Archive for the ‘Cercopan’ Category
Another day, another baby, this time confiscated with assistance from the local authorities. The third Mangabey we have brought to CERCOPAN since December, but this time a female and a very demanding one at that! One of our keepers Austin was visiting Marion market on his day off and saw the baby for sale in a dirty cage surrounded by people and chickens. As soon as he informed Jerry and Uche about the baby’s location they decided that trying to reason with a trader in a crowded venue would be futile and that the only way to take this animal would be to do so by force. They also reasoned that being accompanied by the authorities had the added advantage that it would allow us to make a public example of the trader, therefore discouraging others market vendors to sell monkeys in the future.
The confiscation, despite considerable protest from the owners was over very quickly and the baby was brought back to CERCOPAN HQ. She seems very happy in her new home, but is proving to be an absolute handful; pulling hair, prising open and attempting to lick people’s eyelids, screaming as loudly as possible whenever she is put back into her enclosure and literally destroying anything accidentally left within her reach. As one of her primary carers at the moment, I will be very relieved when we integrate her into a group with Abonema and Murphy!
The arrival of yet another new monkey leaves us with a serious problem. Quarantine is almost full, our enclosures are at maximum capacity and if monkeys continue to arrive at the same rate as in recent weeks, we will very soon have nowhere to put them. Turning animals away would be seriously detrimental, not only to the monkeys themselves, but also to our education programme. Indeed, it would create additional problems informing people that they should not keep monkeys and that doing so is illegal if we are then unable to give any option of a safe place to hand in the primates they may already own. It therefore seems that our best option may be to extend our current animal accommodation and begin building new enclosures. Given the financial and space implications of such a project however, this is an avenue that will require considerable thought and planning before making the decision to go ahead.
Last week CERCOPAN began the 2008 education outreach programme in urban schools in and around Calabar. Jerry started the education programme in 1997 and in its 11th year it is more popular than ever. Over the next 6 months he will visit two schools daily, each for approximately 1 hour 30 minutes, lecturing on the topic “Wildlife protection, the forest and climate change”. There are 80-100 children in each class and as he hopes to visit between 50 and 70 schools, this means that he will effectively reach out to over 5000 children.
During his talk, Jerry explains CERCOPAN’s role in protecting monkeys and their forest habitat, the importance and interactions between wildlife and the forest, why monkeys do not make good pets and the benefits and functions of tropical rainforest to society. At the end of his presentation, every child is provided with a handout that they can take home and use to persuade others to change their attitudes towards wildlife. Furthermore, as a follow up, teachers from each school are requested to repeatedly reinforce the message that students should not keep monkeys as pets and that they should choose wisely whenever they opt to consume bushmeat.
In 2007 Jerry won the Charles Southwick Conservation Education Commitment award, which he will collect at the International Primate Society congress in Edinburgh this year. We are all extremely proud of Jerry and are very pleased that his years of hard work and utter dedication have been recognized. As part of the prize, Jerry was given a cash reward to be spent on any aspect of the education programme that he considered appropriate. Always keen to motivate and reward the children, Jerry decided to use this prize to purchase trophies that were presented to schools at our 2007 World Environment Day rally. The rally was attended by thousands of children and involved a parade, school inspections, essay contest, carnival and drama competition, all related to wildlife and environmental protection. The rally is held every other year and will next take place in July 2009, yet Jerry is already making plans and is determined it will be bigger and better than ever!
It seems that no sooner we manage to find space in quarantine for one monkey, another one arrives. Last Wednesday morning we heard about a baby Putty whose owner was looking to sell the animal. I waited for Jerry to return from one of his school visits and then the two of us headed out to the man’s home, armed with education leaflets and a travel box.
We arrived to find the baby in a poor state; wet, muddy, covered in faeces and tethered so tightly that she was unable to move more than a few centimetres. Indeed, the cord around the baby’s middle was restricting her bladder to such an extent that she was urinating almost constantly. Unfortunately, the owner of the animal was not on the premises and therefore Jerry had no choice but to try to negotiate her release over the phone. Despite lengthy discussion, the man was absolutely adamant that we could not take the Putty without a face to face meeting.
Obviously I was not happy leaving the monkey tethered for even a few hours, so despite protests from the staff on site, we cut the cord and transferred her to the travel box. I had no option other than to leave, but the guilt I felt all the way to CERCOPAN was almost overpowering and it took every ounce of strength not to simply rush back and rescue her. I knew our actions were for the best however, as when we are able to educate the owners and they hand over an animal willingly, they are generally less likely to replace it with another in the future.
Jerry returned later that evening but the man was not on site and his staff asked Jerry to be there the following day at 6am. At 6am the owner spoke to Jerry, accepted the educational material and requested that he be able to consult his lawyer before handing over the animal. After speaking to his lawyer and another visit from Jerry, the man subsequently demanded that he be given the opportunity to visit CERCOPAN before making any decisions (although he was not free to do so in the near future due to time constraints). Jerry travelled to his house again and again, leaving home at 5am in an attempt to catch the man before work, returning during the day hoping the he may be there for lunch and even checking back on his way home at night. Despite phone call after phone call we were no closer to rescuing the baby monkey, but at least the trips were allowing us to ensure that she had both food and water.
Finally, on Saturday morning Jerry and I made the difficult decision that should we fail to confiscate the baby by the end of the day, we would return first thing on Monday morning with the authorities to take her by force. At 1pm Jerry, Uche and myself arrived at the house, only to find that once again the owner was not at home. After several phone calls, we were asked to return at 5pm and when we did, we were told that the man was asleep and could not be disturbed. At 5.30 we all finally gave up and went home for dinner, but before I had a chance to put a pot on the stove, Jerry rang to inform me that the owner had requested we return. Once we were finally able to meet and talk with the man inside his home, it became very apparent that he had a great deal of concern for his pet and simply wanted to make sure that we would be taking her somewhere suitable. He had bought the Putty from one of his staff who had shot her mother for meat, but due to the nature of his job he was rarely at home and had been forced to leave her in the care of others. Over an hour of questions followed and just after 7.15pm we drove out of his gate with the baby and firm promises that the owner would discourage his staff and colleagues from keeping and/or shooting monkeys.
Back at CERCOPAN, volunteer Sagan helped me to give the baby a bath, clean out the travel box and prepare fruit and milk. I returned home exhausted, but with a real feeling of achievement, with persistence, determination and extremely dedicated staff anything really is possible.
After a week observing Abonema and Murphy in adjacent quarantine enclosures, we finally placed them together on Monday, and as you can see they are already inseparable. Indeed, Murphy spends most of his time clinging to Abonemas chest or riding on his back.
Unfortunately, no matter how close the two male Managabeys have become, food is still their number one priority and as a result we are being forced to find more and more ingenious ways to prevent Abonema stealing all of Murphy’s milk. Generally with patience, cunning and well timed ‘food bribery’ however, we can lure Abonema into another enclosure to allow Murphy enough time to drink his bottle in peace. The two will now remain together in quarantine until Murphy has competed his full three months and then we will have the complex process of trying to integrate them into a suitable social group.
I have just received some reports and photographs from the bush so thought I would post a quick update on the progress of our release group. Three months after the release of the Bebi, July and Nko, we have not lost any individuals, the group has remained in the area planned to be their home-range, no major health problems have been noted and the radio tracking equipment is still functioning. Since the beginning, the three animals have stayed together as a group, with July leading and protecting the others from any potential threats. Indeed, July has been observed chasing red eared monkeys on two occasions, when they entered the same crown as the group. July has also been observed copulating with Bebi on two occasions, although these are certainly more social mounts, given the weak probability of Bebi being receptive.
So far, the group has remained inside the Core Area, with no single foray into the research area, community forest, or main camp. Using a grid system established inside the forest on the release site, we have been able to measure and assess the size of home-range in addition to the daily travel length. The approximate home-range size is now between 7 and 8 ha, and the daily length range is 750m. The 2 first months were characterized by a smaller home-range size and daily length range (2.5 ha for 350m per day), since the group was located in part of the forest rich in food resources, especially fruits. Since the production of their top 3 food species decreased, and we have been able to discern a noticeable increase in time spent travelling.
Food provisioning is still carried out, but with a process of progressive decrease in the provided amount. During the two first weeks after the release, we supplied the group with food twice a day, once in the morning and again in the late afternoon. We then decreased the provisioning to once a day, usually in the beginning of the afternoon as we observed that the group could find enough food and fruit on their own. Since the beginning of January 2008 however, food is provided only once every two or three days. This new reduction should allow the group to become more independent, and to reduce human/monkey interactions.
The group tend to spend the early morning and end afternoon in the upper stratum of the forest, with more time in the lower layers/on the ground in the middle of the day. They own several sleeping trees they leave in the morning and that constitute central points around which they travel during the day. The Monas often follow the stream close to the release enclosure, walking in the water or on the banks, jumping from roots to trunks and foraging in the water on arthropods. Surprisingly, the largest percentage of time spent foraging is actually on arthropods, with fruits and seeds forming the second main food category.
July and Nko following the stream We are all delighted that the Monas are doing well and that they have adapted so readily to life in the wild. Working at CERCOPAN can be emotionally draining at times, watching animals that have been poorly treated entering our gates day after day and losing animals that we have worked so hard to save. Nevertheless, watching the footage of our newly wild Mona’s makes everything else we endure worthwhile. Not only does it mark a second chance for Bebi, Nko and July, but it also fills us with hope for all of the other monkeys that we will one day follow them.
On behalf of everyone here at CERCOPAN, thank you so much to Antonio, Theresa and Cathy for your donations. The donation from Theresa will be used to supply our new babies with milk and vital drugs and those from Antonio and Cathy will support our environmental education outreach programme in Calabar and surrounding rural areas.
As a non-profit making NGO we really are utterly reliant upon the generosity of individuals, companies and foundations to undertake our vital work here in Nigeria. Consequently, everything we are able to achieve is thanks to people like you. Thanks again
Yesterday, another orphan primate, an infant Mona named J.B, entered the gates of CERCOPAN. Abraham, our ever vigilant night security guard had passed a compound and observed the monkey riding on the back of a dog.
After speaking to Abraham, Jerry and Uche drove to the site hoping to persuade J.B’s owners to release him into our care. In the end, I would say that this animal was actually more of a donation than a confiscation as the family did not hesitate to hand him over once Uche and Jerry explained why primates should not be kept as pets. Indeed, the head of the family even requested permission to visit CERCOPAN HQ today so that they can learn more about primates!
The owners dog however, was not as keen for us to take J.B away and ran after the travel box whining. J.B spent all of his early life playing with and suckling from the dog and so it will be vital once he has had all of his vaccinations and tests to find him a new friend so that he will not be lonely.
J.B is our 7th new primate since the middle of October and our premises are becoming increasingly crowded. If this continues over the coming weeks, we may be forced to construct new enclosures or to extend our existing facilities in order to deal with the sheer number of animals. In addition, the sudden influx of primates is placing tremendous strain on our financial resources as the price of primate food has almost doubled in the last year.
It has been another amazingly busy week at CERCOPAN and despite trying every day to find the time to write our blog, this is the first spare minute I have actually had! The highlight of the last week was the arrival of another Mangabey on Wednesday, this time a 7 month old infant male. The call came in at around 9.00am, from Abraham, one of our night security guards. On his way home from work, he had spotted the baby playing with a dog and a group of children in someone’s backyard. As soon as I put down the phone, Richard, Jerry and Egu (one of our primate keepers), prepared a travel box and headed off in the truck to meet Abraham. Speed is always imperative with confiscations, even a slight delay can mean that the animal is no longer on view, or worse still, it has disappeared altogether.
The team arrived at the compound to find a tiny Mangabey, drinking from a bowl of stagnant water. The monkey, later known to be called “Murphy”, was not chained, but looked very malnourished and dirty. After introducing the team as CERCOPAN employees, Jerry asked to speak with the owner of the monkey. Nobody immediately stepped forward, so our staff handed out educational materials, including a poster entitled “Why monkeys do not make good pets” whilst they waited. After about 15 minutes a man approached Jerry and proclaimed that he was the rightful owner of the animal, having bought the creature from a hunter and subsequently paid for its feed.
Despite Jerry’s generally very persuasive manner and his repeated pleas for the monkey to be donated to CERCOPAN, the owner stubbornly refused to part with the Mangabey without some form of financial compensation. This is a common problem, as people tend to feel that they should be repaid for having bought and fed the animal. In most cases, the owners relent once they are certain that we will not pay, but this man held firm and threatened that he would rather kill the monkey and go to jail than hand him over for free.
As time passed, the crowd grew and tempers began to fray, with all bystanders supporting the owners claim to compensation. Jerry however, remained calm, firm and patient, explaining repeatedly that buying the monkey constituted trading in endangered wildlife and that we would rather solve the problem via calm discussion than involve the police. After approximately two hours of negotiating, the mood finally changed and the owner handed Murphy to Richard, along with a smile and a hand shake. This little Mangabey is very lucky that we found him when we did, given that he is approximately half the size that he should be at his age. Thankfully he is already taking to the bottle well, so I am sure that it will not be too long before he catches up to his age mates at CERCOPAN.
I, and everyone here at CERCOPAN would like to thank everybody for their support and understanding over the death of baby Linda. We were all very saddened by it particularly as she had put up such a brave fight. We were very touched by your comments left on the website. It is good to know there are people out there who care even though you had not the opportunity to meet her. Thank you.
Yesterday, I arrived at work at 6am to find Linda sat up in her travel box looking reasonably alert, yet by 10am her health had plummeted once again. She simply lay on her side without reacting as we cleaned her box and tried to make her comfortable with a hot water bottle. At 12.05pm Heather administered drugs in a desperate bid to pull her round, but all of our efforts were in vain and at 9.30pm last night Linda finally gave up the fight. Putty nosed guenon babies tend to go downhill rapidly and it is always difficult to bring them back to health once they are sick and weakened. Knowing this, we had prepared ourselves for the worst, but I think deep down we all secretly believed this tough little monkey would make it through. I apologise for not posting news earlier, but as you can imagine everyone here is feeling pretty low today. |
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