three mona monkeys. The female used to show stereotypic behaviour when she was in another group: she was constantly dancing. This dancing was probably the only movement she could make when she was kept in a very small cage. This behaviour has completely stopped since we have given her a baby. Ngolle-ngolle, a male baby orphan, is now very happy to have a surrogate mom to hold on to. The third group member is an adult male that is very oriented towards people. He was released on the beach by a white man and consequently started steeling food from nearby kitchens. We had to catch him and bring him to the LWC. He is now, probably after a long period with humans, getting used to primate company again.

Rehabilitation is the first step on the way back to the wild. As the adult male mona monkey case shows, it is not easy to release primates after a period of living in captivity. The animals need to have the proper skills to survive in the wild. Also, it is not a good idea to release an animal on its own, as primates are social animals. It is therefore very important that we form stable groups. Off course we will also need an area with good habitat that is well protected against hunting and logging. We still have a long way to go before we are ready, but it is our ultimate goal to release our primates back to the wild.

To do this work we need bigger, better and more enclosures. We are very happy that we will start with this project soon.

Best wishes,
Simone de Vries
Assistant Project Manager

No responses yet

Category: Bush meat, Cameroon, Guenon, Simone de Vries | Date: Jan 10 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Although she is lucky to be brought to the Limbe Wildlife Centre, our new red-eared monkey (Cercopithecus erythrotis) is nothing like a normal, happy young monkey. The man who brought her in said he had found her in the marsh - ‘Marais’ in French – but later changed his story to a market in Douala. It is often difficult to find out the truth about the history of an incoming animal, but it is clear that Marais, as we call her now, has suffered.

She is very small, but probably older then she looks. She is so skinny that her ribs stick out, which shows that she’s not been fed very well. It would be good for her to drink milk, but she doesn’t want to take it. She likes bananas and other soft fruits.

When everything is normal, Marais makes soft noises: PRRR, PRRR. But when something scares her she let us know with an alarm call: KAKAKAKA! This morning I heard a new sound from her, a loud, deep CROO! It was the storm that scared her, the noise of the rain on the roof and the lightning. Surely her mother would have comforted her, but without doubt she was killed for bushmeat by hunters.

Marais does not quite know yet what to think of me and the other people who are taking care of her now. She is basically afraid of people, but she craves physical contact and she has found out that we can give that to her. Once she decides to come to me she completely surrenders, lies on her back and wants to be stroked. To see a monkey so mixed up makes me sad, but at the same time I am extremely happy and grateful that I can be bring a little comfort.

Best wishes,

Simone de Vries

Assistant Project Manager

3 responses so far

Category: Bush meat, Cameroon, Guenon, endangered species | Date: Nov 27 2008 | By: limbewildlifecentre

The most common monkey in the Mount Cameroon area is the mona monkey. Of all the guenons it is the most adaptable species, so even in degradated forests and close to humans it still survives. This makes them vulnerable for hunting, because they are more visible then the species that live high up in the closed canopy. As a result, many mona monkeys are killed for bushmeat or captured as pets. Takway and Bakassi are two mona monkeys that were lucky enough to end up in the Limbe Wildlife Centre and yesterday they were transferred from the quarantine to the guenon enclosure.

As I have spend much time with Takway, who needed 24 hour care when she just arrived, I could just hold her and take her to the other side of the centre. Bakassi was carried in a box. Inside the enclosure the older monkeys came to have a look, sniffing through the holes in the box and reaching out for Takway, who was holding on to my hair. Motumba, a putty nosed monkey who likes to mother over youngsters, also came to sit on my shoulder, which made Takway scream. I could not see what was going on on my head, but the screaming slowly changed into a soft oooweeeh, oooweeeh, which is a sign that it is okay. Then Motumba grabbed Takway and pulled her away from my hair. Right away Takway was fine with this arrangement and she held on to this strange big monkey.

When I opened the box Bakassi ran out, sniffed some of the other monkeys and decided that it was a nice new place to live. The rest of the days she has been climbing and running and even bathing in the water basin. After a while Takway separated herself from Motumba and joined Bakassi in her play. It was a very easy and successful introduction.

Best wishes,

Simone de Vries

Assistant Project Manager

No responses yet

Category: Bush meat, Cameroon, Guenon, Uncategorized, endangered species | Date: Nov 11 2008 | By: limbewildlifecentre

The Preuss’s monkey is an endangered species with a very small ranch: Western Cameroon, Eastern Nigeria and Bioko. The Mount Cameroon Area is an important area for this species, but as everywhere they are threatened by illegal hunting. Bobendina, a three weeks old baby Preuss’s monkey, was brought to my house at the end of August. Her mother had been killed for bushmeat and the hunters tried to sell her to me. The Limbe Wildlife Centre never pays for animals, as it would encourage people to search for more animals in the forest, but I took the little monkey from them. In 2008 the LWC has already taken in 11 monkeys and 2 chimpanzees. Because of the necessary health checks, the 3 months quarantine is an expensive period. If you want to help us to buy the necessary drugs and anaestetics, please make a donation. Your assistance is much appreciated.

Bobendina, or Dina for short, has been eating and drinking well from the beginning, but she was still very quiet in the beginning. After a few weeks she started playing a little bit more, but she only had people to play with. This is why we were both happy and sad when we recently received another baby monkey, a mona monkey (Cercopithecus mona). It is very good for Dina that she has a friend in quarantine, but it means that more monkeys were killed by hunters. The young mona is a male and he is called Ngolle-ngolle, just like the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife. It is a pleasure to look at the two, playing in their enclosure. Ever since the arrival of Ngolle, Dina is much more adventurous. Together they run around, climb the branches and jump on top of each other. It is quite difficult to make a nice picture now, without having at least one of the two move or completely disappear out of sight.

Best wishes,

Simone de Vries

Assistant Project Manager

One response so far

Category: Guenon | Date: Jul 14 2008 | By: limbewildlifecentre

In the last few months many monkeys were brought to the Limbe Wildlife Centre. In quarantine we have now two putty-nosed guenons, two mona monkeys and one agile mangabey.

The situations in which we find these monkeys are sometimes heart breaking. We found a mona of around two years old in Batoke, a major bushmeat village close to Limbe. She was kept with a rope around the waist, tied to a wooden structure. She had no protection from rain or sun and was malnourished. From frustration she had been plucking her hairs, so she looks awful. In this case the owner was happy that we took the mona away, because she said that it had become a problem for her. Bakassi, as we have called her, is now together with the other mona, Takwai, and the two putty-nosed monkeys Kumba and Manya. It is great to see that she has put up some weight and has become close friends with Kumba. They sleep together in a hummock and during the day they groom each other and play together. Bakassi is still rather bald, but we have not seen her pluck her hair again. We hope that one day her fur will be thick and fluffy again.

Takwai, who arrived at the Limbe Wildlife Centre at the end of April (see earlier blog), has only joined the group a few days ago. For more then two months I have taken her home every night, because she needed milk late at night and in the morning early. She is much younger than the other monkeys, but the others are still too young to adopt her as a baby, so Takwai still has to find her place in the group. But now after a few days she is already more comfortable then on the first day, so she will be fine.

The monkeys arriving at the LWC show us that we still have a lot of work to do. The high school in Batoke is part of our outreach program, so all the students that attend this school participate in our 17 weeks Conservation Education Program. Hopefully these children will be aware of the necessity to take care of the environment when they grow up.

Best wishes,

Simone de Vries

3 responses so far