Colobus Trust

Category: Marketing | Date: Dec 24 2007 | By: admin

Today is Christmas Eve, and the tradition here at the Colobus Trust is for the staff and volunteers to have a special Christmas luncheon.We are looking forward to the party and the afternoon off.

The kite surfing competition is fast approaching as well, and we have made quite some progress with the raffle. We have around 40 prizes, big and small, to give away on the 29th; and we are still receiving them from last-minute donors. We’ve also officially started the sale of raffle tickets, at 200 Ksh each, and in only a couple of days we’ve already sold roughly 50 tickets! We hope to sell many more during the event.

Here is the current prize list that we have for the raffle:

• One night safari for two to Mara Siria Luxury Tented Camp with Phoenix Safaris.
• Half day’s deep sea fishing (max. 4 people) on board the Sashimi.
• Two nights stay, for two, at Safari Beach Hotel.
• A weekend’s stay for two at Forest Dream.
• Two night’s stay, for two, in Mkurumuji. Donated by Camp Kenya
• Two full day Dhow Safari’s for two and a gift pack from Pili Pippa.
• One night’s all-inclusive stay at Baobab Beach Resort.
• Fun Dive with Diving The Crab.
• One Dive with SXScuba
• Dinner for four at Ali Barbours Cave Restaurant.
• Dinner for two at Chui Grill, Leopard Beach Resort.
• Pizza for four at Tornatin, Leopard Beach Resort.
• Dinner for two at Nomads Restaurant.
• Dinner for two and a bottle of wine at African Pot Restaurant.
• Lunch for four at Forty Thieves Beach Bar.
• Body or Facial Treatment at Uzuri Spa, Leopard Beach Resort.
• One week use of gym, sauna & steam room of Uzuri, Spa Leopard Beach Resort.
• One green canvas bag by Sand & Storm.
• One King Kikoy donated by the Kikoy Co.
• One adult’s & one toto Kikoy by the Kikoy Co.
• A cold cathode fluorescent lamp with halogen spotlight a Chintu Engineering Works Ltd.
• Three One Way T-Shirts.
• A Monkey hookboard.
• A Fish hookboard.
• A gift bag by of computer equipment donated by the Stanbic Bank.
• 4500 Ksh voucher for computer service by Nairobi Technology House, Nairobi.
• 2000 Ksh voucher for Text Book Centre/Sports & Hobbies, Nairobi.
• Five hours internet use by Nairobi Technology House, Nairobi.
• Two tickets for New Metro Cinema, Nairobi.
• Six tickets for Superbowl, Nairobi.
• Five tickets for Hi- Tide Waterpark, Nairobi.
• Five tickets for Village Market Mini Golf, Nairobi.

Isabelle
Colobologist

No responses yet

Category: Human - Primate Conflict Resolution, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation | Date: Dec 17 2007 | By: admin

Last Friday the Colobus Trust received a welfare call for a white infant that had falled from its mother onto the ground. It seems like there was a tiff between two troops and one of the mothers dropped her baby as her troop got chased away. The Colobus Trust responded to the call and arrived at the scene shortly after, but the troop that the baby belonged to was gone. After a while the staff that responded to the call were close to having to bring the infant back to the Trust for caring, when finally they managed to find the troop it belonged to. The baby was then placed on the ground, and immediately as the troop heard its alarm calls the mother came down to pick it up and the infant was returned to the troop.

Thanks to the staff’s dedication and determination, this is one loss that the colobus monkeys will not have to face.

Isabelle

Colobologist

2 responses so far

Category: Human - Primate Conflict Resolution, Research | Date: Dec 14 2007 | By: admin

For a few weeks now I have taken on the task of assessing colobridge usage for each of our 26 bridges around Diani to make sure that they are indeed being used. This is a long-term project that I hope new volunteers will take on and continue in the future. Thanks to the help of Jacob, who has now left the Trust, and Vincent, who has now just taken on this project and will continue when I leave, we have been observing the bridges early in the morning between 6am and 9am, which is the time when they cross the most.

The video of the colobus crossing a colobridge was taken on one of these mornings while sitting in front of the Leisure Lodge bridge, and it was quite a happy experience to see how well these bridges are working. This morning was a great morning again for those of us on this project - we have seen an entire troop of 8 colobus crossing the bridge we were watching, including two females with black and white infants holding on to them. It was a beautiful thing to see, and I hope that by sharing this it will make people realize how important the colobridges are to Diani’s ecology.

Isabelle
Colobologist

One response so far

Category: Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation | Date: Dec 13 2007 | By: admin

The ex-pet vervets at the Colobus Trust have now been formed into a troop with the exception of the largest male and the infant who came to us recently. The largest male has shown no willingness to socialise with the other monkeys and has severe psychological damage due to his 8 years as a captive pet monkey.

The slow process started two months ago. The vervets at that time were in the four enclosures with three separated off and isolated from the troop of juveniles and subadults. So the juveniles and subadults were without an adult which is not normal for a vervet monkey troop.

The introduction process was a slow procedure because one monkey put in an enclosure with a group of monkeys that already have their owngroup dynamics will not be successful. It is very stressful to a single monkey to be forced to be in the same area as a group that have already formed there own troop. Stress on a monkey is not only detrimental to the monkey’s psychological well-being but can lead to the monkey attacking the monkeys with whom they are meant to be bonding.

So the adult female was initially placed in a cage with the younger adult male and bonded immediately. It was beautiful to see her have such social interactions with him such as grooming and mating which she and he had craved. Then, over the following weeks, the subadults and juveniles were introduced one by one, allowing several days between each introduction for the monkeys to accustom themselves to the new situation. Increasing amounts of social behaviour was noticed by the monkeys who had been isolated.

Now they are a social group with an adult male and an adult female,both significantly dominant over the rest. The last to join the troopwas the subadult female who is still often harrassed but the adult female. This harassment appears to be assertion of dominance to stabilise the adult females position in the troop rather than any intention to do serious harm. This is because the subadult female did try to assume the position of the dominant female when first entering the group but has since realised that she will not be able to take that role. She is now showing submissive behaviour to the adults and the situation is settling.

During the weeks of introductions, an infant female was brought to thetrust. During her time in quarantine, she was assessed as healthy andshe was very playful. When she was introduced to the troop it was a 4step process. First we sat her cage in front of their enclosure toallow for smelling and touching and any interactions. The adult malewas very interested. Next we tried to bond her with the adult female alone who unfortunately showed no interest and did not wish to nurture her. The did not bode well however the juveniles and sub adults showed interest. We next introduced her to the juveniles and subadults.This was wonderful to see. Immediately she played with them and friendships were formed. It was clear how much happier she was to be able to socially interact with other vervet monkeys and it was a good example of why such social wild animals should not be stolen away from their natural habitat and kept as pets. The last step was to introduce her to the adult male with the rest of the troop. Unfortunately she was not accepted by the adult male who tried to kill her immediately and the adult female came to his aid in this so their was clearly no bond.

The monkeys have been at the trust with the intent to prepare them for reintroduction into the wild. Currently they are not prepared and a primatologist or ethologist is required to assess these monkeys. We are also considering the option of finding a sanctuary for these monkeys if they are deemed unable to be rehabilitated back into the wild. We need a primatologist to assess any sanctuary that is found or formed to ensure it provides all that is necessary for these monkeys’ physical and psychological health.

Any interest from a primatologist or ethologist willing to help us in our fight to help these 8 monkeys would be highly welcome. Please send expressions of interest to luciana@wananchi.com under the subject heading “vervets”.

In future, the Colobus Trust will be aiming to address the problem of the pet monkeys trade. It is horrific that people cruelly remove these animals from their naturally environment, often killing the parents of the infant vervet to achieve this, and sell them as pets.It is also inexcusable that people actually wish to keep these wild animals as pets. Such selfish love is unfair to these animals who need social contact with their own species. As they grow older they can become aggressive and it is also not possible to provide for all their requirements so they often become abused and/or neglected.Please consider how wrong this is and discourage people from having these animals. There are so many domesticated animals needing homes that a cat or a dog is a far better choice.

Sal
Colobologist/Veterinarian

2 responses so far

Category: Human - Primate Conflict Resolution | Date: Dec 10 2007 | By: admin

We are very sad to report that on Saturday we picked up two dead Colobus at Leisure Lodge from the same troop as the Nov. 25 electrocution. These were the dominant male mentioned before on the electrocution post, and a large female that was just one week from giving birth. They were both very large (about 2 kg larger than average) and completely healthy-looking, with shiny coats and no injuries.

What’s alarming about this situation is that these monkeys died of a suspected poisoning. Today we are sending the contents of the stomachs to Mombasa to get them examined and then maybe we will find out what kind of poison was used. We are not sure who has been doing this or for what reason. It could be that some hotels have been either trying to poison baboons or using potent insecticides in their gardening.

We can only hope this doesn’t turn into a whole new issue that the Colobus Trust has to battle. We are going to have this matter investigated as much as we can, and hope for the best.

Isabelle
Colobologist

5 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Dec 07 2007 | By: admin

I’m sad to say that my days here at the Colobus Trust have come to an end. I’ve honestly never had a month go by so fast! It’s sad to admit to myself that I won’t be waking up to the beautiful

Indian Ocean
at my doorstep tomorrow morning, nor will my days be filled with enriching, inspiring work for a noble cause with friends from all over the world.

While, as a student, my days here were few, in just one short month I feel like I’ve done so much good for the Diani primate population and the community as a whole. Whether I was out hiking around the fragmented coastal forests tracking and monitoring Colobus troops, yielding a panga in the hot sun to clear vegetation from the dangerous, un-insulated power lines, finding and destroying snares set around the forest, or just sitting in the office preparing a review of the Good Woods initiative, I never went to sleep feeling unaccomplished.

Every piece of the Trust has a unique importance, including office staff, managerial staff, volunteers, partnership organizations, and donors. I encourage every individual who feels compelled by the enigma of the human-primate interaction on the south coast to take up whatever role their capacity will allow. My university has been sending students to work with the Colobus Trust for many years, and I realize now why our relationship has remained strong. The Colobus Trust serves not only as a voice, but also as a set of hard-working hands for threatened primates here and around the globe.

Jacob

Colobologist

No responses yet

Category: Marketing | Date: Dec 06 2007 | By: admin

As you may have read before we are having a fundraising event in a beach bar called Fourty Thieves on December 28th to December 29th. Up to now we have been quite succssesfull in getting prizes from local businesses. So far we have a half a day deep sea fishing trip on the Sashimi, a one day stay for two at Baobab Beach Resort, a weekend for two at Forest Dream, dinner for two at Ali Barbour s Cave Restaurant, lunch for two at Fourty Thieves, a stay at Flamboyant, a diving trip with Diving The Crab, a designer leather safari bag from a shop called Sand&Storm in Nairobi and lots of small prizes such as cinema tickets or tickets for the water slide park in Nairobi. These prizes alone make it worth buying a raffle ticket and there will probably be many more. The better the prizes are and the more prizes we get the higher can we set the price for the raffle tickets. But do not worry it will not cost too much so we hope that you will join the cause by buying a ticket. Chances to win are not too bad.

Toralf

colobologist

No responses yet

Category: Human - Primate Conflict Resolution | Date: Dec 05 2007 | By: admin

Today was a busy day at the Trust, as Wednesdays always are; the morning involved the trimming of trees in various places along the road. This reduces the amount of electrocution incidences simply because the monkeys cannot reach the uninsulated wires, although we were a little late to save a bushbaby which had been killed after it touched the wires. This also provides an added benefit to the residents as the trees cause frustrating power cuts.

On a happier note, the Colobus Trust volunteers (’Team Yeknom’) dazzled the residents with a storming performance to win the monthly quiz at Forty Thieves beach bar last night. We are all looking forward to the weekend to drink our prizes and set questions for the next one!

And here’s a video of a colobus monkey crossing a colobridge.

Shiv

Colobologist

4 responses so far

Category: Marketing | Date: Dec 03 2007 | By: admin

You may have noticed that we’re updating the blog more often now. We had a meeting with Wildlife direct about how to make a better, more readable blog, and we will try to keep it up. We are now going to make the blog a regular thing, and update it daily (hopefully). We’ve also created a youtube account and a flickr group so that we can put videos and photos on the blog and make it look more snazzy. Anyone can join the flickr group if you have a flickr account, at this address: http://www.flickr.com/groups/colobus/

We’ve also infiltrated facebook and created a facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5504808955), as well as adding our cause on the Causes application (http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_cause/42642), so if you’re on facebook please do join us, spread the word and help support the Colobus Trust!

Meanwhile at the Trust, we are doing a lot of outreach around Diani: our annual fundraiser is coming up, the Kite-surfing competition which will happen at Forty Thieves Beach Bar on the 28th and 29th of December. We’ll have a merchandise table and lots of activities, including a tombola for which we are selling raffle tickets. We have managed to get quite a few prizes donated to us already, but are still contacting as many local businesses as we can and speaking to them about how great it would be if they could donate raffle prizes to us.

We’re also giving out letters to all Diani residents on behalf of the South Coast Resident’s Association, to let them know of a road clean-up which is happening this Saturday. We’re giving out cement bags and asking everyone to clean up the dirt in Diani and make litter history.

No responses yet

Category: Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation | Date: Dec 01 2007 | By: admin

We picked up a young Vervet from Leisure Lodge Hotel on Wednesday. She had been seen to be involved in a fight with another monkey & had fallen out of a tree. This left her in quite a bad way. She had been sick all over herself and had a large lump on her head. Plus, one of her eyes was not opening properly. We took her in and cared for her for 3 days, 2 nights. By this time she seemed to have made a full recovery and was rather befuddled by her situation. So, yesterday afternoon, we took her back to where she came from, with the intention of releasing her. We found the troop she came from very easily & the release when well, with no trouble at all. She ran straight back to her friends and apart from being a bit worked up and noisy she seemed fine. This left all involved very happy, as releases rarely go according to plan & this one went perfectly!

Gwili Gibbon

Assistant Manager

4 responses so far