Limbe Wildlife Centre

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: Anne Sofie Meilvang, Cameroon, endangered species | Date: Aug 14 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

We have an old mandrill here in Limbe Wildlife Centre. He is called “Man alone”.

“Man alone” has been here longer than anyone really remembers. He was already here in 1993, when Limbe Zoo turned in to Limbe Wildlife Centre. One of our keepers has been working here more than 20 years, and he tells that Man Alone was here when he started.  At that time “Man alone” was the only mandrill in the zoo – hence his name. He was then held in a very small cage, where he could not even turn around. Of course this changed when the place became Limbe Wildlife Centre.

In 1996 we received another mandrill, and finally “Man alone” got some company. Mandrills do not live in the area around Limbe, but are found in the southern part of Cameroon. But still we receive mandrills once in a while, and today we have a group of 13 individuals. They are living in a big enclosure next to the baboons. For many years “Man alone” was the dominant male in the group. He was very big and strong, and his face brightly colored as you can see on the photo.

Now he is getting old, and he has lost a lot of weight the last year. He has also developed quite a hunchback. Another male, Prosper, is now the dominant male, and “Man alone” is slowly losing his beautiful colors. He does not move much around anymore, but has a special place in the corner of the enclosure, where he often sits and oversees the group.  Hopefully he will stay with us a bit longer..

Have a nice weekend,

Sofie

One response 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: Anne Sofie Meilvang, endangered species | Date: Jul 28 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

If you visit Limbe Wildlife Centre at the moment, you will probably see two persons very busy making swings. It is volunteer Aoife who is from Ireland and our keeper Elvis who takes care of the guenons and mangabeys.

Aoife has been here for three weeks now, and she thinks that some of the monkey enclosures could use more toys. That is why she started her own little swing factory together with Elvis. Since then, nobody has seen Aoife and Elvis without a saw, wood and ropes in their hands. They have produced more than 30 swings now.  Most of the monkeys really like the swings, and enjoy playing on them.

On the picture here you see our grey cheeked mangabey Becky playing on the swing.

Here you can see Limbe Camp, one of our agile mangabeys on a swing. He was actually mostly busy peeling the bark of the wood, eating the insects under it, but that is fine too. As long as they are busy!

Best wishes,

Sofie

Tags: endangered species, mangabeys, monkeys

No responses yet

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: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 25 2009 | By: limbewildlifecentre

I want to give you an update on our two youngest gorillas Atinbi and Adjibolo

Our youngest gorilla Atinbi is almost 5 months old now. She is still very dependent on her mother Akiba, and she hangs on her mother’s belly most of the time, but she is starting to get more confident. To start with, Akiba always had to support her with an arm, when they were moving around, but now Atinbi is strong enough to hang by herself. She is often trying to crawl away from her mother, when they sit on the ground, but Akiba won’t let her and always pulls her gently back on her lap.

It is very interesting to follow the development of a baby gorilla. Our keepers have to note down all her developments. Each day it seems like she is growing and getting stronger. Within the last months Atinbi has got teeth and has started tasting the fruit that the adult gorillas are feed. The other gorillas are still very interested in Atinbi and spend hours observing and touching her.

Adjibolo is now around two years old. She came to LWC when she was only about six months old, and very small. Now she is much bigger, and the happiest gorilla you can imagine. She has a big belly, like most of our female gorillas. This morning I was observing her playing in the enclosure, and it is always a pleasure. She loves to swing in the robes, and is quite acrobatic. She spends most of her day playing, and luckily her group is very playful. The two females, Tinu and Abbey still take very good care of Adjibolo.

All in all our two youngest gorillas are doing very well here in Limbe Wildlife Centre.

Best wishes,

Sofie

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