CERCOPAN

Category: Cercopan, Monkeys, Nigeria, Saving endangered monkeys | Date: Jul 31 2009 | By: cercopan

After trying everything possible, we lost lovable character ‘Scoopy’ just after 11pm lastnight. He was a special monkey, very intelligent and gentle and always managed to make me laugh with his hilarious antics. For example, a few months ago he tricked the keepers and managed to escape from his enclosure and evade capture for two days. I was in the garden reading on his second day of freedom, when he appeared from nowhere. He walked straight over, sat in the chair next to me, reached over the table and took my pringles. At first I thought he would run away with them, but he calmly lounged in the chair, flipped the lid, took a handful and placed the tin back on the table.

It ’s been a very sad day for me and I will miss him a lot. I just wanted to share a picture of him with you all.

Scoopy - a true character in every sense of the word

Tags: African Wildlife, Cercopan, Cercopithecus mona, Conservation, Guenon, mona monkey, Nigeria, Primate, rehabilitation

5 responses so far

Category: Cercopan, Conservation, Cute rare baby otter | Date: Jul 30 2009 | By: cercopan

I would like to express my appreciation to Jan for her donation to help rehabilitate our now famous baby clawless Otter ‘Eve’. Jan is an Otter expert and has been advising us on Eve’s care since her first days at CERCOPAN. As primate specialists, we are new to raising otters, so all of the advice from Jan and other otter experts has been invaluable. We are hoping to try to move Eve on to fish soon which here in Calabar is very costly, so these funds will really help.

Thanks again for everything Jan

Claire 

Baby clawless otter Eve exploring her new home

Eve resting and being quiet for once! 

Tags: African Wildlife, Aonyx capensis, Baby Otter, Cercopan, Conservation, Nigeria, orphan, rehabilitation, rescue, save, threatened species, wildlife

3 responses so far

Category: CERCOPAN staff fighting to save rainforest and endanger, CERCOPAN supporters saving rainforests and orphaned mon, Cercopan, Conservation, Monkeys, Nigeria, Orphaned baby monkeys | Date: Jul 30 2009 | By: cercopan

As another working day at CERCOPAN ends, we find ourselves with only 32 days left to find the funds to pay the rent on our Calabar premises for another year. With so little time left and $2828  still to find it is a worrying time for all here.

The response to our plea from Wildlife Direct staff and our readers however has been amazing. Special thanks to Oskar, Wanda, Joanne, Christine, Frances and Brenton who have all pledged their support.

 Thanks so much guys, you are really lifting our spirits!

Baby mona Teddy with volunteer on his first day at CERCOPAN

Tags: African Wildlife, Appeal, Cercopan, Conservation, Nigeria, Orphan Baby monkeys, primates, rehabilitation, rescue, save

No responses yet

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 29 2009 | By: cercopan

For all of you following Eve’s progress, this is what we go through every single meal time! I can’t wait until we can persuade her to eat fish…. Enjoy!

Claire

6 responses so far

Category: Cercopan, Orphaned baby monkeys, Saving endangered monkeys | Date: Jul 28 2009 | By: cercopan

A dark cloud still looms over CERCOPAN ’s future and it has nothing to do with the current rainy season…..The fate of more than 120 monkeys, orphaned victims of the bushmeat trade, still depends upon CERCOPAN being able to raise funds rapidly to pay rent on our Calabar premises. The animals at CERCOPAN’s HQ have been lucky once, escaping the hunters gun and the market dealers stalls; now they may be forced out of their place of sanctuary. 

The global financial crisis is making it more difficult than ever before to find the funds needed to pay for operating costs such as feeding monkeys and providing vital vet care. As a result, the unexpected doubling of our rent without any prior notice has left us in a very difficult situation indeed. We have only 34 days left to find the remaining $3103 needed to stay at our current site for another year which will allow us to continue to guarantee a home for every single monkey that needs our help. We need you to make this happen.

Please help. Donate today.

A big thank you from everyone here at CERCOPAN to those that have already pledged their support. Wanda,  Anna, Hilko, Sherri, Carl, Michael and Bethany your donations really are sincerely appreciated.  

Tags: endangered species, Monkeys, Orphans, save

5 responses so far

Category: Cercopan, Rescued neglected bush dog | Date: Jul 26 2009 | By: cercopan

Two weeks ago, the CERCOPAN camp staff visited our host village, Iko Esai, for an evening a way from camp.  Whilst having a quiet drink in the local bar two members of the group returned having seen a small puppy in bad condition hiding under a broken umbrella.  Upon inspection we realised this puppy was in a very awful state and close to death.  She was covered in wounds and blood, and was responding very little to the activities going on around her.  The CERCOPAN staff acted quickly, finding and speaking to the owner and arranging for the puppy to return to our camp to be cared for.  She was carried carefully in a jacket for the difficult 30 minute motorbike ride to camp, through rain and flooded rivers.

Upon arrival to camp we were able to better assess the condition of the dog and begin work on improving her welfare.  The poor thing was covered in sores and a vast number of parasites including ticks and fleas.  She was also painfully thin and extremely dehydrated.  She lay quietly as we treated her wounds and cleaned her up.  Four of us sat around her, all armed with a pair of tweezers, picking off the vast number of ticks, many of which had congregated in her ears.  The conversation with her owner had revealed that she was taken from her mother whilst still nursing and thus had grown weaker and weaker due to lack of food.  Over the coming days she was fed mainly on milk and biscuits.  We have built her up to more solid foods including rice and her now favourite dish, fish.  Our veterinary nurse came to visit her, treating her for endoparasites, such as worms, and giving us helpful advice on her further care. 

She has grown in strength over the last weeks and we get more and more excited every time she achieves new goals.  When she first arrived she was too weak to stand but in a few days we saw her little head peeking out from over her box as she stood up on her own for the first time.  She took her first steps, although wobbly, and is getting more and more inquisitive about her new environment.  She frequently tries to jump out of her box now (something we only allow when there is a volunteer to keep an eye on her) and is forging a friendship with our older camp dog, Simon, who has been particularly lonely since the passing of his camp companion Jami.

Since her vast improvement we have negotiated with her owner and come to an agreement that she will be better as a camp dog where we can continue her much needed care.  We have not decided on her official name yet although there have been many suggestions including; Wormy, Patchy, Ticky Waka Waka and Samo (local language meaning ‘Thank You’.  However, the most commonly used is Ticky, in memory of her first night and the long hours spent using tweezers…………

Tags: abandoned, africa, animal, Cercopan, cute, dog, neglected, Nigeria, rescued, saved

5 responses so far

Category: Cercopan | Date: Jul 25 2009 | By: cercopan

CERCOPAN is now on Twitter! Follow the daily exploits of Director Claire Coulson  (http://www.twitter.com/CERCOPANHQ) and Office and Finance Manager Sam Trull (http://www.twitter.com/CERCOPAN) as they work to save monkeys and rainforests in Nigeria.

Tags: africa, animal, Cercopan, Conservation, endangered species, monkey, Monkeys, Nigeria, rainforest, rare species, threaten species, twitter, wildlife

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Category: Cercopan, Monkeys, Saving endangered monkeys | Date: Jul 23 2009 | By: cercopan

It’s a sad fact that charities and organizations across the world are suffering the knock on effects of the global financial crisis. Donors are drying up and support from individuals is lessening as people look to solving problems closer to home. CERCOPAN tries not to rely on appeals of this nature but we have found ourselves unexpectedly forced into an extremely difficult situation. We have had to tighten our belts considerably in view of the fact that unrestricted funds for operating costs such as monkey food, enclosure repairs and utility bills are just not forthcoming at present.

We are still supported in educational and rural livelihood development projects, for example, but these funds are assigned to the activities the funding organizations have specified. Our desperation at this time is the need to find funds simply to continue our day to day operations so that we can honour these commitments and most importantly give the food and care that our rescued monkeys require. We have been cutting expenses in peripheral areas for some time now and have put all we can personally into making sure these demands are met, however, something can always tip the balance.

Yesterday we received a demand for the rent on the property where our Calabar office and education centre stand; in which we house all of the primates not currently in our forest based site. This annual rent has doubled without warning and is required to be paid by the end of next month. Unfortunately we have no right to appeal this increased demand; in the future we would have no such threat to our existence having agreed to move permanently to a free undeveloped site on the University of Calabar’s grounds. We have funding proposals out being considered at the moment to finance this move; but face an imminent and debilitating crisis if we cannot find the necessary money to keep us in place until then.

We are continuing to try exhaustively all avenues of funding we can hope to raise from here but we have reached a point where we need to ask our readers and supporters to help us if at all possible, through whatever means you may have at your disposal, to raise the funds required to continue our work in this difficult time.

Thank you from everyone at CERCOPAN for taking the time to read this.

Claire

Baby Sclater’s guenon - CERCOPAN houses the only known captive Sclater’s guenons in the world.

Tags: africa, animal, Cercocebus torquatus, Cercopan, Cercopithecus erythrotis, Cercopithecus mona, Cercopithecus nictitans, Cercopithecus preussi, Cercopithecus sclateri, Conservation, endangered species, mona guenon, mona monkey, monkey, Monkeys, Nigeria, Preuss’s guenon, Preuss’s money, putty-nosed guenon, putty-nosed monkey, rainforest, rare species, Red-capped mangabey, red-eared guenon, red-eared monkey, rehabilitation, rescue, save, Sclater’s guenon, Sclater’s monkey, threaten species, wildlife

5 responses so far

Category: Cercopan | Date: Jul 18 2009 | By: cercopan

CERCOPAN is now a Facebook Cause!

For those of you who are regular Facebook users, why not join ….

We hope to encourage informal discussion and to post regular news items on the facebook cause page as well as on the blog.  I hope to see you there!

Here is the link: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/308596/68398117?m=6987e7df

Tags: africa, animal, Cercocebus torquatus, Cercopan, Cercopithecus erythrotis, Cercopithecus mona, Cercopithecus nictitans, Cercopithecus preussi, Cercopithecus sclateri, Conservation, endangered species, mona guenon, mona monkey, monkey, Monkeys, Nigeria, Preuss’s guenon, Preuss’s money, putty-nosed guenon, putty-nosed monkey, rainforest, rare species, Red-capped mongabey, red-eared guenon, red-eared monkey, Sclater’s guenon, Sclater’s monkey, threaten species, wildlife

4 responses so far

Category: Cute rare baby otter | Date: Jul 11 2009 | By: cercopan

As anybody who works with animals will say, rehabilitating orphaned babies of any species comes with its risks. Trying to raise a baby who has been separated from its mother in an unnatural environment will inevitably be a difficult task, particularly when not much is known about the species. Two weeks in to our newest member’s arrival here at CERCOPAN we were reminded first hand just how delicate a young orphan can be.

After an extremely successful first week with the orphan she suddenly came down with an overwhelming lethargy just a few days ago. Having spent so much time with her, within just a few hours of noticing subtle changes in her behaviour we knew something was wrong and enlisted the help of a number of vets from across the globe in helping to diagnose the problem. After a few hours of careful discussion it became clear that the new milk we had recently started the baby on wasn’t being metabolised correctly by her body. The specialised milk was extremely high in fat and her little body couldn’t handle it and so wasn’t taking in any of the essential nutrients she needed. It was decided to begin treating the baby with an oral fluid therapy to keep her well hydrated and to switch her back immediately to the soy infant milk she had been taking before and to ensure she got plenty of rest. We watched and waited overnight desperately willing her to make it through the crucial first 12 hours and to our amazement she woke up the following day markedly improved. From that point on she has continued to gradually improve becoming more and more active and alert every day.

We have worked tirelessly around the clock to ensure she gets all of the milk, fluids and rest she needs to continue getting better. Whilst she is not quite out of the woods yet, we are delighted with the progress she has made over the past few days, she has proved herself to be a little fighter. She still experiences periods of increased lethargy but these are now interspersed with prolonged play sessions and a very healthy appetite and we are confident she will continue to go from strength to strength over the next few days.

We would like to thank everybody who has assisted us in diagnosing the otter over the past few days. The advice we have been given has been invaluable and we are almost certain she would not be here had we not received such help from Grace and the IOSF, Spanish vet Ainare, Vet Wendy Simpson in the States and Peter from Pandrullus here in Nigeria.

We will keep you updated on her progress and are also delighted to announce that she is officially named, “Eve”.  It is thought that the ancient Kindgom of Calabar was the original “Garden of Eden” because of its green and lush environment.  As such, we thought the name, Eve was fitting for this unique and strong willed little otter!

Tags: africa, African Clawless Otter, animal, Aonyx capensis, baby, Cape Clawless Otter, Cercopan, cute, endangered species, Nigeria, orphan, rare species, rescued, threatened species, wildlife

2 responses so far