Colobus Trust

Category: Habitat Restoration/Conservation, Human - Primate Conflict Resolution | Date: Jan 31 2007 | By: admin

One response so far

Category: Habitat Restoration/Conservation, Human - Primate Conflict Resolution, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation, Research, Uncategorized | Date: Jan 30 2007 | By: admin

Category: Habitat Restoration/Conservation | Date: Jan 29 2007 | By: admin

This Saturday I went with some other volunteers and staff members to a community near Kwale Town in the Kwale District, where a group called the Chitanze Falls Cheka Cheka Medicinal Garden Group were holding a meeting with the Water Resource Management Authority and some other organizations, trying to work out how to promote Forest Conservation in the area. At the moment it’s being done mainly through a tree nursery, but they have other activities to raise money and awareness in the community as well.

It felt like such an authentic experience. We were all sitting outside under some large trees that offered a nice shade, and the people from the village sat in what looked like school benches. The women were all dressed in traditional African dresses, and the people from different authorities sat opposite of them in plastic chairs. They would then get up one by one, go stand in the middle, and I assume they talked about how they thought this should be organized. The community people didn’t speak, they just listened, but the atmosphere was very open and relaxed. There was one old man in particular who always seemed to object to what was being said, usually by cracking up the crowd. I think he might have been an elder representative from the community.

After the meeting a few of the people from the village performed a play, and one of the staff members next to me explained that it was about a daughter who had HIV, and how her parents wanted a witch doctor to treat her instead of a “real” doctor. Even though I didn’t understand what was said, I could tell the acting was really good. The actors seemed to do a lot of improvising, which they must’ve been good at, since the crowd was laughing most of the time. It was really impressive, and I wish I had understood Swahili enough to follow the plot without a translator.

After the whole thing was over, Anna and Christine went for a hike to the water falls, but I was too hungry to dare such an adventure, so I went back to the Trust with the others and had lunch. - Anna, Volunteer

No responses yet

Category: Research | Date: Jan 24 2007 | By: admin

Baboons are such amazing primates. My census of the four troops in the area has become so much more. Today as I waited for them to cross the road, the best time to count the 40 odd members of each troop, I saw interactions and relationships befitting a group of humans.

The sub-adults and adult males are always in the lead, moving slowly through the community in that confident gate that only large baboons can do.

I watched as they crossed driveways and abandoned plots in the search of more food and shade. Following were the multiple females, many with infants and juveniles.

They certainly take their time getting to the road but I hardly mind. Males, ever vigilant, chase each other, screaming and scrapping as their status in the hierarchy is challenged or their favorite females are courted by young upstarts lobbying for their own position. The females watch with nervous interest, often encouraging or dissuading with subtle gestures and calls. The dynamics of the group are anything but static, and watching, one realizes there is an entire culture to be understood.

Eventually, they cross the road, watching carefully for cars, but fearless of other pedestrians. The total comes out at 37 today, some must be exploring other areas at the moment; most likely young males, searching for a new group, a whole new community. - Eric, Colobologist

One response so far

Category: Human - Primate Conflict Resolution | Date: Jan 19 2007 | By: admin

Today we went de-snaring in a small plot of forest near the Trust with some volunteers and a couple of staff members. De-Snaring basically involves walking around the forest trying to find small pieces of wire or string that poachers put out to catch Suni antelopes. Unfortunately, these snares will catch any wildlife that comes near it, including Colobus monkeys. Often times, the monkeys will break the snare from the tree holding it, but the snare will remain caught in their skin or fur. These snares become infected and can often end the lives of these primates. Poaching such as this is also illegal, so we go around once a week to collect up any snares we find and destroy them.

Today we found one of the largest snares ever found by the Trust. It was a piece of rusty barbed-wire, stretched from one tree to another, with small wire loop-snares all along the barbed-wire. It stretched for about 4 metres along the forest floor, and anything that walked by – including humans – would trip on it or get caught in the snares. As we were cutting the wires and wrapping things up we came across the decomposed skeleton and fur of a Colobus. It appears he got his foot caught in one of the snares and was unable to free himself. He most likely starved to death. It was a very sad thing to find, and further showed the need of the Trust to go out and remove these snares as soon as possible so something like this doesn’t happen again in the future! – Lindsay, Volunteer

No responses yet