CERCOPAN

Category: Cercopan, Conservation, Rain Forests | Date: Nov 20 2009 | By: cercopan

The third day was supposed to be the last and we looked forward to a shower and a tastier meal, but a lot of surprises and events were waiting for us in the hours that followed.   We left early, carrying our loads, which were thankfully lighter than the first day.  My shoes were dry from the fire, but this became irrelevant after the first river we had to cross.  The rain had stopped in the morning though and the level of streams and rivers had decreased substantially.

Exactly like the day before, the nice, easy trail didn’t last and we soon had to short-cut some hill slopes and dense areas.  After about 2 hours of trek, the only wildlife tracks we had found were red river hogs footprints, although they were in very large quantities. We had passed several hills rich in Coula edulis, also known as Gabon nut, a tree that produces fruits appreciated by chimpanzees, confirmed by Osam’s anecdotes about chimpanzees killed in this area around 5 years ago.

We had travelled through the major hills and the topography had become smoother when we heard branches shaking.  We stopped, unloaded our bags, and approached quietly.  There were monkeys around, but it was difficult to estimate the number or to see them particularly well.  We could clearly see red-eared monkeys, probably because they travel under the canopy making them easier to observe.  The monkeys were moving from North to South and it seemed they had not seen us.

Soon after this sighting the path disappeared again.  We looked for it a while but decided to give up and go back to Agbor Iyamba.  As soon as we made this decision, Osam recognized a bushmango tree where he had met 2 people in the past when he was hunting, and while he was lost on an elephant trail. We found the trail close to the tree and we followed it.  A few minutes later, branch movements and shaking attracted our attention.  Monkeys were to our right side and we could see fast movements in the trees but we couldn’t distinguish them.  It seemed that they finally detected us, as three powerful threat booms were followed by a series of hack calls, making us realize we were in the presence of mona monkeys.  Immediately after the adult male mona calls, putty-nosed piows, another type of alarm/threat loud call, came from the same location.  There were mona AND putty-nosed monkeys, close by the red-eared monkeys we had seen before.  All were moving to the South, just like our trail. We stayed quiet and followed our track for a few minutes until we stopped again.

Putty nosed guenon

A strange unfamiliar sound, like scratching, was produced close to us.  Osam, reproducing his ex-hunting strategies, took off his sandals, crouched slightly, and approached where the sound was being emitted.  I stayed behind so as to not scare whatever it was, and waited in anticipation.  After a few minutes, the sound had stopped and Osam came back to me, illuminated by a large smile.  “Mangabey ! Red-capped mangabey, just like the ones we have in camp!” he said.  His description was precise enough to put out any doubt in my mind.  Osam had approached the sound and saw a large monkey on a branch, very close to the ground. The animal didn’t see Osam and he approached while the monkey was scratching at a big fruit.  Osam saw the grey/black back, and the tail with the white tip.  Then the monkey suddenly turned himself in the direction of Osam, saw him, and ran away.  Then Osam had clearly seen the white belly, the chestnut colored head, and the prominent black muzzle before the monkey could flee.

Red capped Mangabey       

We continued and arrived at a location where a shed had previously existed before being destroyed as it was too close to the Cross River National Park.  Here we were just on the boundary of the park.  We took a quick, well deserved rest and then carried on our walk.  Only 5 minutes after we left, familiar contact calls made us stop.  We could very clearly see mona monkeys foraging in the lower canopy.  There were movements on the ground too, and more monkeys higher in the trees.  Red-eared monkeys could be seen and it looked like the same mixed-group as before.  We had all advanced in the same direction and location.  Another red-capped mangabey was seen at that point but, even with so many eyes to see us, it still took some minutes before the monkeys detected our presence.  Then they all moved away, creating a lot of confusion in the trees and in our minds, while we tried to work out what species went where and how many of each there were.  In this situation, it is difficult to spot all the monkeys, and usually it is good to concentrate in one area.  Most of the monkeys were fleeing to the South, but some scattered in others directions.  I could spot the monas at 60 or 70m in front of me, about 30m high.  They passed one by one along a branch that I could see clearly through the vegetation, counting  11 of them.  All these sightings were extremely exciting, but it had delayed our progress a lot and now it was close to noon and we were still very far from camp.

As soon as we couldn’t see monkeys anymore, we continued on the journey and the rain started.  Not a light rain, but a strong shower worthy of any visions we have of the wet season.  Soaked in a few minutes, we walked for an hour before reaching a shed.  Unfortunately, this shed was only a shadow of its former self- no roof; no shelter for us.  Just the time to take a GPS point, which was a good 15min in this weather, and then we were back to walking.  The trail was easy to follow until we took a fork to the North.  This trail was mainly grown over so we had to cut our way through, which took a long time. We finally arrived to Ebin Iyura, a shed used for logging activities before logging was banned by the state. Logging sheds have a floor made of planks, whereas hunting sheds are much more rustic.  It was 3.30pm and we were about 5 hours from camp.  Again, each halt was short as the lack of time was praying on our minds.  The next trail fortunately was well maintained and we reached Rhoko river around 5pm without difficulties, except for the rain that was still pouring down.

Rhoko river is usually large, but what was in front of us looked like something else.  Maybe 25m wide and brown with earth, it ran extremely rapidly forming whirlpools in places, and carrying huge branches downstream.  Because of the darkness of the water, we couldn’t figure out how deep it was and where the “normal” bank should be.  We planted a stick on the edge to work out if the level was decreasing or still growing, and waited.

The rain had stopped and the Rhoko river was decreasing, but slowly. Too slowly.  Rhoko, as the major river on this side of the forest, had received the water from many adjacent streams, and was not forming an insurmountable natural barrier.  There was a shed on the other side of the river, called Ocambay, and we were only 30m from it, but blocked by these natural elements.  Night was falling.  Osam knew of another long abandoned shed on our side of Rhoko and we decided to verify the state of it. Unfortunately, we had to pass yet another stream that turned out to not even be running because it was too close to Rhoko, but instead had reached a stationary level over 2m.  Despite that, Osam could cross this stagnating, brown and forbidding water.  He crossed by a fallen tree still raised just above the water.  I waited on the other side until Osam came back, announcing there was no shed anymore.  Then we headed back to the edge of the river Rhoko.

The only solution was patience.  We set our wet camping mats on the ground, took off our wet clothes and tried to rest.  Osam fell asleep quickly but there was no way for me.  The ground was sloppy and I continually slid down slowly, finding myself off the mat.  The darkness and the night fell while the entire forest dripped water, even after the rain had stopped.  Consequently, between water drops, the cold, and the slope, I barely could find any sleep.

Sleeping next to the Rhoko River

Finally, at 2.00am, when Osam and I were too cold to rest any longer, luckily, the water had seriously decreased.  We could see the bottom of the river, which was still very powerful.  We figured out that the river was more than 2m high when we had first arrived, but now was only 1m.  Osam used my head-light, while I used my mobile phone for light, and we had to walk along a flooded tree trunk for 15m up the river and then fork onto a fallen tree trunk to reach the other side. Osam was standing without any problem on the trunks, while I had to crouch to avoid the heaviness of my load from carrying  me into the water.  Eventually we made it but it had taken us a good 30minutes to cross!

We stayed in Ocambay shed for the rest of the night.  A hot meal and warming fire in the shelter gave us so much relief.  We left in the morning and made it back to camp within 3 hours, exhausted but happy to conclude this weekend’s adventure.

Tags: African Wildlife, Cercopan, Nigeria, putty-nosed guenon, Rainforests, Red River hog, Red-capped mangabey

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Category: Cercopan, Conservation, Monkeys, Nigeria, Rain Forests | Date: Nov 19 2009 | By: cercopan

by Sylvain Lemoine, Mona Research Coordinator,

My work trekking all day in the rain-forest can already be rather extreme, so the idea of spending three days and three nights in the middle of the deep forest seemed like a big adventure.

During the weekend of the 11^th of October 2009, I undertook a preliminary survey into the Research Area and adjacent Community Forest with Osam, one of our Rhoko Camp Patrol, an ex-hunter now converted to the CERCOPAN cause.  The aim of the trip was to map the existing trails, streams and rivers in the area and to gather information about human presence and disturbance, wildlife, and monkeys in particular.  The Research Area is an area of about 3000ha set aside for research into ecology, botany, zoology and geology, and it is contiguous to the Cross River National Park, Oban division.  Farming, logging and hunting of endangered species is not permitted in the research area, but the community forest is close to another communiy and is not patrolled by CERCOPAN. Previous surveys carried out in both areas have indicated the presence of forest elephants, buffalos, and chimpanzees among other mammal species such as mona and putty-nosed guenons.

The first day was rather uneventful in comparison to the ones that would follow; we spent all day trekking across easy trails and reached Agbor Iyamba, a hunter shed, without any problem.  With an evening cooking, resting and chatting about local beliefs, we passed the time before bed and then were lulled to sleep with the sounds of the forest.  Little did we know we had been lulled in to a false sense of security on what the days to follow would hold in store…….

Osam preparing food in a hunting shed

The second day started interestingly since it took us 45 minutes to find the first trail to follow, with the junction being heavily obstructed by recent fallen trees.  It seemed that the trail wasn’t regularly walked, or only by a few ambitious hunters.  We followed it fairly easily when found, guided by Osam’s great memory and our sense of direction when the trail disappeared into impenetrable vegetation.  We trekked at a good pace, but stopped regularly to listen to the forest, trying to detect animal sounds and movement.  It was on these stops that we managed to see red duikers on two occasions.  The first one fled on our approach but the second we watched for several minutes, silhouetted by the river behind it whose noise kept us from being detected.  We continued our way across rivers and hills, occasionally following forest elephant trails unnervingly.

Elephant trails look like human trails and it can be very confusing for somebody unable to distinguish between them.  Elephant trails are often contiguous or mixed up with human trails and this encourages local people to beleive that powerful village chiefs can take elephant form when desired.  We could see elephant footprints, luckily a few months old, but still visible.  Following these paths we finally reached our first destination, a shed called Lokpui Iyura, named after the Lopkui river. Tracks of hunters were present, with pangolin scales scattered on the floor and a strong lingering odor of death, but the shed was empty.

We continued our exploration towards the East and eventually found a couple of fresh fruits on the ground.  Five minutes later, a noise in the branches attracted our attention and we stood and watched carefully while a single red-eared monkey moved away by jumping from crown to crown, then finally disappeared in to the vegetation.

Red Eared Guenon

We were pressed on by the time since it was already close to 3pm, and the weather was starting to threaten rain.  We left without further investigation and eventually reached our furthest East destination; a shed called Ikpobokbai where we stayed just enough time to take a GPS point.  That was the moment the real adventures began…….

The rain arrived suddenly, falling in large drops that quickly flooded the soil and trails.  Our plan had been to complete a loop along Lokpui river and return to the previous nights shed, Agbor Iyamba, where we had left all our camping equipment.  We couldn’t go back by the same trails than we had used to arrive; otherwise it would have made the journey too long.  We took a short-cut across the hills, following a trail that Osam knew only from an explanation by another ex-hunter, since Osam had never been to this area before. This trail was easy to find at the start, but the more the rain fell, the more difficult it became to understand the logic of the path.  We lost the trail several times, but always found something that looked like it again.

We passed a large river running which was running quite fast due to the heavy storm and then clambered up the next hill….at that moment it finally dawned, we had been following another elephant trail!  We found elephant dung, one a few months old with its contained seeds starting to germinate, and another just a few weeks old alongside vegetation broken aside by the recent passage of this massive animal.  Osam kept reassuring me that the elephants were not around during this time of the year, due to the increase in human presence caused by more collectors of wild salad, but these fresh tracks made me increasingly dubious – with forest elephants being so aggressive, more so than savanna elephants, an encounter with one had not been on my wish list for this trip…….

Elephant dung found on one of the trails

We followed the elephant trail for a while before Osam could find a decent human trail leading us to another river which was completely flooded.  We cut sticks to help to cross, and fought against the powers of the current.  Once on the other side, cold and wet, we couldn’t find the path and so we had to make a decision to follow the river.  I started to worry because we only had one more hour of light, and we were not sure of our position.  We crossed this stream again, climbed the hills on the other side, and reached yet another river.  All these streams were very confusing; I was never sure if we were following the same one as before. I tried to use the GPS to locate our position, but the bad weather didn’t allow anything technological to help in this wilderness.  We had to follow our common sense and our single compass. We passed several others torrents, climbed more hills, walked down into another river bed, and attempted to follow it but the water was just too powerful.  All the dust and earth from the forest drained into the river, making the water brown, so we couldn’t see the bottom and where we were able to step to reduce the possibility of being dragged downstream.  The night was falling fast, as well as the rain, and we were still looking for our way…

Long after the darkness had absorbed us into its hostile atmosphere, Osam finally recognized a junction between two streams.  We had actually been too far on the South and had crossed the major river without ever knowing it.  We then followed a small stream, walking through the centre of half-flooded areas of land.  Osam was using my head-light as he was in front of me, but this left me struggling with a wet torch-light.  Eventually, Osam stopped abruptly and stepped back: a green tree viper was coiled on the ground, waiting for any frog (or toe) to pass in close proximity……The nightmare of finding snakes in the forest at night got realized, and as we passed and continued downstream, the darkness seemed to get denser……..

Finally, after half-an-hour more trekking and zigzagging between hills and streams, we reached “home”.  It had taken us more than 5 hours to find our way, and we were completely wet and exhausted, but we were seriously relieved.  After all these efforts, the dilapidated shed appeared much more comfortable.  I figured out that we human beings only need shelter and a dry place around a warm fire.  The hot meal and deserved rest was very welcome and we slept well, even if a little more uneasily than the night before, anticipating the following day……….

Tags: African Wildlife, Cercopan, Elephants, Jungle adventure, Monkeys, Nigeria, rainforest

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Category: Baby owl with broken wing, CERCOPAN staff fighting to save rainforest and endanger, Cercopan, Conservation, Nigeria, Rain Forests | Date: Nov 14 2009 | By: cercopan

by Richard Carroll, Rhoko Manager

It seemed like an ordinary day, at least in as much as those exist in CERCOPAN, either way there was little to hint that another bundle of joy was about to drop into my lap. I’d dropped the week’s supply of monkey food down with keepers and had taken the opportunity to call Calabar HQ from the 2 metre radius mobile phone network hotspot. I don’t know how these things work; generally I just accept the magic that allows me to talk to the outside world from the forest… even if I need to walk 15 minutes to a fallen tree which randomly has access to two networks. Anyway, following all that I arrived back to the education centre to be greeted by Usor, one of our research assistants whom I had last seen half an hour earlier heading off into the forest to follow wild putty nosed guenons for the day.

“Usor, what are you doing here?”  Usor didn’t immediately reply, but stood to one side to reveal a small bundle of fluff and feathers on the ground behind him.

“I found it on Camp Trail near Okibomi; it was just on the path it must have fallen from a tree” he explained as I stooped to investigate further. Two orange eyes peered back at me from the sprawled heap of downy plumage and a small hook-beaked mouth opened and closed threateningly..imagine an aggressive feather duster. An appraisal of this strange creature rendered the following conclusions: one, I was being confronted by a very young, rather put out owl; and two: it had a broken wing.

My first thought had been to find which tree it had fallen from and to return it to the nest as soon as possible.  Seeing the one wing hanging at an awkward angle on the ground had put paid to this idea of a quick fix. A slight uneasiness was beginning to form in my mind, I can never turn down an animal in distress, but I have very little experience with caring for young birds and none regarding how to fix a broken wing. I knew that without that the right care this baby owl would never be able to fly and being without access to a vet currently; that responsibility had fallen on me. I went back to the fallen tree and once again called Calabar, informing them of our new arrival and begging them to unearth some advice on how to proceed for the best.

Back at main camp, a search amongst our Spartan food supplies revealed only a tin of corned beef as a potential food item; hardly ideal, but more palatable to an owl than potatoes or instant noodles. The anticipated lunchtime radio call furnished me with a better understanding of nutritional do’s and don’ts for owls and, between the bursts of static, a rundown on how to fix a broken wing; all teased out from the internet by Amy.

Over the next few days we gradually managed to adapt to a suitable menu for our newest addition, initially feeding time was a constant battle. Hours were spent attempting to convince this fussy little eater that, really, a mix of tinned meat, fish, raw egg and maggots was very tasty. Sylvain and I tried all manner of feeding strategies, once again convincing several staff members of our lack of mental stability as we experimented with a variety of potential ‘mother owl’ noises to encourage a feeding response.

Fresh lizard, rat and chicken- all go down very well, though the preparation of such items is rather grim. It helps that we both have a background in biological sciences so, in many ways, preparing these meals is very reminiscent of dissection classes.

As for the broken wing, well its early days and we won’t really know for a while. However, the bandaging seems to have held everything back in the right position and despite our as yet unnamed little friend being an awkward patient, removing his dressing during the night, everything looks to be healing okay.

How the owl came to fall from the nest I guess we’ll never know; being so young and carrying an injury means we now have an uphill battle on our hands, to fulfil our dream of seeing him or her fly again. There’s a fighting spirit inside this bundle of feathers though, shining out through those amber eyes and seeing that tenacious spark from within, makes me believe that this little one may just have a chance.

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Category: Cercopan, Nigeria, Rain Forests | Date: Oct 27 2009 | By: cercopan

by Amy Baxter

Having spent the last month and a half working on finances in Calabar I looked forward to returning for a week to the bush site at Rhoko, where I usually work, to help out in the absence of the Rhoko manager.  After a week there though I started to remember some of the more unnerving aspects of the rainforest, namely the gleam of beady eyes and the slinking movement of snakes …….

Although snakes are fairly rare at Rhoko, it always seems to be that all sightings come very close together, usually in the space of a week.  This was one of those weeks.  The first sighting was in our main camp shed when I and a short-term volunteer were chatting quite happily.  It was only when I caught the sight of movement out of the corner of my eye that I turned and came face to face with a 2m long spitting cobra hanging from the ceiling beams.  It was hanging right above the only exit and I was already blocked in by the dining table.  I did consider climbing over the table but this was likely to scare it into spitting at me.  Spitting cobras get their name due to the way they protect themselves from predators; aiming a toxic solution into the predator’s eyes that is very painful and can blind, certainly if left untreated.  Instead I ducked, looked to the floor and made a run past it.  It then decided to move along the central beam, heading fairly speedily towards Ray, our short-term volunteer.  After he did the same ‘duck and run’ tactic as I, we watched with interest from the slightly safer doorway.

It moved to different areas of the hut ceiling and we could keep up with it easily; this was until we looked away for too long.  When we glanced back it had disappeared and we tentatively searched around us in case it had slithered somewhere nearby.  It was when we heard the smash of bottles that we relocated it.  He was just entering one of our open cupboards and in the process had knocked over an empty wine bottle.  After spending a few minutes in this cupboard, he made his way in to the above food cupboard, through a hole rats had previously made.  This cupboard was notorious for vermin and we waited in anticipation to see if he caught anything.  Two minutes or so passed and there had been no sight or sound of the cobra, but then, as if strolling down a high street, a small rat appeared from the hole of the cupboard and made its way casually out of harm’s path.  We laughed at how calm he seemed, baring in mind he had just spent 2 minutes with a sworn enemy!  A few minutes later a snake head appeared at the hole and this is when he realised we were still watching him.  He appeared to be working out his escape route and when he eventually braved the outside of the cupboard, he disappeared into the kitchen roof and, despite now three staff watching the area closely, none of us saw the route he took back to the trees.

Two days later, again in broad daylight but this time with 5 members of staff noisily discussing CERCOPAN issues, there it was again!!  Up in the beams entirely undeterred by human presence!  All of us were watching out and following it carefully but this time it often moved much more quickly than before.  Our older guard dog Simon tried to go inside the main shed and seemed very perturbed with all the yelling we automatically did in fright of him getting so close to the cobra.  Disgruntled, he moved away and sulked under another hut.  It was just when we lost sight of the snake and thought it had headed under the hut that Simon made his second attempt to get near the main shed, running straight under the hut where we believed the cobra to be.  Yet again there was a lot of yelling, but thank-fully we relocated the snake and it was still inside the hut.  Simon however, remained adamant that he would worry us as much as possible and, darting through all the staff attempting to grab him, he headed in to the hut and right towards the cobra.  Again, automatically we had yelled but were quickly quiet in case this stressed the cobra further and put Simon in more risk.  We held our breath as Simon panted directing under the cobra, wandering what all the fuss was about.  The cobra still seemed confused and was getting more stressed, eager to find a way to leave.  He made his way out of the main shed and on to its roof.  We prayed it wouldn’t return inside as Simon had wedged himself in to an area he knew we couldn’t reach to try to pull him out.  After a while the cobra finally found a liana on which to return to the forest and we watched him as he fumbled over branches in a hurry.

Finally we felt as if we could relax.  We let out our smaller, fairly young dog Ticky from the office where she had been locked and joked about our two close encounters with snakes.  The peace was shattered within 10 minutes though, as Ray quickly said ‘Is that a snake in the grass?’  Obviously, we all assumed he was joking until we turned around and, right in the middle of the compound, coming from a completely different direction from where the other left, another spitting cobra of a similar size was racing across the lawn.  Ticky had run straight towards it, thinking it a game like the lizards she loves to chase.  Screaming, I ran toward her and in my panic she stopped with confusion.  I grabbed the bewildered Ticky and luckily the snake had thought it best to keep moving and just disappeared in to the longer grass at the edge of the compound.  All the staff sat down exhausted after the stress of what had turned in to 2 and a half hours of dealing with snakes that day.  The rest of the afternoon everyone was very careful around camp and the dogs were on leashes in case of cobra reappearances.  Thankfully the rest of the day was fairly uneventful, remaining snake free.

We had two other sightings of snakes during my week at Rhoko; one of a good size but not seen long enough to identify, and one green mamba; a dangerous but rarely seen snake.  As much as I love wildlife and enjoy seeing snakes in the wild, I have to say I would rather not have any more close encounters like this when I return next time to the forest!

Tags: African Wildlife, Cercopan, Naja nigricolis, Rhoko camp

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Category: Cercopan, Environmental education saving endangered primates, Monkeys, Nigeria, Orphaned baby monkeys, Saving endangered monkeys | Date: Oct 16 2009 | By: cercopan

On Wednesday (14^th October) despite doing everything we possibly could, we were unable to save a young male mona monkey brought to us at CERCOPAN.  This tiny mona arrived to us in a cardboard box, collapsed in a heap and shaking all over.  The man who brought him in said his brother had purchased the monkey that morning and it had been fine, but during the day it had become like this. As we continued to examine the mona, we found that he had a black eye, a wound on his upper lip, was dehydrated and highly disorientated.

A mona of similar size to the young male brought in
We questioned the man further, at which point he changed his story and said he had been like this when his brother made the purchase.  Realising we were going to get no closer to understanding the circumstances we carried the mona to our vet lab where our Vet Assistant, Austin, began trying to work out why the infant was shaking so severely, similarly to an epileptic fit.  We were mentally going through all the possible conditions that may have caused these symptoms.  The moment we took its temperature though we understood.  His temperature was 42˚C (nearly 108˚F). We quickly tried to cool him down,  gently wetting his fur and fanning him.  He was still ‘fitting’, a common side effect to such a high temperature, and we held his hands so he had something to hold on to and so that he felt comforted.  He was making small squeals, not like any normal vocalisation a healthy mona would make, and we could tell he was in a lot of pain.

We managed to get his temperature down to the normal level of 38 ˚C and he started to reduce his shaking while becoming more aware of his surroundings.  Relieved that he was becoming more stable we started to look in to the next stage of treatment.  We made up a sugar/salt solution to begin to combat the dehydration and fed it to him with a syringe.  Sadly, not long after, the mona started taking another turn for the worse, this time in the opposite direction with his temperature dropping.

We quickly gave him a hot water bottle and wrapped him up in blankets.  He was beginning to shake again and his whimpering told us he was still in pain. Pandrillus vet Ainare did everything she could to save him but despite all of our best efforts he passed away.  We were all desperately sad but also at least relieved the poor infant was suffering no longer.  A post-mortem revealed massive trauma to the head, likely due to being hit with something or kicked.  All of the staff of CERCOPAN had tears in their eyes and were disgusted that anyone could do this to an animal.

Later that evening the brother, who had originally purchased the mona turned up at CERCOPAN to ‘collect’ his monkey.  We explained to him the circumstances of his death and that, even if the monkey had survived, it would not have been given back to him under any conditions, as is protocol at CERCOPAN.  We gave him  tour of CERCOPAN and spent a long time explaining to him why monkeys should not be kept as pets, and the legal implications of doing so under Nigerian law.  A sad day for all here, but it made us all more determined than ever to educate people about wildlife and to provide safe haven for all of the monkeys out there that so desperately need our help.

Tags: African Wildlife, Cercopan, environmental education, mona monkey, Nigerian primates, Nigerin Wildlife, Orphan monkey, rehabilitation, Wildlife rescue

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Category: CERCOPAN staff fighting to save rainforest and endanger, CERCOPAN supporters saving rainforests and orphaned mon, Cercopan, Environmental education saving endangered primates, Nigeria, Orphaned baby monkeys, Saving endangered monkeys, love and friendship in monkeys | Date: Oct 10 2009 | By: cercopan

by Amy Baxter, Temporary Office and Finance Manager

CERCOPAN is pleased to announce that we now have two new additions to our monkey residents!  Saved from an uncertain fate, two young putty-nosed guenons, Flexy and Delight, were rescued by staff and brought to our Calabar compound.  We had a tip-off from a secondary school teacher who visited CERCOPAN with his class not long a go.  While he was here we explained to the class why primates shouldn’t be kept as pets and told them that it was even against the law in Nigeria.  After this short visit to our site, he walked past a compound where he could see two young putty-nosed guenons and he immeditely came to CERCOPAN to inform us.  We were very pleased that our educational messages were successfully absorbed and it gives us great hope for the future that we can continue to change the opinions of Nigerian residents!

His information indicated that the owner sold monkeys commercially and so we were even more concerned and determined to rescue the pair and to stop any more trade.  Our Education Assistant, Martina, stopped by the compound on the way to work to investigated the situation further.  She was very concerned upon arrival about the number of ‘area boys’ close by, a group known to be involved in criminal activities and often very dangerous.  She left without entering the compound but could see one putty-nosed guenon from where she stood.  Our bravest lads decided they would all go together to confiscate the putties, feeling strength in numbers was the best pproach on this occasion. They had expected a long debate with the owner to persuade him to give up the pair, but the whole situation turned out to be much easier than expected…….

Vet nurse Austin with Flexy and Delight

The owner knew CERCOPAN and had visited in the past as he loved monkeys.  He recognized Martina immediately and said he had expected to receive a visit from us at some point.  Our staff asked him is he knew keeping monkeys was against the law and he did, as did his wife who had been nagging him to take them to CERCOPAN for some time!  He had planned to go but had become so attached to the pair, that he had been postponing the visit.  He admitted that had previously  traded in monkeys, selling them for about 8000 naira each (approximately ₤30) but had often kept them for a while before selling them to enjoy their company.  When our team had arrived the monkeys were running around the compound, having escaped from their enclosure, but were quite happy to stay around the family home.  They were playing in the trees and climbing on the roof, not a bit disturbed by this large group of people watching their antics.

While arranging the hndover of the monkeys with the owner, we discovered one of them didnt actually belong to him. They had been placed together by the two separate owners to keep each other company.  He was very hesitant to give up the second animal, explaining that the other owner would think he had sold the monkey to make money. The next hour was spent trying to contact the other owner and then negotiating with him and his family. Eventually, our staff finaly talked him into releasing the monkey into our care and Flexy nd delight were brought home to CERCOPAN. They are a friendly and confident pair, even around humans.  So much so that they didn’t even need a travel box on the car journey home, cheerfully clinging to each other and Egu, our head keeper’s, arm.

Now they are waiting at CERCOPAN for their medical tests so they can be moved in to a big group with other puttys.  We have 3 other young puttys and 1 slightly older individual already waiting to move out from quarantine and they will form one big happy group once Flexy and Delight are ready.  They won’t be without their guardian though, making sure they all stay in line; Double Chief, an old male, with be put in charge of the nursery group and will make sure no one misbehaves!

Tags: African Wildlife, Cercopan, Conservation, Orphan monkeys, Primate rehabilitation, putty-nosed guenon

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Category: CERCOPAN battles illegal loggers, CERCOPAN helping communities in Nigeria, Cercopan, Communities, Conservation, Nigeria | Date: Oct 09 2009 | By: cercopan

By Richard Carroll - Rhoko Manager

“It’s a good idea” said the chief, “I like it, but this idea of an election..it can’t work. No, better we just make an appointment of good people.” “But Chief,” I replied despairingly, seeing the previous night’s 3 hours of negotiation over this point slipping swiftly away with each nod of his advisor’s head, “we discussed this, we need to have a democratic election. Appointments have been tried before and they don’t work; these people represent the community’s voice- they need to be chosen by the community.” So began another round of debating on this point. It was a topic of alarming regularity over the next two weeks with apparently nobody in the village believing it was possible to hold a trouble free election. “It has never happened here; it’s not possible” was the consensus. “Trust me, it can be done.” Was my reply through gritted teeth, as I then settled down to once again explain my plan.

CCDC elections -  Richard distributing voting tokens

To be fair I understood the concerns, the election we were planning to hold was to re-inaugurate the village Community Conservation & Development Committee (CCDC). This body initially conceived by CERCOPAN has the responsibility of deciding how the substantial funds from tourism royalties and other CERCOPAN related payments are spent. They should be used to finance any community development project that the CCDC and Chiefs’ Council agree upon, providing it does not detract from concepts of sustainability and conservation. The chiefs were worried that certain timber dealers and others hungry for influence in the area would try to hijack this committee and disrupt the peace in the village. There had been similar attempts recently as those involved in illegal timber exploitation are gradually being squeezed out by the community’s collaboration with state forestry departments; and they were looking for a way to stem the tide.

  At the polling booths

I had already held a series of meetings with people I felt were key individuals in the community. These were young, literate people with a passionate desire to see their community make the most of its opportunities. We had been sitting on the floor around the bedside of one of my staff- Matthew, who was recovering from a motorbike accident, discussing village politics. As we spoke these people not only bemoaned the lack of influence they felt they had but also put forward a vision of how they believed things could be better. It struck me, this was the core of what the CCDC should be and within a few days I asked them to gather themselves and any like-minded individuals they could find for a strategic meeting. Within a few weeks this group had helped to pass out information leaflets, discussed relevant issues and encouraged other people to nominate candidates they would trust to represent their needs in the decision making process. General assembly meetings and manifesto nights for the proposed candidates all helped to add to the buzz being generated in the village.

Iko Esai residents waiting to vote

The morning of the election came around; I set off from Calabar at 6am, having been up all night constructing ballot boxes, and promptly ran into trouble. Heavy rains the night before had rendered one section of the dirt road impassable and I found myself axle deep in a quagmire of sticky orange mud. With no small help from a group of friends from the nearest village, who had happened upon my predicament, as they ferried colossal mounds of bananas to the highway on motorbikes, I was finally freed; arriving tired, filthy and apprehensive to the village. Rapidly organising ourselves, the election team swung into action. Registration and voting stations were manned, security employed at the door and the village bell rung to announce the start of proceedings.

Women Registering for the election

I am told that there was an element of the village connected to the timber extractors grumbling amongst themselves that they were going to disrupt the day; that no election would hold unless they said so. However, they failed to leave their corner of discontent and so missed the atmosphere of celebration 5 hours after polls opened and the successful candidates were announced to the massed crowd. It was extremely gratifying to hear the talk outside the classroom which served as a polling station; “free and fair” could commonly be discerned amongst the other incoherent jumble of triumphant conversations in the local Iko dialect. So happy were the participants with the days events, that I may have made a rod for my own back as it has been suggested we assist with the re-election of several other bodies in the village! I couldn’t be happier with the group of men and women that the community chose to represent them over the next 3 years and despite their initial misgivings, neither it seems could the chiefs. I’m not entirely sure, however, how I feel about the new nickname they bestowed on me; ‘The Bulldozer’- though it does have a certain ring to it.

Tags: Cercopan, Community Conservation, Iko Esai, Rainforest protection, Sustainable development

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Category: CERCOPAN staff fighting to save rainforest and endanger, Cercopan, Communities, Conservation, Education, Environmental education saving endangered primates, Monkeys, Nigeria, Orphaned baby monkeys, Saving endangered monkeys | Date: Oct 05 2009 | By: cercopan

Usually a trip to Agoi is an anticipated event, often for an exciting occasion when the local community are even more cheerful than usual and their specially brewed, extra ‘hot’ spirit is more readily available.  This trip however, was quite different from those usually encountered.

We had received information that a drill monkey was being kept as a pet within the village.  Our first response was to inform Pandrillus, another primate organisation based in Calabar who specialise in drill monkey and chimpanzee rehabilitation.  Due to their current schedule and as Agoi is so close to our forest site, they asked us if we could go and remove the animal from the situation.  CERCOPAN will never buy an animal, as it encourages people to try to catch them for financial gain, and we try to avoid getting the police involved as it deters people getting in touch to donate animals already in their possession.  In these cases we try to negotiate with the owners and hope to persuade them to give up their animal, making them understand why it’s better for the individual and for them.

Rescued Juvenile Drill monkey     

When we first sent our CERCOPAN representative to see the owner we found it very hard to get our message across.  The owner, did not want to give up the animal.  He said he had paid 4000 naira for the monkey, now a juvenile male named Chris, from a hunter back in January of this year.  He had been caring for it since then and it had been living in a small wooden box constructed from wooden planks at the side of his house.  The box only had some small holes to see out of and soon he would grow far too big for the box, as adult male drills grow to a huge size.

Adult male Drill Monkey

When our first approach was not working, we attempted to negotiate with someone who had the power to sway the owner’s opinion; the local chief of the village.  The chiefs of a village often have the final say in many decisions and solve many disputes involving village residents.  After consulting the chief he spoke to the owner and began to change the owner’s position on the situation.  To begin with the owner still wanted a reward in the form of guaranteed employment.  Again we had to explain that if we agreed to such terms we would continually have this problem in future situations, and inadvertently increase the number of primates removed from the forest when others decided to use them as a means of getting a job.

Eventually he understood our position and we reached an agreement whereby he would receive a certificate stating that he had donated the drill monkey to us.  We left to prepare a certificate and returned, again to a big discussion about the situation.  Luckily we still managed to make him see he was doing the best thing and Chris was handed over in front of a crowd of around 50 people.  In addition to his certificate we presented him with information leaflets about why it is wrong to hunt monkeys and a poster urging people to protect the highly endangered drill monkey.

To make the entire event official, various traditions had to be adhered to.  After the exchange of monkey and certificate, further exchanges had to be made involving kai-kai; the locally brewed spirit that happens to be particularly strong in Agoi.  This isn’t the kind of exchange where each party buys a bottle and the other takes it home to drink leisurely in their own time - this is when both parties buy a bottle and both bottles must be finished by the end of the gathering.  A little speech was made by both sides and then each departed, swaying slightly from side-to-side!

Chris was brought to our Calabar site late the next evening where he remained in our quarantine area overnight and where he had more space than he had been used to before.  He seemed to enjoy it so much that, by the next day, he was so eager to run around more he managed to escape our trained staff and cause havoc around the office.  After destroying several office items, chewing keys off computer keyboards and peeing on important papers, we finally managed to calm him down and return him to a travel box.  After that he was taken to Pandrillus and reunited with those of his kind.  Now he is busy making new friends and learning what it is really like to be a drill monkey!

Tags: African Wildlife, Cercopan, Community Conservation, Drill monkey, Endangered primates, Nigeria, rehabilitation

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Category: CERCOPAN staff fighting to save rainforest and endanger, CERCOPAN supporters saving rainforests and orphaned mon, Cercopan, Conservation, Monkeys, Nigeria, Rain Forests, Saving endangered monkeys | Date: Oct 04 2009 | By: cercopan

On the 30^th September, one of our youngest mangabeys found his adventurous streak and took a trip to the ‘outside world’.  Despite being in a large 1 hectare, semi-free ranging forest enclosure Judim, approximately 6 months old, decided he was ready to explore a bit further afield.  The primate keepers at our Rhoko forest site were very surprised when they arrived one morning to discover the small mangabey climbing the trees outside the enclosure.  It is particularly rare that we have mangabey escapes at our forest site, mainly as their enclosure is so large they are usually quite happy inside, and also because we have an electric fence running around the outside making it particularly difficult to climb out without a little buzz!  The only time we worry about escapes is when a storm has caused a tree to fall on the fence and we have some teenage males looking to find exotic girls from another troop!

Judim our little adventuror!

What was even more surprising about Judim’s escape was that usually he was such a quiet, nervous infant! It is very rare to see him away from his mum, so where this daring notion came from is anybody’s guess!  We think he must have crawled under the electric tape to where the normal metal fence is and then started to climb up, being small enough to not touch the electric tapes about 25cm away.  Once he got to the top I don’t think he realised he would be separated from his mum if he played in the ‘adventure playground’ the other side of the fence. Once he was on the other side and this separation dawned on him he wasn’t too happy, nor was mum for that matter! Both mum and infant started to get distressed, and Judim tried several methods to try to get back in with the other mangabeys.  The CERCOPAN workers who had gone to help tried to reduce their stress by not getting too close and attempting to distract the rest of the group with food.  It would be impossible to pick up the infant and return him to the enclosure without being mobbed by the group, so everyone was forced to wait while Judim worked out a method to return himself.  Eventually, after several different tactics had failed, Judim cimbed a tall tree over-looking the enclosure.  Here he weighed up his options and chances of leaping back in to the enclosure and, with baited breath, the staff looked on. With every other possibility exhausted and now clearly desperate, Judim took the death-defying leap and luckily landed safely in his mother’s arms.  Both mother and Judim were extremely relieved and joyful about being united, but I’m pretty sure Judim got a serious telling off when these emotions wore off!

Tags: African Wildlife, baby monkey, Cercopan, Conservation, Red-capped mangabey, Wildlife Rehabilitation

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Category: CERCOPAN battles illegal loggers, CERCOPAN helping communities in Nigeria, CERCOPAN staff fighting to save rainforest and endanger, CERCOPAN supporters saving rainforests and orphaned mon, Cercopan, Communities, Conservation, Education, Environmental education saving endangered primates, Monkeys, Nigeria, Orphaned baby monkeys, Rain Forests, Saving endangered monkeys | Date: Oct 01 2009 | By: cercopan

 The October edition of the CERCOPAN monthly newsletter can be dowloaded from the link below

cerconews-october-2009-edition.pdf

Hope you enjoy it! Look out for the next issue on the 5th November.

Tags: African Wildlife, Cercopan, Community Conservation, Conservation, Endangered monkeys, environmental education, Guenons, Mangabeys, Newletter, rehabilitation

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