CERCOPAN

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 28 2008 | By: cercopan

Background                                                                                                             

CERCOPAN have two centres in southeast Nigeria. One is in the town of Calabar where we have our administration offices, primate enclosures, education/visitors centre, permanent veterinary facilities and staff accommodation. The volunteer would be based at our second centre at Rhoko in the Nigerian rainforest which is about 80 km away from Calabar and 8 km from the village of Iko Esai, with possible temporary duties in Calabar. There is a dedicated workshop with tools and power tools (used in conjunction with portable generator). There is a VHF radio and mobile phone antenna for communications with Calabar. There is a refrigerator, laptop, and solar power. CERCOPAN has been assisting the Iko Esai community to protect more than 20,000 hectares of community forest on the borders of the cross River National Park since 2000.                                                                                                                                  

Volunteer responsibilities                                                                                         

The volunteer will be responsible for undertaking and managing the construction and maintenance of the physical environment of Cercopan’s Rhoko operations and where practicable at our establishment in Calabar. This will involve the management, training and development of local staff.

Duties in 2008 will include constructing three high specification ecotourism chalets at Rhoko camp, assisting with project management of construction of community centre in Iko Esai, maintaining, repairing, replacing, constructing, upgrading existing Rhoko camp built environment and services including: Staff accommodation, ecotourism accommodation, Dining/communal area, Workshop Offices, kitchen, Nature Trail furniture and signage, viewing platforms tree platform, fencing primate enclosures, simple furniture for accommodation. In addition, the volunteer will also assist with the construction of the new CERCOPAN administrative and rehabilitation site, including, enclosures, buildings, fences etc.

 Requirements
-Appropriate technical qualification within a construction and/or building services discipline (e.g. BTEC ordinary/higher national level diploma or equivalent) or equivalent high level of work experience
-It is essential that the volunteer has sufficient work experience and skills to undertake the duties described above. We are looking for a good all rounder who possesses a wide range of skills/knowledge/experience. We accept that strengths in some areas will offset weakness in others with the overriding need to get the job done which may require the volunteer to learn on the job.
-Driving licence essential, ability to drive 4 x 4 and some knowledge of basic vehicle maintenance beneficial

Personal Qualities
-Must be able to live and work in the rainforest environment
-Hands-on person who can lead by example
-Good interpersonal skills, ability to resolve conflict in a diplomatic way
-Ability to work well with people of different cultures and skill levels
-Ability to motivate and build confidence in a team environment
-Flexibility and ability to think laterally
-Good negotiation skills

Terms   

One day off a week and 4 weeks holiday a year. Stipend and travel coverage dependent on qualifications, experience and length of stay. Bed, board provided. 1-2 year contract preferable, but would consider 6 months to 1 year.

Position to commence as soon as possible.

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Category: Cercopan, Monkeys | Date: Sep 21 2008 | By: cercopan

Hello! My name is Sarah and I have just spent 3 weeks in CERCOPAN’s forest site, Rhoko, working as a volunteer with the Mangabeys and the Monas that CERCOPAN have situated up in the forest. The aim of my work was to ensure that everything relating to the monkeys was working well and there were no serious problems with any of the monkeys, their food and the electric fence. A typical day would start early, rising at 6:45 to ensure that I was down in ‘keepers’, which is the area near the Mangabey enclosure and 2 Mona cages where the food is kept and prepared, before 7:30 so that I could help Mary, one of the keepers with the morning feed.

Keeper Mary preparing food

The food has to be weighed out for each feed and recorded on the record sheets that we have down there. The usual amount of food given at each feed is between 9 and 11 kilograms shared between the 42 Mangabeys and the 5 Monas. The precise amount of food given howeverdepends on how much food we have and how much of the fruit is ripe. This may sound strange, but when we get the food the fruit isn’t completely ripe so with the bananas we have to keep them in a bucket to try and hasten the ripening process, the smell of rotting bananas that comes from that bucket will never leave my memory! When feeding we would go inside the enclosure but sometimes we would scatter the food by throwing it over the top of the fence, I preferred this method as when you take bowls of food inside the enclosure, some of the dominant males such as Clyde and Zombie would come up and take food from the bowls so that they don’t have to forage for it.

Me inside the enclosure feeding the Mangabeys

Myself and Mary spent a lot of time making sure that the food was scattered around the enclosure so that the monkeys were actually forced to forage, as they would have to do in the wild.  As there is a possible Mangabey release soon we have to ensure that they are as prepared as possible for life outside the enclosure.  After feeding I would test the electric fence to ensure that it was still working well and to look for any trees that may have fallen onto the fence which would act as an escape risk. After this I would then go through the forest to another cage further in which is home to Etimbuk and 2 younger Monas.  

Me and a visitor feeding Etimbuk

I would take food to them and depending clean out their enclosure and water- which gets surprisingly filthy, surprisingly quickly as they tend to wash their food in their dinking water! After seeing to Etimbuk I would then go back to the main shed and grab some breakfast and a cup of tea and then I would be back down at keepers by around 11:00.  At this time I help Mary with health checks; she has a recording sheet which she uses to mark the general condition of the monkeys, their hair condition, whether they are eating and drinking, checking to see if they have any wounds or if they are limping, making a note of their general behaviour and also writing whether they are staying in the group or not. This is done for every individual monkey and for the females she makes a note of whether they are swelling (on oestrus) and at what stage the swelling is at if they are swelling at all. After looking through the health checks I would then help with the feeding at 11:30 and then go back to Etimbuk’s cage before returning to the main shed to grabsome lunch. At around 3.45 I would start preparing for the 4:30 feed of the Mangabeys, Monas and of course Etimbuk. If there were any problems, such as we were running low on food, Mary would inform me and I would then discuss them with Sylvain who would tell me the course of action! I thoroughly enjoyed my stay with CERCOPAN as I gained a lot of valuable experience in working closely with Primates. Everyone was very welcoming and helpful and for that I have to thank CERCOPAN for giving me this experience which has been an invaluable one, and most certainly an experience that I will never forget.

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