Limbe Wildlife Centre

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

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