CERCOPAN

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 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

2 responses so far

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: CERCOPAN supporters saving rainforests and orphaned mon, Cercopan, Monkeys, Nigeria, Orphaned baby monkeys, Saving endangered monkeys | Date: Aug 22 2009 | By: cercopan

Exactly a week ago, CERCOPAN staff rescued an as yet un-named infant putty nosed monkey female (see previous blog) with a seriously injured left hand.  In only a week, this young monkey has transformed from a traumatized little girl, into a confident and adventurous individual!  Not wanting to encourage too much movement of her hand she stays in a travel box most of the day, but does come out for play sessions around the volunteer office and living room, stopping occasionally to rest on the back of one of our chairs (see picture below). 

Truly a character, this monkey knows no fear!  She leaps around so happy to be free! Climbing everywhere and trying to use her broken hand.  She is also very vocal, and makes it known to me frequently when I am not paying her enough attention.  Enjoying the reassurance that my arms provide, she jumps into my chest every time something scares her or I call her back from a dangerous feat!  I can tell already, her progress is going to be interesting, and we will surely keep everyone posted!  Thanks to all for helping to support CERCOPAN, because of people like you we are able to take care of little monkeys like her. 

Tags: Cercopan, Conservation, Nigeria, Orphan monkeys, putty-nosed guenon, rehabilitation

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Category: CERCOPAN supporters saving rainforests and orphaned mon, Cercopan, Conservation, Monkeys, Nigeria, Orphaned baby monkeys, Saving endangered monkeys | Date: Aug 18 2009 | By: cercopan

Fantasic news…thanks to our wonderful readers out there, we only have $1182 left to raise towards our rent!!! Recent donations from Kathy S, Kevin C, James M, Brenton H, Mark H, Ji-in L, Harry V, James M, Julie T, Jennifer S, Wanda H and Christine C have brought us so close to our target and there are still 14 days to go. When we started this appeal with $3333 to raise in little over a month, it seemed almost impossible…..but now we are almost 2/3 of the way there. Thanks very much from everyone at CERCOPAN for getting us here.

For all of you wishing to help our cause, you can now also support CERCOPAN by using ‘everyclick’ as your search engine. Simply add everyclick to your favourites or as your home page (http://www.everyclick.com/cercopan) and then each search you undertake raises money for our organisation. Even if you only search a couple of times a day every click counts.  Encourage your friends to participate too!

Little Ema eating orange

Tags: African Wildlife, Cercopan, Conservation, Monkeys, Nigeria, Orpahan baby monkeys, rehabilitation

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Category: CERCOPAN helping communities in Nigeria, CERCOPAN staff fighting to save rainforest and endanger, Cercopan, Communities, Conservation, Education, Environmental education saving endangered primates, Nigeria, Rain Forests | Date: Aug 07 2009 | By: cercopan

Hi, I’m Carrie and I am just coming to the end of a six week stay as a short term volunteer at CERCOPAN. I am currently working on my PhD at the University of Florida focusing on Environmental Education and Primate Conservation and hope to come back for a much longer period next year as part of my studies. I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay at Rhoko camp, but the definite highlight of my trip was working with the Rhoko education officer, Mike, and organizing an overnight stay for 12 members of the Iko Esai Conservation Club.

Conservation Club group

CERCOPAN has initiated the formation of over 20 conservation clubs in rural and urban schools; encouraging the youth of Nigeria to actively promote and participate in environmental campaigns and events such as the annual June 5th World Environment Day celebrations and tree planting programmes. This rainforest adventure however, gave the children a chance to experience the sights and sounds of the rainforest first hand and to gain a solid background to conservation and primate ecology…using the forest as their classroom!

Conservation club members learning about monkeys

The students were amazing and I was extremely impressed with their knowledge and their desire to learn more. Everyone was sad when the activities were over and it was time to leave, but all agreed they had a wonderful time and that we definitely do it again soon. CERCOPAN hopes to run such trips for conservation clubs from urban schools in the future, as some of these children have never seen the rainforest before.

It took a long time to persuade the children that this snake was plastic!

Special thanks to Jan Valkenberg (a former CERCOPAN volunteer) who raised the funds for this and other education activities. I would also like to thank the principle of Iko Esai secondary school for allowing the students to attend, Mr. Hans the science teacher, and the students themselves: Nkoyo, John, Promise, Patricia, Peace, Regard, Gabriel, Oboon, Uso, Redual, Erong, and Akima.

Hope you enjoy the photos!

Tags: African Wildlife, Cercopan, children, Communities, Conservation, Conservation clubs, Education, environmental education

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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

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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