Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Cameroon, Simone de Vries, rehabilitation | Date: Aug 30 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Today we moved a palmnut vulture from the quarantine area into the flight cage of the Fraser’s eagle owl. The very young palmnut vulture was brought to us by a man who seized it from some other people who had pulled out the wing feathers. It is not quite clear what these people wanted to do with the bird, but fortunately the man interfered. We hope that his feathers will grow back, so we can release him back to the wild.

In the last months we have fed the vulture with meat and palmnuts. This species of vultures is the only one not feeding strictly on meat. As a matter of fact, our palmnut vulture really likes palmnuts a lot! In the area of Limbe a lot of rainforest has been cut in order to space for oil palm plantations. It is therefor not a surprise that palmnut vultures are common around here.

The rehabilitation of this particular vulture takes a long time. He arrived in the LWC in April, but after 4 months the wings show very little progress. As the feathers were pulled out at a very young age there is a possibility that the wings will not completely recover.

We have now moved him to a bigger space where he can move around more. We hope that this will help him to stay healthy and strong. He is now sharing an enclosure with our Fraser’s eagle owl. We did not know how they would respond to each other, but they seem to be fine together. In the beginning the owl made himself really big by putting up all his feathers, but then he realized that it was okay. The upper branches are for Fraser, the lower ones for the vulture.

On the picture below you can see that the wings still have a long way to go.

Best wishes,

Simone

Tags: palmnut vulture, rehabilitation

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Category: Bush meat, Cameroon, Simone de Vries, endangered species | Date: Aug 23 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

In less than two years time this blog has become a major fundraising activity for the Limbe Wildlife Centre. While the credit crisis is having an impact on the possibilities to fund projects, this blog is proving that lots of small donation make a big difference. First of all I would like to thank everybody who has donated money through the paypall option on this page. You have made it possible that we are taking care of more than 200 primates and other wildlife species! For all our other readers, I would like to say: please make a donation now. I will explain why this is so important for the LWC.

Every month we are faced with the payments of salaries. Pandrillus, the NGO that manages the Limbe Wildlife Centre, employes a veterinary surgeon, a vet nurse, keepers, education officers, etc. Our staff is truly amazing. They are the most dedicated people I have ever worked with and the LWC would not have been what it is today without their passion and perseverance. Nevertheless, raising funds for salaries is very difficult. Therefor this blog has been invaluable for us in this matter and I hope it will be in the future as well.

Another big chunk of our expenses has to do with veterinary care. All animals that arrive at the LWC go through quarantine and need several health checks before we start introduction into a resident family group. Anaestatics, TB-tests, etc. have to be brought from Europe or America and are very expensive. And in a time like this, with so many animals on treatment for respitorial diseases, a lot of money goes into medications. Again, the money sent through this blog has been incredibly helpful and we need your ongoing support.

So please, if you all give a small donation now, the Limbe Wildlife Centre will be able to continue its work. Our animals deserve the best possible care and together we can give it to them.

Finally, this blog is not only about money. I really appreciate all the comments to our stories. It is good to know there is so many people out there who care and support what we are doing. It gives us the strength to go on and do what we need to do.

Thank you so much!

Simone

Tags: Cameroon, conservation, help

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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

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Category: Cameroon, Simone de Vries, drill | Date: Aug 17 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Even while I was writing the blog yesterday, a drill was brought into quarantine. Ndokbangengue, or shortly Ndok, was breathing with difficulty and coughing badly. Treatment was started right away and she got her own cage next to Banyo. While Banyo seemed to get a bit more strength, Ndok was playing around a bit.

But very quickly her condition deteriorated, until the end of the day when Ndok suddenly collapsed. She was put on a drip and the whole night and following morning she was on oxigen. At 2 pm she died.

We are all very sad. We have gone through a lot with Ndok. She came to the LWC in the beginning of 2008 with a broken arm. For weeks her arm was in a cast, while one of our volunteers, Roseanna Agnew, took care of her 24 hours a day.

She grew up well, became big friends with an older female called Eyumojock. She learned the escape trick from Eyumojock, but also went in easily. Althought drills are not easy to know by name (we have 63) everybody knew Ndok. We will miss her.

Banyo is doing a little bit better than yesterday. We hope she is on the way up. These are tough times!

Best wishes,

Simone

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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: 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

4 responses so far

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: Simone de Vries, drill, endangered species, rehabilitation | Date: Jul 27 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

Nicky Mamfe is a female drill that came to the Limbe Wildlife Centre in February of this year. After a three months quarantine period she is now in the proces of being introduced to the other drills. The introduction is going very slowly, because Nicky has a lot of problems.

Nicky was called after Felix Lankester’s wife, who found her tied to a rope in the village of Mamfe. Nicky Lankester persuaded the owner to give up the drill and donate it to the Limbe Wildlife Centre. She had a crate made out of scrap wood and transported the drill to Limbe.

Nicky Mamfe’s spine is damaged and she has problems moving her hind legs in a normal way. On top of that, she completely lacks social skills and is afraid of the other drills. We can only guess what she has been going through, but is has left its marks both fysically and mentally. Nicky is now in a cage next to the drill enclosure and she has company of a few nice females with their young. However, during feeding we have to separate them, because Nicky is too scared to eat in their company. It is clear that this process is going to take a long time, but we will be very patient.

The drill is the most endangered primate species in Africa, with an estimated number of 3000 left in the wild. Nevertheless, hunting pressure is still very high. Drills live in large groups and mostly on the ground, which makes them very vulnerable for hunters. The hunters kill the adults, while the infants are kept alive in order to sell them as pets. Last year we rescued four drills that had been illegally kept in people’s homes.

The Limbe Wildlife Centre is now home to 62 drills. We breed with them, with the aim to do a reintroduction project in the future. As can be seen in the picture, the males are much bigger then the females. When a female is in heat, she attracks the males with a large sexual swelling. The dominant male, to be recognised by his colourfull buttocks and chin, will follow the female around, anywhere she goes, and mate with her regularly.

Hopefully one day Nicky will be a happy member of this group. With the condition of her legs she will never be able to run around like the ohers, but if she gets used to their company she can feel safe again and live a normal drill life.

Best wishes,

Simone

Tags: drill, endangered species, LWC, rehabilitation

One response 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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