CERCOPAN

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 26 2009 | By: cercopan

by Amy Baxter

  A few months ago CERCOPAN applied to Brevard Zoo, for some football equipment to distribute to the local schools in our host village, Iko Esai.  Football is extremely popular in Nigeria, with everyone having a team they support and with the National Nigerian team renowned for their excellent playing.  We were lucky to be granted this equipment and it was gratefully received by the local schools.  Later a letter, also to be used as an article in the community newsletter, arrived in thanks for this equipment from the local secondary school and we would like to share it with you.  It is always nice to receive letters of this kind and greatly encourages us with the work we are carrying out.  The letter was entitled ‘Youth Empowerment through Academic and Sports Development: The CERCOPAN Initiative’. 

 Members of the school team wearing their new primate conservtion football strips (CERCOPAN Community Liason Officer Mike Ekpe Centre)

‘’The conservation of our rare fauna and flora, especially the dwindling or diminishing population of monkeys and their habitats in the remaining tropical forest of West Africa, seem to be the primary concern of CERCOPAN – an NGO with a mission.  The CERCOPAN mission is to conserve; their vision is to enhance the increase of the depleting primate population, and possibly return them to the wild.

                Since the advent of CERCOPAN in Nigeria, the organisation has done much to improve the welfare of the host community, both socially and economically, in spite of their financial constraints.  The organisation has left none in doubt of their commitment and special mission in the hunter forest of Iko Esai in Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State.  Like any other new organisation or establishment, people are often sceptical of their real intention, judging from the experiences of the colonial era.  So was the case with CERCOPAN.

                The host community of Esai land was divided in opinion about the ultimate objectives of their mission in the jungle of Iko Esai.  However, the coming of CERCOPAN into Iko Esai community has been seen as a blessing in disguise; the host community has started to reap the dividend of CERCOPAN’s presence.  We can now talk of improved water supply, skills acquisition and man power development, etc.

                Most importantly, Iko Esai is now designated a tourism destination and centre for educational research – innovations which were hitherto unknown.  Soon and very soon, the impact of CERCOPAN initiatives shall be harnessed and felt both locally and globally.

                Socially, the advent of CERCOPAN has impacted much of the social lives of the people.  The history of educational development in Esai community and its environment will be incomplete without mentioning the contributions of CERCOPAN.  Just in a nut-shell, CERCOPAN has created educational awareness through conservation education, inter-schools competitions and the upliftment of sports in schools.

                Mention should be made about the recent CERCOPAN magnanimous gestures towards the Esai Community Secondary School, which was given a face-lift during the last inter-house sports competitions, where CERCOPAN undertook the painting of the Academic/Administration block, which has improved the aesthetic view of the school.

                Furthermore, CERCOPAN made their impact felt during the inter-house sports fund raising.  Prior to this moment, CERCOPAN had donated sets of gaming equipment to the college, which has boosted sporting activities in the school.  To be more precise, right now the secondary school’s football team is making history in football game.  Hopefully, the school’s football team shall create much impact in the near future.

                Most recently, CERCOPAN has done it again!  A set of football kits, including jerseys, footballs and a football pump, were donated to the school.  This will surely further boost our team’s quest for laurels and glory.  This gesture is not only timely but highly commendable.  The students, members of staff and management say thank you for the support.

                In conclusion, we in equivocal terms fully endorse the CERCOPAN educational empowerment initiatives, aimed at empowering our youth for future development.  As your organisation continues to support and encourage academic excellence, the future leaders of this community shall grow and live to appreciate your gestures.  We shall collectively learn to conserve our dwindling and endangered species for the present and future generations.

                                Thank you.

                                                Elder Robert O. Nkang

Iko Esai school children playing football in their new strips

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Category: CERCOPAN staff fighting to save rainforest and endanger, CERCOPAN supporters saving rainforests and orphaned mon, Cercopan, Conservation, Life, Monkeys, Nigeria, Rare monkey babies born, Saving endangered monkeys, love and friendship in monkeys | Date: Sep 17 2009 | By: cercopan

Back in June Peace, a female mangabey from Callistus’ group, had her first ever infant, Pica.  Pica, a beautiful baby girl, arrived just 2 weeks after the birth of Marvelous; a bouncing baby boy, born to Mercy.  As Peace’s first infant, she was rather unsure how to look after Pica and seemed confused as to what her motherly duties involved.  As the first few weeks passed, her mothering instincts began to develop and improved somewhat, but unfortunately, as we carefully observed the pair we could see that Peace was still not fulfilling some of the important jobs she needed to do.

Peace and Pica: at times her mothering instinct kicked in. 

Peace easily lost interest in Pica, and so Pica spent a lot of her time riding around on the back of her older brother, Marley.  These two got on famously and Marley was always there to lend a helping brotherly hand!  She really enjoyed playing with him and he enjoyed playing with her, unless he wanted to play-fight with some of his older friends!  When Marley was not around though and Peace wasn’t interested, we had the problem that, in this prolonged wet season we are experiencing here in Cross River State, Nigeria, there was no-one to shelter Pica from the elements.  Being so small she felt the cold easily and when there was no-one to cuddle up to when she was wet, the staff at CERCOPAN began to worry.  In addition to this we had noticed that Pica was not putting on weight like Marvelous, who was only 2 weeks older.  As we continued to pay close attention to Peace and Pica’s relationship, and the nursing behaviour of the pair, we eventually came to the conclusion that the best course of action was to remove Pica from the group and hand-rear her until she was strong enough to return.  It was a tough decision and always a last resort here at CERCOPAN.

  Despite the vast experience CERCOPAN volunteers have in hand-rearing rescued, orphaned infant monkeys, Pica proved to be somewhat more difficult.  Never before had we had the problem of the mother still being in the vicinity and in ear-shot of the infant.  Pica refused to eat while she could hear her mother, and the two were continually trying to communicate with each other.  Our best option was to take Pica to our volunteer living-quarters two doors down the road and here she became much more settled.  Now she is a happy little monkey who loves lots of attention when she’s fed. She runs around the room where her travel box is being kept, climbing and jumping off the furniture.  She is putting on plenty of weight and we are really happy with the progress she is making.  We can’t wait for the time when we can reunite her with her mother, her brother and the other members of her group.

By Amy Baxter, Mangabey Research Coordinator, temporary Finance and Office Manager

Photographs by Sam Trull

Pica, after having rolled in either mud or food!

Tags: africa, animal, Cercopan, Conservation, endangered species, monkey, Monkeys, Nigeria, Nigerian wildlife, primates, rainforest, rare species, threatened species, volunteers, wildlife

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Category: Cercopan, Communities, Life, Nigeria, Rescued neglected bush dog | Date: Sep 14 2009 | By: cercopan

  As many of you may remember, a few months back we rescued a bush dog, Ticky, from appalling conditions in our host village Iko Esai.  She was found under a broken umbrella in the pouring rain, covered in sores and being home for a vast number of parasites including ticks, fleas and worms.  She was too weak to even stand and we discovered the reason was because she had been removed from her mother before she was ready to finish nursing.  Sylvain, our mona research coordinator, gently carried her back to our camp along the difficult 30 minute bike journey, through flooded rivers and with thunder crashing around our ears.  It was there we began to nurse her back to health and she started her new life as our camp mascot, surrounded by love and care.

Ticky being nursed on her first night at Rhoko Camp, after ger initial rescue 

 In our last ‘rescued dog’ update we announced she was firmly on the road to recovery and we are pleased to say she has now finally reached her destination!   Her patchy fur has fully grown back and all her wounds are healed.  She has put on plenty of weight, with a big belly hanging around her spindly little legs!  Her true character is shining through and she is excelling at her guard dog duties, taking her cue from our older camp dog, Simon.  Perhaps her bark isn’t quite as threatening as Simon’s, with its squeaky tones intermingled with low growls, but she is always on the lookout for passers-by.

  Her strength has grown even more and now she runs around camp, following us to our huts and playing with us in the grass.  She still tries to play with our older dog, Simon, but he has decided he’s a bit too old for these games and tries to find a quite spot where he can continue to be a grumpy old man.  I think he also gets jealous, as he’s a big dog and is unable to climb onto anything comfortable like a chair (although he was caught having pushed into Sylvain’s hut and asleep on his bed once)!  Ticky, on the other hand, has found one of our cushioned chairs particularly comfortable, and has become an expert at climbing up various small boxes to get on to it!

Ticky; patch-free and chewing the clothes of our volunteer, Sylvain.

The other week our camp manager, Richard, bought back some tasty treats from the city for our guarding duo in the form of two large bones.  Both are nearly as long as Ticky herself and she struggles to get a good bite with her small mouth.  For some reason though, which ever bone she is gnawing on is not as tasty as the one Simon is chewing, and so she always tries to muscle in on his!  He’s not too pleased about this but is showing more tolerance as the days go by!

Ticky trying to get her little mouth around such a big tasty treat! 

  In addition, we have begun general training with her.  She understands ‘sit’ even if she doesn’t always follow the order, and we are trying to teach her ‘stay’, as she regularly tries to follow us in to the forest.  Our favourite one though, and I think hers is ‘paw’, where she lifts up her paw to shake hands.  Perhaps not as practical as ‘sit’ or ‘stay’, but much cuter and it is becoming a very popular welcome with our visiting tourists!

By Amy Baxter, Mangabey Project Coordinator and temporary Office and Finance Manager

Tags: Cercopan, community, Conservation, Cross River State, dog, Iko Esai, Monkeys, neglected, Nigeria, rescued, volunteers

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Category: Monkeys, Nigeria, Orphaned baby monkeys, Rain Forests, Saving endangered monkeys, ecotourism | Date: Sep 03 2009 | By: cercopan

Hi everyone, Zena here. Claire has been having difficulties signing on to the site (slow connection….!) so here I am. Over here in the UK I have been going through a lot of our video footage and putting together a few short films for youtube to publicize what we do - nothing like a moving image to give you a sense of what things are like for the team out in Nigeria! The latest one is the story of moving our first rescued mangabeys to the forest enclosure at rhoko (Sagan talked about this group and the research we are doing in an earlier blog - this is our future release group, and the focus of Sagan’s PhD next year).

Clyde checking on the rest of the tightly clumped group as he plays the ‘rearguard’ role

Four years later they are doing incredibly well in the 1 hectare forest environment, and the original 18 individuals have grown to over 40. Research carried out since the first day of their introduction ‘back to the forest’ indicates there little difference behaviourly between those born inside the forest enclosure and those wild born - a good indication for a successful reintroduction!

Matriarch Odudu enjoys some grooming from low ranking Banja, deep inside the enclosure

Other videos recently uploaded also include one on our released mona monkeys, ecotourism and one of our first world environment day parades. You can see these on the CERCOPANHQ channel. Enjoy!

Tags: rainforest ecotourism, reintroduction, rescued orphan monkeys

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