Monthly Report
September 19
Limbe Wildlife Centre: September 2019 by Guillaume LE FLOHIC Manager (Limbe Wildlife Centre) & Country Director (Pandrillus Cameroon)
Published in October 2019 Limbe Wildlife Centre, P.O. Box 878, Limbe, Republic of Cameroon
Limbe Wildlife Centre is a collaborative effort between the Pandrillus Foundation and the Republic of Cameroon, Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, MINFOF Pandrillus Foundation is a non-profit making NGO specialized in the protection, rehabilitation and reintroduction of primates, as well as management and sustainable financing of conservation projects in Africa Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife is in charge of implementing the national forest policy for ensuring sustainable management and conservation of wildlife and biodiversity over the national territory as enacted by forestry law No. 01/94 of 20 October which regulates all forestry, wildlife and fisheries activities
guillaume@limbewildlife.org limbewildlifecentre
+237 681 991 590 limbewildlife
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limbewildlife.org limbewildlife
Monthly Report
September 19
Content
FOREWORD SEPTEMBER 2019 HIGHLIGHTS ACHIEVEMENTS SEPTEMBER 2019 & OBJECTIVES OCTOBER 2019 1. Pandrillus-GoC Partnership| Public Relations| Project Management 2. Infrastructures and development| Material & Equipment 3. Capacity building 4. Community Conservation, Environmental Education & Ecotourism 5. Management of animal population and well-being 6. Rehabilitation and release programme 7. Research, Monitoring & Health Safety rules 8. Communication & Visibility 9. Revenues generated
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Monthly Report
September 19
Foreword
Dear Friends and Supporters, September 2019 was a momentous month as we celebrated a quarter-century of Limbe Wildlife Centre’s dedication to wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, conservation and education. We were invited to Yaounde by the Director of Wildlife and Protected Areas to officially receive the 2019 Clark R. Bavin award (p. 9-10). A few days earlier, on 14th of September, we officially celebrated 25 years of collaboration between Pandrillus and the Government of Cameroon. To honour the milestone, the special representative of the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife travelled from Yaounde, and our Head of Education provided him and the local authorities invited to the event with a guided tour to showcase our work and progress for the last 25 years, before
joining at Nyango’s Exhibition Hall. Addressing staff members, the local community and the media, the Minister recognized Pandrillus dedication to wildlife conservation and long-term commitment in Cameroon, and acknowledged the successes of the Limbe Wildlife Centre over two and a half decades (p. 9-11). Before closing the ceremony, each invitee provided a certificate of completion to those community members who successfully participated in the first year of the Batoke Family Nature Club – Pandrillus environmental education initiative to inform, engage and empower the local community to take greater responsibility in wildlife conservation (p. 15 & 17). This new environmental education programme was successfully run over the past year. For the last session of the day, we held a closing ceremony in the Limbe Botanical Garden.
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Our education team collected feedback from 89 of the most frequent participants in our programme to continue to improve our work, and provided T-shirts highlighting our #ProtectWildlife campaign to commemorate the event. The T-shirts were designed with six ambassador species highlighting our regional biodiversity: the African grey parrot, Gorilla, Drill, Forest Elephant, Pangolin and the Green turtle. As one of our partners in the #ProtectWildlife campaign effort, UNESCO also highlighted the campaign and run a programme with 120 children from one of our partner schools from the Limbe community. Their representative explained the value of Cameroon’s biodiversity as part of the World Natural Heritage (p. 1516). At the end of this memorable day, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Limbe Wildlife Centre with a more intimate gathering of current and former staff members. We reflected on 25 years of shared achievements, challenges, and memories. Over the years, Pandrillus has sponsored several large projects, such as the construction of the education centre and management of office space. As the number of rescued animals continuously increased, specialised infrastructures have been developed to ensure the best standards of welfare (p. 9 & 11). Starting as just a small organization of dedicated conservationists, Pandrillus collaborated with the Government of
Cameroon to create a wildlife centre for hundreds of rescued animals, facilitating comprehensive education and training initiatives, partnering with local and national Government agencies, and establishing a growing network of community leaders, schools, and nonprofits across Africa that we now work with to expand upon and fulfil our mission. The Limbe Wildlife Centre has been an extended family for 25 years. The night was full of emotion and memories, and we topped it off by officially welcoming our new Conservator on that very special event. Apart from celebrating our 25th anniversary, it was a typical busy month of rescue, rehabilitation, construction and education in advance of our goals. I was invited to present the Pandrillus strategy for the coming years at the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria Conference. For the Old World monkey Taxon Advisory Group, I presented the challenges and opportunities of Drill reintroduction in Cameroon. For the Parrot Taxon Advisory Group, I gave an overview of the successes, challenges and opportunities associated with helping the Government of Cameroon to enhance the rehabilitation and release of confiscated endangered African grey parrots. A poster presenting the first results of our Gorilla Project aimed at redeveloping our gorilla enclosures was also presented by our scientific partner Akongo | Wildlife connection (p. 9 & 19-20).
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Back at the Limbe Wildlife Centre, our Saturday Nature Club started the new academic year and welcomed 25 children to our program (p. 15-16). This number is smaller than our goal and is largely a result of Cameroons ongoing socio-political instability throughout September. We hope as the political climate normalizes, that our attendance will also return to normal levels.
maintenance as well as the quarantine/ vet clinic complex (p. 12-14). Finally, we launched our “Giving Day for Apes� campaign with the goal of raising 10,000 USD for our outdoor Chimp Island enclosure. It is in desperate need of maintenance to fix the faulty electric fence, build an overhang to upgrade security, and provide further enrichments for our troop to stimulate more natural behaviours. We will keep you posted on the progress of our The construction team also made progress campaign (and hopeful success in meeting this month with three ongoing projects. The our fundraising goal!) in the coming month new rehabilitation aviary for the African (p. 21). Grey parrots is now almost complete, and we made significant progress on the Thank you as always for your unfailing ongoing Olive baboon satellite cage support, With very best wishes, Limbe, 30 September 2019
Guillaume LE FLOHIC LWC Manager, Pandrillus Foundation
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September 2019 Highlights □ The 2019 Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Award was officially handed over to the Limbe Wildlife Centre by the Director of Wildlife and Protected Areas □ Celebrated the 25th year of Anniversary of the Limbe Wildlife Centre □ The Pandrillus Country Director hold a series of meetings at the EAZA Conference in Valencia □ Two presentations on conservation of the Drill and the African grey parrot and one poster on our Gorilla Project were presented at the EAZA conference □ Conducted an environmental education programme with 120 schoolchildren of the local community in partnership with the UNESCO □ Organised the 8th and last session of Batoke’s Family Nature Club and launched the new #ProtectWildlife T-shirt campaign □ Launched our Giving Day for Apes fundraising campaign coming up on October 15th □ Media coverage: 7 local and international reports made -7-
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Achievements September 2019 & Objectives October 2019 1. Pandrillus-GoC Partnership| Public Relations| Project Management □ The 2019 Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Award received by the Limbe Wildlife Centre at the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Geneva, Switzerland, was officially handed over to the Limbe Wildlife Centre during a ceremony organised at the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, Yaounde (Image 1) □ Celebrated the 25th year of Anniversary of the Limbe Wildlife Centre, in presence of local authorities and the special representative of the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife (Image 2-4) □ Celebrated the 25th year of Anniversary of the Limbe Wildlife Centre, with the staff members and their family and rememorate some of the greatest achievements building the Limbe Wildlife Centre (Images 5-8) □ The Pandrillus Country Director hold a series of meetings at the European Association of Zoo and Aquariums Conference in Valencia, 17-21 September □ The Pandrillus Country Director made a presentation for the Parrot Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) and explained Pandrillus strategy to enhance the rehabilitation of the African grey parrot during the EAZA Conference, 18 September □ The Pandrillus Country Director made a presentation for the Old World Monkey Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) and explained Pandrillus strategy to enhance the rehabilitation of the Drill, during the EAZA Conference, 18 September
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Image 1. LWC/LZG Conservator, Serge Image 2. Entrance of the Limbe Wildlife Mbelen Serge A Rim (right), receiving the Centre before the arrival of the invitees 2019 Clark R. Bavin Award from the for the ceremony. Director of Wildlife and Protected Areas, Joesph Lekealem.
Image 3. Invitees were given a special Image 4. Family pictures of the invitees guided tour within the Limbe Wildlife and the Management of the Limbe Centre. Successes were highlighted, as Wildlife Centre. well as challenges.
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Image 5. OLD PICTURE: Over the past 25 years, Pandrillus funded infrastructures for the Limbe Wildlife Centre, hence contributing to building the Limbe Zoological Garden up: here are office space and vet clinic
Image 6. OLD PICTURE: The education centre, reception, gift shop and Pandrillus-MINFOF joint office building also serves as part of the perimeter wall of the Limbe Wildlife Centre.
Image 7. OLD PICTURE: The same building Image 8. OLD PICTURE: Storage room and from inside the Limbe Wildlife Centre. office space constriction. Later, the building was raised up to provide the Limbe WIldife Centre with a medical analysis laboratory. October 2019 objectives: â–Ą Validate internal rules and regulations (pending)
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2. Infrastructures and development| Material & Equipment □ Continued to build the new African grey parrot rehabilitation aviary (Images 9-13) □ Continued the restructuration of the vet clinic/quarantine/chimp nursery complex (Images 14-17) □ Continued to re-build the Olive baboon upper satellite cage (Images 18-19) □ Maintained electrified tree basket in the Chimp Mainland enclosure (Image 20) □ Repaired one sliding door at the gorilla group 1 night cage (Image 21) □ Collected bamboos to be used for screen and enrichments (Image 22)
Image 9. Final welding of top pillar and Image 10. Installing the top ceiling wire beam of the new African grey parrot mesh on the new African grey parrot rehabilitation aviary. rehabilitation aviary.
Image 11. Wire mesh installed on the Image 12. Building the circular wooden new African grey parrot rehabilitation structure aimed to stimulate the parrots to aviary. flight around in the new aviary.
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Image 13. View of the new African Image 14. Dressing with cement of walls grey parrot rehabilitation aviary. and pillars of the vet clinic extension.
Image 15. View of the dressing of the Image 16. Front view of the roof of the vet vet clinic extension. clinic extension.
Image 17. Replacement of plywood Image 18. Dismounting of the old baboon board on the old structure ceiling. upper satellite cage.
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Image 19. The Metal panels are ready Image 20. Installation work of the electrified to replace the old structure of the old tree basket in the Chimp Mainland baboon upper satellite cage. enclosure. Tree baskets enable us to keep trees in the enclosure, to provide shelter and fruits.
Image 21. Replacement of a new Image 22. Bamboos for enrichments and sliding door and rail in the gorilla group screen 1 night cages. October 2019 objectives: □ Complete the construction of the new African grey parrot rehabilitation aviary □ Continue the renovation of the Olive baboon satellite cages □ Continue restructuring the vet clinic/quarantine/chimp nursery complex
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3. Capacity building □ None
October 2019 objectives: □ Continue with the above ongoing activities □ Organise monthly staff workshop: Why the Protect Wildlife Campaign in Limbe? Outcomes, partners and future steps, by Cyril Delfosse (Pandrillus Community Awareness & Education Programme Coordinator)
4. Community Conservation, Environmental Education & Ecotourism □ Nature's Club: 2019-2020 Nature Club resumed: 25 kids registered; monthly effort: 25 kids.days. Session: Introduction to the Limbe Wildlife Centre (Images 23a&b). □ School outreach programme: 2019-2020 programme will start in October 2019 □ Special event: Conducted an environmental education programme with 120 schoolchildren of the local community focusing on the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources, in partnership with the UNESCO’s Central Africa World Heritage Forest Initiative (CAWHFI) (Images 24-25) □ Batoke’s Family Nature Club: Organised the 8th and last session on 14th of September: feedbacks on the programme, certificate award ceremony and launching of our #ProtectWildlife T-shirt campaign: 40 families, 89 participants (67% females, 39 children between 4 and 17 years old (44%), 78% of community members not involved in the Green Project) (Images 26-27) □ Community-based Green Economy: 15 ex-hunter members sustainably harvesting wild herbaceous plants: 738.0 kg of Aframomum stems and 450 kg of Costus stems; 40 women members harvesting crop by-product: 830 kg of cassava leaves, 3,219 kg of papaya leaves, 2,707 kg of potato leaves, 478 kg of invasive Trumpet wood shoots, corresponding to 107 trees hand-cut; 878,350 XAF (€1,341) paid directly to the local community association this month; 8,489,130 XAF (€12,961) contributed to alleviate local poverty in 2019.
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Image 23a&b. Our educator Armel Batkop showing the endangered species of the Limbe Wildlife Centre to kids during the first Saturday Nature Club of the new year. Prior to the guided tour of the LWC, Armel explained the multiple missions of the LWC to rehabilitate wildlife, to conduct conservation education, to support the communities and to support law enforcement.
Image 24. UNESCO representative, Eustache Watsop, thought the 120 kids the area of great biodiversity value in Cameroon and how important it is to conserve the ecosystems intact.
Image 25. Each kid was offered a gift donated by the UNESCO. The initiative, part of the #ProtectWildlife campaign partly sponsored by the UNESCO, aims at further informing the community on the importance to protect ecosystems and wildlife species.
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Image 26. At the ceremony for the final session of the Batoke Family Nature Club, our Head of Education, Wilson ATEH, in the Limbe Botanical Garden, expressed his gratitude to the most regular participants for their interest in the programme. Whereas depending on the funds raised, we hope we can continue with this programme bringing families together to address environmental issues.
Image 27. Each community members was offered a #ProtectWildlife T-shirt highlighting a flag species and the threat to it. They were also rewarded with a certificate of achievements.
October 2019 objectives: □ Continue with ongoing programs □ Start the 2019-20 school outreach programme
5. Management of animal population and well-being Ongoing activities □ Maintained frequency and diversity of enrichment in each section □ Chimpanzee: Continued the new positive reinforcement training plan to improve behavioural and social skills of Ngambe (adult female): stimulated social play behaviours with Mayos (adult handicapped female)
Specific activities □ None
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□ Vet cares (September 2019): ◌ 26 Primate individuals treated; 5 anaesthesia performed; 12 individuals sampled (1 blood samples for haematology analysis, 12 faecal samples for coprology analysis); 1 contraception; 1 identification with microchip; 21 laceration repair (Images 28-29); 1 minor surgery; 27 drug therapies: 37% dietary supplements, 15% anti-inflammatories, 15% antibiotics, 11% antiparasitic, 7% fluid therapy, 4% corticosteroids, 11% others; 1 health check: Drill (1); 1 death: Drill (1, Mahfor, handicapped adult female, undetermined cause); 1 euthanasia: Olive baboon (Luna, senescent adult male, old age)
Image 28. LWC volunteer vet surgeon, Anna Ciezarek, stitching up Joffi’s wound, resulting from a fight for dominance.
Image 29. Stitched up Joffi’s wound. After a couple of days in satellite cage receiving antibiotic treatment, Joffi was released back into the group under observation by our animal care staff. It is essential to reduce the time adult males are kept out of the group in order to stabilize the hierarchy within the group and reduce the occurrence of conflicts.
October 2019 objectives: □ Continue with the ongoing activities □ Chimpanzee: Continue the positive reinforcement training for Ngambe (adult female) □ Vet cares: General health checks: None; Contraception: Drills, Mandrills
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6. Rehabilitation and release programme Arrival & quarantine □ None
Behavioural rehabilitation □ None
Social rehabilitation □ Patas monkey: Continued the social integration of Leonie and Coco (2 subadult females) to the savannah-dwelling guenon group
Release (ecological & environmental rehabilitation) □ None
October 2019 objectives: □ African Grey Parrots: Continue the rehabilitation process of the new arrivals □ Patas monkey: Start social integration of Leonie and Coco in the savannahdwelling guenon group
7. Research, Monitoring & Health Safety rules Ongoing activities □ None
Activity achievement □ Dr Amélie Romain, funder of AKONGO | Wildlife connection, presented in a poster the results of the first phase of the Gorilla Project aimed at enhancing the design of our gorilla enclosures at the EAZA conference in Valencia, Spain (Image 30a&b)
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Image 30a&b. By presenting the results of the first phase of the Gorilla Project, we highlighted the goals and activities run at the LWC every day. Assessing enclosure occupancy is an essential tool to help stakeholders to select the key features when designing enclosure, while taking financial constraints into account, material availability and quality, with the ultimate goal to improve animal welfare. Data analysis □ Continued the analysis of the data collected on our gorilla’s groups, in partnership with AKONGO | Wildlife connection (www.akongo.fr)
October 2019 objectives: □ Continue with the above ongoing activities □ Continue the analysis of data collected on the gorilla groups (Gorilla Research Project) □ Present the first results of the Gorilla Research Project to the Société Francophone de Primatologie in France
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8. Communication & Visibility □ Digital communication (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter): this month was calm and steady in preparation for a much more exciting end of the year and a slightly more interactive format on Instagram. Across all platforms, we reached 85,814 people and our Facebook and Instagram account are rapidly gaining followers. Twitter and Youtube statistics continued to grow steadily. □ Giving Day for Apes 2019: Launched our campaign coming up on October 15th! This year, we are raising special funds to fix the faulty electric fence and we will then start building an overhang (Image 31). A portion of the funds raised will also be used to build termite mounts and additional climbing structures as enrichment for the chimpanzees’ welfare.
Image 31. Design of the Island Chimp enclosure with increased security. The overhang will be built in 3 phases and we hope to raise enough funds at the Giving Day for Ape on the 15th of October 2019 to start the first phase. Design made by our Head of Construction, Vallarine Aforlica. □ Media coverage: 7 local and national reports made Several reports were made on the Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Award won by the Limbe Wildlife Centre and the 25th year anniversary celebration, among which: o Newspaper: Limbe Wildlife Centre celebrates 25th anniversary, calls for species conservation, The Sun, 15th September 2019 o Newspaper: MINFOF, Pandrillus Foundation celebrate 25 years of fruitful partnership in wildlife conservation, The Star, 23rd September 2019
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o Newspaper: Limbe Wildlife Centre wins an international award, celebrates 25th anniversary, The Guardian Post, 17th September 2019 o TV & Radio: Un quart de siècle de partenariat entre la Fondation Pandrillus et MINFOF pour la protection des espèces fauniques menacées d’extinction, CRTV News, 14 th September 2019 o Interviews : The Pandrillus Country Director was invited to speak about the #ProtectWildlife campaign in South-West Region and the Bavin award received by the Limbe Wildlife Centre in the morning programme Cameroun Feeling, CRTV, 9th September 2019 o TV News: News extracted from Limbe Wildlife Center and Pandrillus Foundation Celebrate Silver Jubilee, Canal 2 International, 18th September 2019
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October 2019 objectives: □ Continue advocating the missions of the LWC within the Central African Conservation Landscape in Cameroon □ Giving day for Apes: Raise the necessary funds to fix the faulty electric fence of our Chimp Island enclosure
9. Revenues generated □ Entrance fees (September 2019): 379,200 XAF (762 visitors; 73% adults, 27% children)
Figure 1.Visitor statistics September 2018-September 2019
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