After our four new gorillas (The Taiping 4) were moved to the gorilla enclosure on the 24th of April, they first spent a little over a week to get used to the new environment and the proximity of 10 other gorillas. The two groups were watching each other a lot and they seemed eager to meet each other. Last monday we started the introduction and in the past days we have tried different combinations of gorillas. So far this has gone really well. Arno was the first to be introduced to the Taiping 4 and he is already part of the group, his biggest friend being Tinu. This morning we also let Nyango and Akiba meet with the new arrivals. Akiba was having a ball with all four new gorillas, climbing on their backs, wrestling with them and running around like crazy. We are very happy with the introduction so far. We are not there yet – the silverback Chella will have to be introduced to the new gorillas soon – but none of us expected it to go as smooth as it has gone until now. All together we have 16 gorillas now. They are by far our most expensive animals, because they have a very specific diet (see Felix’s blog on Afromomum). We are very greatful for all the support we get from our readers and more money is always very welcome! Best wishes,
Takwai is our latest arrival. She was brought to the Limbe Wildlife Centre on 30th April. She is a mona monkey of around 6 weeks old and upon arrival she weighed 345 grams. A hunter in Takwai forest killed her mother and brought it to a village. A woman who works for a Cross River gorilla conservation project took care of her for two weeks, until she had the possibility to travel to Limbe. As she also needs food during the evening and early in the morning I take her home after work each day. At home she runs up and down on the cough and jumps from me to my husband and back. Last year we had a baby red-eared guenon, Ebo, and it is interesting to see the similarities and differences. They both like to put things in their mouth and they love it when you tickle their belly, just like human babies. But Takwai is much more mobile then Ebo was at the same age. She jumps farther and is also a lot braver. Ebo did not leave the couch until she was a few months old, but Takwai has already made it to the table once. There could be individual differences of course, but this difference corresponds with the general difference between the two species: the red-eared monkey being shy and secretive, while mona monkeys are rather bold. Takwai seems to be very happy with her situation. In the daytime she has her own large cage and the keepers make sure she has everything she needs. In the evening she comes home with me and then she sleeps through the night, from 9pm to 6 am. Best wishes,
here are those pics I promised.
Regarding your question, Theresa, yes we have tried growing the aframomum and currently have an area of the project set aside for growing it. However it grows slowly and, as you can see from the amount we have harvested in the back of the pick up, we need far more than the space at the project can possibly grow. Consequently we have to send missions to the mountain to sustainably harvest it from areas of forest where it is growing in abundance.
You also asked about Ndok the drill with a broken arm: well her arm healed well and she is now out of her cast and happily living with Tiko, the young male, in quarantine. They are due to leave quarantine next week to begin their introduction to the main drill enclosure. So all is going well there. You are correct the African grey parrots rehabilitation is coming to an end and their feather regrowing phase is due to be up at the end of May. Already we are seeing quite a few good fliers in the flight cage. Plus we have had a few escapes (parrots are very good at chewing through chain-link, especially the weak type we get here in Cameroon), most of which we have been able to return to the cage, however some of the escapees were able to fly and could not be caught. These 8 birds have since formed a release flock of their own and now live in the trees around the project. We still provision them with food and water and they can often be seen sitting on top of the flight cage chatting away with their captive friends. This accidental release has been so successful that, rather than taking parrots to the nearby forest to let them go, we are considering simply letting them out to join this flock when we see that they can fly well. As the parrots are now familiar with their surroundings and the flight cage they will probaly not fly off immediately, which means we can monitor their progress and provision them with food and as they fly around the project their fittness will slowly improve until the flock is ready to fly off to the forests surrounding Limbe. This is called a ’soft-release’ and is a much better way to release animals that have spent some time in captivity as it enables you to monitor the released animals’ progress, and recapture any that are looking like they wont make it. Keep your questions coming and thanks for the support. Felix Lankester
March and April were very busy months for us all at the LWC and we were not able to update this blog as often as we would have like to have done. However despite this our readers have continued to generously support our ongoing work. Many thanks to Theresa S, Lucia C, Muriel T and Judd O’s who all made donations. A special thanks to the Animal Divulgation Trust (Italy) who made another donation of $250, and a huge thank you to Peter F. who dug very deep and pledged $750. Thank you to everyone. Its nice to know that people are out there reading the blog. Best wishes, Felix Lankester and Simone de Vries.
All of the gorillas at the LWC are in constant need of food, enrichment and care. Life in captivity can be crushingly dull, and bored wild animals will often develop psychological problems that impact on their physical health, and it is our responsibility to try to provide a stimulating environment that enables them to display their natural behaviour, free from stress, pain and hunger. One of the things that we strive to do is to provide as natural a diet as possible that is nutritionally healthy and also stimulates the gorillas. Aframomum is a member of the ginger family of plants and is a favourite food of wild gorillas, plus, it has been suggested, Aframomum contains natural anti-inflammatory compounds that could be crucial to the health of wild gorillas. As such we make thrice weekly excursions to the nearby Mount Cameroon to harvest Aframomum. These 4 hour round trips, which are a great drain on our financial and employee resources, pound our vehicles as the roads are terrible and our vehicles old. However, when you see the enthusiasm with which all the gorillas run out of the night house in the morning to grab huge armfulls of aframomum, it is very clear that these foraging excursions are really worth the effort . The cost of each of the trips is approx. $50 which, as we have to go three times a week, is a great expense for the project. So, we would like to appeal to our readers for help. I can guarantee that any contributions to this nutritional cause will be most appreciated by the gorillas. I shall take some photos of the Aframomum to post so that you can see the harvest and the plant being eaten. Felix Lankester
The four gorillas, which were transferred to the Limbe Wildlife Centre (LWC) in December 2007, have spent the last five months in quarantine. During this time all of the gorillas have adapted well to their new diet and living conditions. There have been no medical problems to report other than a recurrence of fungal skin lesions in Izan, Abbey and Tinu, lesions that were present during their time in Pretoria and for which treatment is ongoing. The quarantine period has been longer than the anticipated three months due to the arrival, in late December 2007, of an 8 month old female gorilla, Bolo, who, after being hand-reared for three months, was introduced to a ‘foster mother’ female in the resident gorilla group. This introduction took place in one of the available rooms in the night house that were to be used for the T4 introduction and so it was decided that the transfer of the T4 should be delayed while the fostering process was in its early stages. Due to this the transfer of the T4 out of quarantine to the gorilla enclosure night house was delayed by two months. However on April 24th 2008 all four gorillas were sedated and were successfully moved to their new enclosure.
The four gorillas are now occupying the ‘gorilla annex’ (built with an IFAW fund back in 2005) and as such are in sight, sound and smell of the resident gorillas, from which they will remain physically separated for some time. Once the keeping staff are satisfied that all of the gorillas have settled down from the excitement of seeing new enclosure mates arrive we can begin the slow process of gradual introductions, whereby individuals from the T4 and the resident gorilla group are selected to meet one another in the safety of the night house. With time all of the resident gorillas will be given a chance to meet each of the T4 in varying combinations, until we are satisfied that the potential for aggression is low. At this point we can begin letting the T4 in to the outside enclosure. The introduction process will be long and complicated and ultimately will be driven by the responses of the gorillas themselves, however it is hoped that within a few months the T4 will be fully integrated with the resident group. We will keep you updated on the progress. I would also like to thank our long term supporters Pro-Wildlife in Germany who have kindly committed to help with the care costs of the infant ‘Bolo’. Many many thanks from all at the LWC for this continued support. Felix Lankester
Our second choice was Brighter, a very gentle female. And now Brighter turns out to be a very good choice. She is very happy to mother over Bolo, picking her up carefully, putting her on her back and letting her sleep on her belly. And Adjibolo loves it. Although in the first half hour she was a bit afraid, she quickly started to appreciate this big hairy mother. It is no problem to feed Adjibolo, as Brighter just patiently watches over her while she drinks the milk from the bottle. After a week of spending more and more hours during the day, we decided on Friday that it was time to let them stay together for the night. Bama, one of our gorilla keepers, stayed the night with them. We were delighted to see that Brighter spend the whole night on the ground, not risking Adjibolo to fall from the hammock while asleep. They both slept through the night, until just after six when Bama was there to feed Adjibolo a bottle of milk. The night after that went exactly the same. We are all very happy that this first part of the introduction goes so smoothly. We will now give mother and daughter some time to bond and then we will start introducing other members of the group. They are all impatiently waiting for the day that they can play with the new gorilla. If all goes well, Brighter will be there to protect Adjibolo from gorillas that play too roughly. Simone de Vries
Part of the Limbe Wildlife Centre Conservation Education Program focuses on children. We run an outreach program that reaches hundreds of school students each year and every Saturday we have Nature Club. The outreach program consists of 16 lessons, about primates, ecology and conservation, that are taught once a week during 5 months. At the end of the program all the students visit the LWC to see the animals that they have learned so much about. Last week it was time for this annual invasion of students. More then 800 children came to the LWC and participated in the special program we had set out for them. The students who had successfully finished the program received their certificate. All students received a worksheet with questions about our primates. It stimulated them to observe the animals carefully and find out themselves about the behaviour of animals or the differences between males and females. This way of learning is new to Cameroonian students, as they are used to learning by listening or reading. In Nature Club we have more possibilities to take the children out and let them explore. Two weeks ago we have taken the children out for an insect excursion. One of the important subjects we teach to the students is biodiversity and there is no other group of animals that shows biodiversity better then insects, especially in Limbe. With very simple means we let the students catch insects in order to observe them. Each student had a half plastic bottle to put the insects in. Unfortunately we do not have magnifying glasses, but the students were very interested to observe the insects in the bottles. It is then easy to teach the children a lot more about what the animals eat, how they live, etc. We would like to expand our education efforts and you can help us with that. There are several things that we need to make our education program more effective. I list a few of them here: Thank you so much for you support!
As always we are very grateful for all the donations that we have received through this blog site. Recently Muriel T. and Lucia C. have made donations to assist us with the costs of caring for Bolo. Thank you both very much for this help. I would also like to take this opportunity to make a special mention to Theresa S. who has made several one-off donations as well as committing to a regular monthly donation to our various causes (parrot rehabilitation, Bolo’s care etc.). Theresa, I know you are aware, but your donations are extremely important to us and we really appreciate the generousness of your repeated kindness. The LWC appreciates all of the donations received and is humbled by the support. Best wishes, Felix Lankester
The time has now come to start the introductions of the Taiping Four gorillas to the resident group of gorillas at the LWC. For the past 3 months, since their arrival from South Africa, they have lived in the quarantine area of the project in a moderate sized great ape cage. However, now that they have passed successfully through quarantine they can be moved to the large open gorilla enclosure, with its 2500m2 outdoor area and 7 chamber night house. The move is going to be a very difficult and tense period for all of the gorillas and the staff as, like in any introduction, one can not be certain of what will happen. We hope, of course, that there will be no fighting or injuries and that all will go smoothly, however, as we are trying to introduce 4 sub-adult gorillas in to a stable group of 11 (sub-) adult and juvenile gorillas, we have to expect some serious clashes.
Fortunately the sex ratio of our resident group (7 females and 4 males) and the T4 (3 females and 1 male) being skewed towards females should mean a less aggressive introduction phase. However, as we have seen frequently, the females are by no means slouches when it comes to defending their territories.
A second introduction is also due to begin soon: that of the infant gorilla Bolo to a surrogate gorilla mother. This introduction phase will take place away from the main group in the privacy of a separate enclosure, so that the surrogate and Bolo can spend time together forming a strong bond and becoming familiar with their new feeding routines that will need to be strictly adhered to if the introduction is to be successful. For instance we need to ensure that the surrogate mother, who will be selected from the group, will still bring Bolo to the keeper side of the enclosure so that she can be offered her milk bottle through the fence to drink. Only when we are satisfied that the bond is strong and that the surrogate will care for and protect Bolo properly, will we begin to try to reintroduce the pair to the resident group.
So, in a few months time, if things go to plan, our resident gorilla group will have swelled from 11 to 16 gorillas. However we are aware that the group as a whole may not form a cohesive unit in which case we are prepared to split the group in to two, which will mean redeveloping the enclosure itself to cope with the needs of two separate gorilla families. All in all it is going to be a very interesting few months in Limbe and we shall keep you posted on how it is all going. I have posted a couple of photos so that our readers can see the gorilla enclosure that the T4 and Bolo will be enjoying soon. Felix Lankester |
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My name is Felix Lankester, the Project Director of the Limbe Wildlife Centre and also the head veterinarian. I have been at the project since April 2004.
