ANNUAL REPORT 2015
ANNUAL REPORT 2015
Funding to Colchester Zoo’s Action For The Wild Projects £400,000
£180.66 £5000
donated to
£4,999
£1,000 £722.73
£
£3,842.03
£5,000
£1,525 £5,309.41
£5,000
£
Over £32,000 to other in-situ projects Orangutan Appeal UK
Orangutan Foundation
VulPro
Punta San Juan Penguin Census Count
Elephant EAZA TAG Research Fund
Free the Bears
Elephant Orphanage Project
Centre de Rehabilitation des Primates de Lwiro
Save the Rhinos International
Red Panda Network Forest Sponsorship Scheme
Colchester Zoo and Action for the Wild purchased land to form the UmPhafa Private Nature Reserve in 2005. We have since been working to rehabilitate the land and recreate the historical animal populations on the reserve. In 2015 ACTION FOR THE WILD donated £400,000 to ensure the continued running of the reserve, from employing field rangers and reserve management staff, to releasing additional wildlife species and ensuring their continued protection.
KEY EVENTS ON THE RESERVE • A raging runaway fire destroys much of the grazing grasslands. • A severe drought prevents regrowth. This results in us having to provide supplementary feed to the animals for the first time. • Release of Eland antelope.
• We complete the purchase of our middle farm, Mount Sully, allowing the opening of all areas of the reserve so the animals can roam the entire 6,000 hectares. • Increase to our blue wildebeest population. • The African hunting dogs we successfully managed are
released into reserves around South Africa, with some packs going on to breed. • The intern scheme continues to develop.
20 interns visited the reserve in 2015 staying for a total of
26 months
In 2016, we will continue with our work to promote and protect the wildlife populations on UmPhafa and also look forward to some exciting developments with our internship scheme. We will see the first college to undertake a bulk booking of placements on the reserve in June to help us research and further our understanding of the flora and fauna on the reserve.
Numbers of waterbuck and blesbok are looking particularly healthy and the aerial game count by helicopter also provided a more reliable indicator of numbers for more elusive antelope species, such as the kudu.
2015 AERIAL GAME COUNT FIGURES OF VISIBLE SPECIES 7 White Rhino 25 Giraffe 42 Red Hartebeest 171 Impala 157 Blesbok 24 Common Reedbuck 15 Mountain Reedbuck 211 Zebra 71 Waterbuck
20 328 17 75 159 14 6 3
Nyala Kudu Duiker Warthog Blue Wildebeest Eland Osrich Steenbok
Orangutan Appeal uk
In 2015, released orphans were followed nest-to-nest to record their behaviour. The collected data has been used to establish why some orangutans struggle more than others in adapting to the wild. For decades, there has been no effective post-release data.
The TABIN POST RELEASE MONITORING PROJECT (PRMP) is an intensive orangutan monitoring and rehabilitation programme. ACTION FOR THE WILD donated ÂŁ5,000 in 2015.
4 females and
1 male released
2 births in 2015
This research proves that rehabilitation and reintroduction can aid the future development of orangutans.
VULPRO is the only organisation in South Africa undertaking concise and continuous monitoring of several of the Cape vulture colonies. ACTION FOR THE WILD donated ÂŁ1,000 in 2015.
In 2015, several Cape vulture breeding colonies in South Africa and Botswana were monitored as part of the annual population assessment.
1,983 pairs were recorded
Power lines remain the biggest cause for the vulture declines in the North West; however, poisoning is on the increase throughout southern Africa.
VulPro
Elephant EAZA tag Research Fund
Approximately
100 elephants mostly between the age of
3 months & 15 years have died from the virus since its discovery. © Elephant Orphanage Project
ELEPHANT HERPES VIRUS is a devastating infectious disease posing a significant threat to the long term conservation of the Asian elephant. In 2015, ACTION FOR THE WILD donated £722.73 to help conduct three PhD research projects to better understand and combat this virus through EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria).
In 2015, research was conducted to understand why some elephants can resist the virus while others are more susceptible.
• Working towards a better epidemiological understanding of the virus and validate a molecular test for the purpose of regular monitoring.
Research also included: • Transmission in elephant herds and investigating the possibility of a vaccine.
These projects will continue into 2017.
THE ELEPHANT ORPHANAGE PROJECT (EOP) is working to rescue, rehabilitate and release orphaned elephants as a direct result of poaching. In 2015, ACTION FOR THE WILD donated £5,000 to help provide food and medical treatment for the orphans.
Elephant Orphanage Project
The ELEPHANT ORPHANAGE PROJECT has two camps:
Lilayi Elephant Nursery
Kafue Release Facility
where keepers provide constant care and feeding for
for those that are not milk dependent and need less time with humans, preparing them for release back into the wild.
3 young orphans
By the end of 2015, 5 of the orphans at the Kafue Release Facility were undergoing the release phase, spending time away from the keepers and younger orphans.
© Elephant Orphanage Project
Save the Rhinos International
Action for the Wild’s donation helped purchase field equipment for the field rangers to continue protecting and monitoring the rhinos of the park.
Hluhluwe-iMfolozi National Park is one of the most important strongholds for black and white rhinoceros; however, it is facing increasing threats of rhino poaching. In 2015, ACTION FOR THE WILD donated ÂŁ5,309.41.
Better equipment allows field rangers to camp in harder to reach areas of the reserve in order to cover areas that poachers are exploiting. As a result, patrol coverage, poacher detection and rhino carcass detection have all improved in 2015.
Unfortunately, as in the rest of South Africa, the rhino poaching continues unabated despite all desperate attempts to put a halt to the slaughter.
ORANGUTAN FOUNDATION is working to save orangutans by protecting their tropical forest habitat, working with local communities, and promoting research and education. In 2015, ACTION FOR THE WILD donated £5,000 for a veterinarian’s salary and associated translocation costs necessary to perform a number of orangutan rescues.
More than 17 orangutan rescues and translocations took place throughout 2015. This was a particularly high number due to raging forest fires throughout Central Kalimantan.
Sadly, orangutans continue to be stranded in palm oil plantations and on community land. The number is likely to continue rising and they risk injury or death if they are not rescued in time.
Orangutan Foundation
Lamandau Wildlife Reserve was increased by 8,000 hectares, giving additional safe habitat to orangutans rescued from threatened areas.
© Orangutan Foundation
Punta San Juan Penguin Census
Approximately half of the entire Peruvian Humboldt penguin population calls PUNTA SAN JUAN home. Comprehensive census counts and health assessments are vital to ensure their long term future. In 2015, ACTION FOR THE WILD donated ÂŁ1,525 to help census count activities along the entire Peruvian coast.
20,738 Humboldt penguins were counted during visits to
45 island & coastal sites
Although total penguin numbers have increased over the past 17 years, many sites showed a significantly lower number of penguins in 2015 compared to 2014.
The next stage will be to find methods to monitor not only the penguin population but also the threats and conservation opportunities along the Peruvian coast.
Free the Bears
FREE THE BEARS are working to protect, preserve and enrich the lives of bears throughout the world by offering a safe sanctuary for bears rescued from the illegal wildlife trade. In 2015, ACTION FOR THE WILD donated £3,842.03 to FREE THE BEARS and they were able to complete a brand new, state of the art facility for the nursery group of bears.
Over 180 bears in Cambodia alone have been confiscated, or donated by people who previously kept them as exotic pets.
Free the Bears’ new, state of the art facility features spacious enclosures and access to night dens, plus a field station for students to observe the bears in their large naturalistic enclosures.
Free the Bears receive on average one bear cub per month in Cambodia. Sadly, it will not be long before the cub nursery facilities are full again.
© Free the Bears
Centre de Rehabilitation des Primates de Lwiro
At the end of 2015, the CRPL was home to
60 Chimpanzees and 72 monkeys 10 of which had been rescued in 2015 alone.
The CENTRE DE REHABILITATION DES PRIMATES DE LWIRO (CRPL) works to care for and rehabilitate orphaned primates. In 2015, ACTION FOR THE WILD donated ÂŁ4,999 to provide all animals in the care of the CRPL with a high standard of nutrition and medical care.
Action for the Wild’s donation provided fresh fruit and vegetables for the 132 primates plus medicines for their healthcare.
By assisting with the running costs, CRPL can continue to receive confiscated animals and contribute to Congolese law in protecting these primates from poaching and the pet trade.
The RED PANDA NETWORK is committed to the conservation of wild red pandas and their habitat through the education and empowerment of local communities. In 2015, ACTION FOR THE WILD teamed up with other European Zoos to support a forest guardian scheme.
A forest guardian monitors and protects red panda habitats, as well as educates communities on the importance of the species. Sadly in 2015, the red panda was
re-classified as endangered
Free the Bears Red Panda Network Forest Guardian Sponsorship Scheme
It is therefore vital that the number of guardians continues to grow to protect red pandas and their habitat from deforestation and illegal poaching.
on the IUCN Red List.
Š Paula Meyer
Fisher’s Estuarine Moth Breeding Programme 5 OUT OF 7
of our egg batches hatched successfully
The Fisher’s Estuarine Moth is a rare and highly threatened species primarily found on Skipper’s Island off the North Essex Coast. ACTION FOR THE WILD donate technical assistance to support this programme via an offshow area to promote the captive breeding of this species. Our first larva was hatched on
24th APRIL 2015 the last on
30th April 2015
The
LONGEST LIVING
moth at Colchester Zoo was a male that lived for at least
13 DAYS
In total
48 LARVA
were placed on plants and our first moth to emerge was on
16th SEPTEMBER 2015 and the last on
3rd OCTOBER 2015 In total
11 MOTHS emerged
6 MALES and 5 FEMALES
© Micky Andrews
We had
8 PAIRS
in total and
7 PRODUCED EGGS
They usually live for about
7 to 10 DAYS 2014
2015
Batches of eggs
10
5
Number of caterpillars emerged
10
48
Number of caterpillars put on each net
3 to 4
1 to 2
Number of moths emerged
10 (7.3) 11 (6.5)
Number of pairs formed
4
8
Number of pairs laid
3
7
Number of egg batches laid
6
14
More Information If you would like further details on the charities supported through Action for the Wild, please visit: www.actionforthewild.org If you would like to know more about becoming an intern on our UmPhafa nature reserve in South Africa, please visit: www.umphafa.org To find out more about adopting an animal on Umphafa, please visit: www.umphafa.org Š Scott Davey
Thank you for your support
Š Tom Smith