By Egu Arikpo

Place of work: Calabar HQ

Designation: Primate Care Staff 

Years of Service : 10 years

Egu

CERCOPAN is conserving six different species of monkeys, but I Egu Arikpo am in charge of Putty Nosed Guenons. Putty nosed monkeys belong to the family of the guenons called (Cercopithecus nictitan) and they are found from Liberia to Zaire and Angola.  Nellie was one of the putty’s and was a dominant female.  She acted very well in the group which every staff in CERCOPAN loved, her behaviour was as that of humans, because whenever a new monkey was introduced into her group from quarantine she did not fight nor threaten them but groomed them.  

Nellie took care of the smaller orphan babies’ in-terms of grooming, and also made them feel very happy in the group.  Nellie was also a monkey that was always alert. Whenever anyone passed her enclosure with anything edible, she stretched out her hands or screamed so hard to draw their attention indicating she needed something from them. Nellie never attacked or bit any staff in CERCOPAN.

Nellie and Egu

When problems arose in the group, she would always first of all look for where to sit and would watch to see exactly what was going on in the group. She would never look for ways of escape, but would rather choose to forage and groom the orphan babies’ in the group. 

Nellie pretended so much when she was sick, so that her friend Nkanacha would not over-throw her in her rank. Sometimes Nkanacha would want to copy Nellie’s bahaviours, but other monkeys awere not close to Nkanacha because of her aggressive style.

To keep Nellie happy at all times, we always fed her first before any other monkey in the group. She did not want the smaller monkeys to eat before her, as she is the madam and the dominate female in the group.

Sadly Nellie died recently and all of the staff were very sad, although she was very old. We will miss her a lot.  

Nellie

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