Limbe Wildlife Centre

Mona monkeys (Cercophithecus mona) out of quarantine

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

A new friend for our baby Preuss’s monkey (Cercopithecus preussi)

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

Monkeys

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