CERCOPAN

Category: Cercopan, Education, Monkeys, Nigeria, Uncategorized | Date: Jan 31 2008 | By: admin

On behalf of everyone here at CERCOPAN, thank you so much to Antonio, Theresa and Cathy for your donations. The donation from Theresa will be used to supply our new babies with milk and vital drugs and those from Antonio and Cathy will support our environmental education outreach programme in Calabar and surrounding rural areas.

Mona monkey Sonic and Biggy the Red Eared Guenon

As a non-profit making NGO we really are utterly reliant upon the generosity of individuals, companies and foundations to undertake our vital work here in Nigeria. Consequently, everything we are able to achieve is thanks to people like you.

Thanks again
Claire

3 responses so far

Category: Cercopan, Education, Monkeys, Nigeria, Uncategorized | Date: Jan 26 2008 | By: admin

Yesterday, another orphan primate, an infant Mona named J.B, entered the gates of CERCOPAN. Abraham, our ever vigilant night security guard had passed a compound and observed the monkey riding on the back of a dog.

J.B riding on the back of his dog surrogate mother

After speaking to Abraham, Jerry and Uche drove to the site hoping to persuade J.B’s owners to release him into our care. In the end, I would say that this animal was actually more of a donation than a confiscation as the family did not hesitate to hand him over once Uche and Jerry explained why primates should not be kept as pets. Indeed, the head of the family even requested permission to visit CERCOPAN HQ today so that they can learn more about primates!

J.B and his owner

The owners dog however, was not as keen for us to take J.B away and ran after the travel box whining. J.B spent all of his early life playing with and suckling from the dog and so it will be vital once he has had all of his vaccinations and tests to find him a new friend so that he will not be lonely.

J.B with dog and goat in owners compound

J.B suckling from Dog

Dog looking for his friend inside the travel box

J.B is our 7th new primate since the middle of October and our premises are becoming increasingly crowded. If this continues over the coming weeks, we may be forced to construct new enclosures or to extend our existing facilities in order to deal with the sheer number of animals. In addition, the sudden influx of primates is placing tremendous strain on our financial resources as the price of primate food has almost doubled in the last year.

Uche examining J.B on his arrival at CERCOPAN HQ

8 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jan 21 2008 | By: admin

Just wanted to say a big thank you to John A for his kind donation to CERCOPAN. We really are in desperate need of funds at the moment with all of the new infants that are coming in and with the onset of our annual environmental education outreach programme so every single dollar really does count.

Mona monkey Netim playing in his enclosure

2 responses so far

Category: Cercopan, Education, Monkeys, Nigeria, Uncategorized | Date: Jan 19 2008 | By: admin

It has been another amazingly busy week at CERCOPAN and despite trying every day to find the time to write our blog, this is the first spare minute I have actually had! The highlight of the last week was the arrival of another Mangabey on Wednesday, this time a 7 month old infant male. The call came in at around 9.00am, from Abraham, one of our night security guards. On his way home from work, he had spotted the baby playing with a dog and a group of children in someone’s backyard. As soon as I put down the phone, Richard, Jerry and Egu (one of our primate keepers), prepared a travel box and headed off in the truck to meet Abraham. Speed is always imperative with confiscations, even a slight delay can mean that the animal is no longer on view, or worse still, it has disappeared altogether.

Undercover photo taken at confiscation site

The team arrived at the compound to find a tiny Mangabey, drinking from a bowl of stagnant water. The monkey, later known to be called “Murphy”, was not chained, but looked very malnourished and dirty. After introducing the team as CERCOPAN employees, Jerry asked to speak with the owner of the monkey. Nobody immediately stepped forward, so our staff handed out educational materials, including a poster entitled “Why monkeys do not make good pets” whilst they waited. After about 15 minutes a man approached Jerry and proclaimed that he was the rightful owner of the animal, having bought the creature from a hunter and subsequently paid for its feed.

“Why monkeys do not make good pets” poster

Despite Jerry’s generally very persuasive manner and his repeated pleas for the monkey to be donated to CERCOPAN, the owner stubbornly refused to part with the Mangabey without some form of financial compensation. This is a common problem, as people tend to feel that they should be repaid for having bought and fed the animal. In most cases, the owners relent once they are certain that we will not pay, but this man held firm and threatened that he would rather kill the monkey and go to jail than hand him over for free.

Murphy after his first bottle of milk

As time passed, the crowd grew and tempers began to fray, with all bystanders supporting the owners claim to compensation. Jerry however, remained calm, firm and patient, explaining repeatedly that buying the monkey constituted trading in endangered wildlife and that we would rather solve the problem via calm discussion than involve the police. After approximately two hours of negotiating, the mood finally changed and the owner handed Murphy to Richard, along with a smile and a hand shake. This little Mangabey is very lucky that we found him when we did, given that he is approximately half the size that he should be at his age. Thankfully he is already taking to the bottle well, so I am sure that it will not be too long before he catches up to his age mates at CERCOPAN.

Claire with baby Murphy after his arrival at CERCOPAN

Marley, a captive born baby Mangabey approximately the same age as Murphy but double his size

9 responses so far

Category: Cercopan, Monkeys, Nigeria, Uncategorized | Date: Jan 09 2008 | By: admin

I, and everyone here at CERCOPAN would like to thank everybody for their support and understanding over the death of baby Linda. We were all very saddened by it particularly as she had put up such a brave fight. We were very touched by your comments left on the website. It is good to know there are people out there who care even though you had not the opportunity to meet her. Thank you.

2 responses so far

Category: Cercopan, Monkeys, Nigeria, Uncategorized | Date: Jan 07 2008 | By: admin

Yesterday, I arrived at work at 6am to find Linda sat up in her travel box looking reasonably alert, yet by 10am her health had plummeted once again. She simply lay on her side without reacting as we cleaned her box and tried to make her comfortable with a hot water bottle. At 12.05pm Heather administered drugs in a desperate bid to pull her round, but all of our efforts were in vain and at 9.30pm last night Linda finally gave up the fight. Putty nosed guenon babies tend to go downhill rapidly and it is always difficult to bring them back to health once they are sick and weakened. Knowing this, we had prepared ourselves for the worst, but I think deep down we all secretly believed this tough little monkey would make it through. I apologise for not posting news earlier, but as you can imagine everyone here is feeling pretty low today.

9 responses so far

Category: Cercopan, Monkeys, Nigeria, Uncategorized | Date: Jan 04 2008 | By: admin

Linda took a turn for the worse yesterday evening and left Vet-nurse Heather Macintosh fearing that she would not make it through the night. At 6pm Linda was listless, lying on her side and seemed extremely depressed. Heather immediately cancelled all of her plans for the evening so that she could constantly monitor the babys progress. By 10.00pm Linda was vomiting the fruit she had eaten earlier in the day and Heather decided to contact the vet to discuss additional treatment. They agreed to administer anti-nausea drugs and gave fluids under the skin to re-hydrate her. After providing a new hot water bottle for the night, Heather left her to sleep and we all went to bed very worried about what the new day would bring. Fortunately, when Heather checked again at 6am Linda was sat up, curious and strong enough to put up a fight when she was given her milk. This set back means that we will need to delay her return to the group to allow her to recover sufficiently. Nevertheless, all of us here at CERCOPAN are thankful that she made it through the night and again seems to be on the road to recovery.

Linda puts up resistence as Heather tries to feed her milk

4 responses so far

Category: Cercopan, Monkeys, Nigeria, Uncategorized | Date: Jan 03 2008 | By: admin

Linda was born in captivity at CERCOPAN to mother “Let it be” on 11th June 2007. She was named after Linda Howard, a long term supporter of CERCOPAN and campaigner for primate welfare who died on July 27th 2006. Putty nosed Guenon Linda had a rocky start in life, being blighted with an umbilical hernia from birth. We wrestled with the decision over whether to operate and decided against it, as hernias often resolve themselves and anaesthesia at such a young age can be highly risky. Fortunately over the next few months the hernia gradually reduced in size and now is hardly visible.

Linda after being separated from Let it Be

In the last few weeks however, Linda has become very thin, lethargic and is no longer her usual bouncy self. We separated her to run some tests and identify the problem, but all proved negative and we now believe that the sudden change may be due to her mother’s milk drying up. At the moment we are worming Linda and trying to feed her up so that she can go back to her family. She is eating well and is lively and curious in her travel box, but is obviously missing her mother and calls for her constantly.

Linda calling for her mother from her travel box

Linda will complete her course of treatment at the weekend and will be put back into the group, but we will need to supplement her diet daily with milk. It is difficult to ensure that Linda will receive her fair share in the communal enclosure as the other putties are more dominant and therefore have priority access to food. Once again we are all crossing our fingers for this putty baby, if she deteriorates this time we will be faced with the difficult decision of whether to separate her permanently in order to save her life. Check back to find out how Linda and Let it be react when they are reunited after over a week apart.

5 responses so far