Colobus Trust

Category: Habitat Restoration/Conservation, Human - Primate Conflict Resolution | Date: Jan 27 2009 | By: colobus

The month of January has sadly been a record breaker in terms of primate fatalities.

16 monkeys (Vervet: 2, Sykes: 7, Colobus: 6, Baboons: 1) have been lost in the 26 days January has so far seen. Not only is this a 533% increase on the 3 lost in the whole of December, but it is also a considerable proportion of Diani’s ever-dwindling primate populations. If this rate continues we will be looking at a complete population collapse within primates, over the next decade or less.

The majority of deaths occurred under the wheels of speeding vehicles, with 10 monkeys (Vervet: 2, Sykes: 7, Colobus: 1) being claimed by the road that cuts their habitat in half. A further 6 monkeys (Colobus: 5, Baboons: 1) have been electrocuted to death on the insinuated power lines and transformers that occur through Diani Forest. These two elements of habitat disturbance are unsurprisingly, the biggest threat to Diani’s primates.

Below is a picture of a Colobus we cared for after he was hit by a speeding car, as you can see his jaw was broken meaning he could only eat Bougainvillea porridge.

This notable increase in fatalities, when compared to last month’s figures, is sadly an explainable trend and mankind is irrefutably guilty. Although it has not been statistically proven, it is hypothesised to occur because of two factors. Firstly, the increased human traffic that occurs during this peak of the tourist season. This leads to an increase in not just road traffic, but the pedestrian traffic also makes monkeys more unlikely of coming to the ground. Thus leading them to come into contact with power lines more frequently. The second factor is caused by the current climate. We are in the middle of the “dry season” and therefore monkeys are moving further in search of food and water. These lead monkeys to pass more frequently through areas of conflict. Therefore explaining why our electrocution and road traffic accident hotspots claim even more lives at this time of year. People argue that man is not to blame for this, but reckless drivers and a failure to insulate power lines proves to the contrary.

This knowledge should serve as a brutal reminder to us all. We are facing a very real and imminent future where irresponsible tourism and development will cause the demise of this once glorious forest. Rest assured, the reality is bleak, but The Colobus Trust and its allies will continue the fight to save Diani’s monkeys from the future they currently face, but we need your help and support. Some of our readers will remember the days when Diani was a pioneering beach resort buried deep in the coastal rainforest. Now all that is left of this forest is confined to privately owned patches within hotels and peoples gardens. It is these vulnerable forests that make Diani such a popular tourist destination and something that only takes a little compromise to protect. Something that we should all recognise as our duty. If you need any advice on how to act responsibly please ask our advice. But for a start, simple things such as providing water dishes will make a difference.

Let us hope that, as in previous years, the death toll falls. However the many horrible sites witnessed by members of the Colobus Trust Animal Rescue Unit will stay with us for a long time. Those of you who have stopped for a dead monkey lying on the side of the road will know what we mean and feel our pain.

The Colobus Trust will continue its work with core projects such as Colobridge maintenance and Animal Rescue Unit as well as continuing with novel ideas. One of these will to push forward with our primate electrocution hotspot insulation project. This week we are hosting 9 Camp Kenya students, pictured above learning about the forest and undertaking a population check of Kaya Kinondo Forest. This will add to the team as we prepare the insulation material. On Thursday the 29th of January we will be insulating our second hotspot by Zawama. We will then move on to insulate more hotspots. We aim to complete one every two weeks!

Best wishes,

The Colobus Team

Tags: Camps International, cars, colobus, Electrocution, Human-Primate Conflict, Insulation, kplc, road traffic accidents

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Category: Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation | Date: Jan 19 2009 | By: colobus

17:15 Monday 12^th January 2009: Gwili’s land rover skids to a halt at the entrance to Colobus Cottage, he jumps out and shouts that he needs help. Gwili had just found an adult female Sykes monkey lying in the middle of the road on his way home. It lay there on the passenger seat, breathing shallowly and unable to move. This was clearly another road traffic accident (RTA); probably someone rushing home from work, ignoring the 50kph speed limit, hitting the monkey then driving off – a regular occurrence here in Diani.

We shifted her to the clinic and called the local vet to take a look. The vet treated her for shock, gave her a variety of booster injections and hooked her up to a drip. Though there were no visible external injuries or signs of fracture, the monkey was clearly in a bad way. There was little response in any limb, her eyes were open but stared blankly into space and her heartbeat was weak and erratic. We feared internal injuries and a possible blood clot in the brain. We made her as comfortable as possible and hoped for improvement in the morning.

We kept treating her and she hung on for 48hrs before finally passing away during the night of 14^th Jan. One tough little monkey. We buried her in the garden the next day. Tracey and I have been working at the Colobus trust for a mere two weeks. Already we have seen 2 baboons (1 RTA, 1 electrocution), 4 Colobus (3 electrocutions, 1 unknown) and 3 Sykes monkeys (RTAs) die in Diani. I’ll let you do the maths on annual statistics. It seems there’s a war going on here: Man vs. Monkey; Development vs. Conservation; Money vs. Environmental Care.

08:00 Thursday 15^th January 2009: On her way to work, Mary had seen a car hit another monkey and phoned the Colobus Trust for assistance. Again, it was a young female Sykes monkey which was lying unconscious in the road. We rushed to the scene but in the 5 minutes it took us to arrive, the monkey had regained consciousness and climbed up a tree. Her legs looked damaged and she couldn’t climb properly. Under close surveillance by the rest of her troop, who were very distressed and calling loudly, Peter climbed up the tree after the monkey and caught it. We brought her back to the centre and called a vet who treated her. She was kept under observation overnight.

Fortunately her condition improved immediately after treatment. Even another troop of Sykes (local to the Colobus Trust) heard her and broke into the quarantine cages to investigate! Perhaps they were planning a rescue operation. The next morning we drove back to find her original troop and successfully released her back into the wild. Clearly she had made a 100% recovery from the speed she shot out of the cage. I just hope that we don’t see her in the vet centre again.

These are just two typical stories that occur every week here at the Colobus Trust. Though not all animals make it, it is our duty to help every animal that comes in. All animals are treated with the available resources, even if the outlook doesn’t look good. Medication and vet bills cost a lot of money and any contribution will really help our cause.
The other way you can help is to become a volunteer: even if you only have a week or two to spare you would be helping with a number of on-going projects and making a real difference to the Trust.

Tim Jukes, Colobologist

Tags: Colobus Trust, death, diani, Monkey, release, RTA, sykes, volunteering

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Category: Fundraising, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation | Date: Jan 15 2009 | By: colobus

At The Colobus Trust, the phone often rings with news of dead or suffering animals that have been involved in road accidents or electrocuted on power lines.  So on Thursday 8 January it was a more pleasant surprise to receive a call about an animal that wasn’t injured but still needed our help.

The call was from a local resident about a bush baby she had been rearing as a pet for about a year.  Its wild instincts had started to kick in and it had bitten her earlier in the day so she decided it was time for the Colobus Trust to get involved.

Peter, Tim and I went round to pick it up and found it in a laundry basket – not the sort of place a bush baby is likely to feel most at home.  We brought it back to the vet clinic to give it a once over and it seemed particularly annoyed so it went straight into a carrier cage.

Over the next couple of days we worked to make one of the rehabilitation cages suitable in the quarantine area.  These cages are designed with larger primates in mind and Peter had once put a bush baby in and it was able to escape.  We had to reduce the hole size by winding wire around each individual opening to make the cage more secure.

To help save resources, and as a poetic form of recycling, we were able to use snare wires which have been collected from local forests over the past months to complete the job.  It was a long job but finally the cage was complete.

On Tuesday we were able to furnish the cage with a selection of foliage and branches from trees in the garden to enable the bush baby to have adequate cover during the day and to provide leaves to make a nest for sleeping.

Then came the transfer; true to form he was not happy at being woken in the middle of the day just to move into another cage.  Finally in he snarled and hissed at us in such a way that you wouldn’t think we had saved him from a life of captivity. Although they look cute and cuddly they can be very aggressive.

He seems to have settled in much more now and is certainly happier than he was.  The plan is to begin opening the cage in the evenings so he can go out exploring.  However it is uncertain whether he can be released in to the gardens here permanently.

Bush babies usually form small groups of mother and offspring or occasionally small bachelor groups.  The males use urine to mark boundaries of their territories and can be aggressive to intruders.  At the cottage there are already a group of bush babies which come to feed in the evenings so only time will tell if he will be accepted.

Because of this there are added pressures on the Trusts resources to continue feeding him until he is ready to be released; this is in addition to the seven vervet monkeys which continue to be housed at the Trust until they have built up the skills to survive back in the wild. The vervets are also rescued pets, some of whom have been with us over a year.

Any donations would be welcome to help with the upkeep of the bush baby or the vervet monkeys; while we try to feed them on wild foods when possible, in the dry season the possibility reduces so more supplemented food is required, all of which needs money to buy.  You can help us by using the “donate” button on the right hand side of this blog. All money donated goes directly towards helping support the Colobus Trust and helping us do such work.

Like other non-human primates, bush babies are considered likely sources of diseases that can cross species barriers and so they are not a good idea when considering a pet.  They are wild animals and while they may seem very cute, they have sharp teeth and can inflict a painful bite. Better to choose a cat or dog which have been domesticated specifically for this purpose.

Tracey Stenson, Colobologist

(Photos by Tim Jukes)

Tags: bush baby, Monkey, pets, vervet

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Category: Fundraising | Date: Jan 14 2009 | By: colobus

Just a quick blog to thank all of you that have donated over the last few months.

We have just sent off a claim to Wildlife Direct for $540! This is for all the donations we recieved between the 12th of October & the 31st of December 2008. So we would like to say a special thank you to:

Jane S, Robert B, Wild Eles, Sheryl B, Wanda H, Fiona B Daniel A, Gary M, Elodie Y, Chris D, Paul G, Susanna N, Susan B.

Thank you once again for your generous donations. This contribution will help us in our work. It would be enough to pay for the annual maintainance of three of our Colobridges. Unfortunately, the reality is that this money is needed to support running costs, mainly by paying staff wages but this will still go into core projects such as the Colobridges.

Things are looking up though as we have a lot of new volunteers arriving by the end of the month! But please still give generously.

For further information on what is going on at the Trust please have a look at our previous blog. One explaining all about our new study will come shortly.

Thank you!

The Colobus Trust Team

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Category: Habitat Restoration/Conservation, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation | Date: Jan 09 2009 | By: colobus

This morning we had a brutal reminder of just how urgent the need is to take the next step with our insulation project, in particular, it highlighted the point we have been trying to make to The Kenya Power & Lighting Company that it is not just Diani’s power lines that need insulation, but it is also the transformers. Something that can be easily done with the readily available Denzo Tape. AND SOMETHING THAT NEEDED TO BE DONE TEN YEARS AGO!

What is worse about this situation is that we lost a family of 3 Colobus to another Hotspot on Monday and 4 more separate electrocution incidents have been reported in the last month alone!

It also triggered me thinking on how unique Diani is as a conservation case.

The story is a sad one and one I shall write as I heard, though it is using “scientifically incorrect” verse. This particular young male was playing a game of chase with his friends in the early morning cool. When with surprising agility he jumped straight off a fence onto a Transformer with 115,000 Volts running through it. This transformer is one of our identified electrocution hotspots, it is located on the border fence between Safari Beach and Nomads Hotels. Both of these hotels hold a considerable amount of well looked after forest. 115,000 Volts is reported to cause instant heart failure and death, however the brain may remain active for a short while, with all its neurons firing. It is not known how long he suffered before he died but his squeal of anguish was hear from 200 meters away and his flesh was cooked to the bone when we finally took him down.

This event got people talking and made me realise more than ever that Diani really is a unique as a case of modern conservation. This is coming from the point of view that Diani is so urbanized yet still contains such a special ecosystem that in a few places, is barely altered.  The Colobus Trust is using the knowledge provided by dealing with Diani’s conservation issues to conserve on the frontline.

In a way The Colobus Trust and other conservations in Diani are dealing with issues that other wildlife habitats will be spared for many years to come. To allow them to be able to prepare for these issues would be of great benefit so we have and end goal of using our specific situation to help other areas of development by making the relevant people aware of these issues before it is too late.

Looking at Diani’s history is very interesting and again unique. Diani was built deep in the forest on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. In the 1950s the forest still stretched all the way up to the Shimba Hills NR. There were Leopard, Elephant and Buffalo on the beach! Since it’s rise in popularity Diani has urbanized whilst the forest around it has been cleared. This development has occured at a near exponential rate over the last 50 years, particularly over the last decade. Now what forest remains is in the small Digo Kayas and in privately owned land, with the majority being in a 3km stretch of hotels. What the future hold remains to be seen, but we are at a pivotal point.

It is a new realization for me but dealing with urbanization and conservation causes a shift in the prioities of the popular conservation issues that are commonly taught and seen in the press. The majority of which are undertaken in rural areas. Prominent issues, such as bushmeat, are still relevant here, but we are looking at a unique situation where other less publicized and studied conservation strategies and issues require to be prioritized above what applies elsewhere.

When I think of The Colobus Trust, I see a small dedicated team with a mammoth task. These issues are mainly being combated by a team of 11 Colobus Trust staff, which in the scale of things is a comparatively minuscule organisation. There are others involved, but few make it the sole priority. This uniqueness and importance comes from the fact that these issues are going to become increasingly relevant in what is a rapidly urbanizing Kenya. This is explainable in a simple way. Interference caused to a wildlife rich ecosystem by development (in our case, notably arboreal (tree dwelling) wildlife) is all explained by urban Humanity’s need to put in place its comforts, or as some people would call them, necessities. The two ones we confront the most are the human need for transport (to facilitate movement of goods, people, etc.) and electricity (to power our many inventions).

Focusing on the transport issue, we Humans need our roads, and will build them everywhere we go, it is an unavoidable part of modern Kenyan development. The problem is that these roads end up bisecting a habitat. In our case this is our small patch of coastal rag forest (see below), and the road creates a “barrier” for arboreal species who are adapted for life in the trees. The reality is sooner or later the species will be required to cross this “barrier”. As you as a human will know, animals and roads do not mix, terrestrial animals such as dogs are frequently killed on the road. Therefore if terrestrial species are lost to the road, arboreal species are even more at risk.

The Colobus Trust and the people we work with are creating methods such as our famous Colobridges that can be put in place to allow arboreal species to cross roads safely. Others are doing similar projects on other continents to allow wildlife dispersal and migration across roads. Most notable is the Banff Wildlife Crossing Project which involves building bridges for wildlife movement over the Trans-Canadian Highway in Banff National Park, Canada. Even though our Colobridges have dramatically reduced road traffic fatalities. Humans still drive too fast, and monkeys do sometimes feel like being different, so some are still lost. We are combating this, we recent worked with the Kenya Roads Board to put in place 3 speed bumps in the area where most of the fatalities occur (below). In the 4 weeks they have been in place we have not had one fatality.

In effort to achieve this dream for a Diani in which humans and wildlife can coexist and cause each other no harm, a myraid of techniques are being used.

It is key to involve Kenyan Businesses and Government in this. We are working with the Kenyan companies and government offices that provide these utilities. We are doing so not only to reduce the rapid population decline of Diani’s wildlife, but also to prepare them for the future. We are working in collaboration with, among others, the Kenya Roads Board, The Kenya Power & Lighting Company and the District Commissioner’s Office. This aids us addressing these issues, prepares them as they will need to be dealt with in many more locations.

The reality is that  million year old ecosystems will be damaged beyond repair and lost if something is not done. If Kenya is developed with, say for example all power lines underground or insulated (which is what we push for), then in the future people will not have to go back and spend time and money dealing with wildlife electrocution. Which is a battle we have been fighting for many years.

KPLC have been cooperative but results are taking a long time to materialize. Engineer Joseph Njoroge, Managing Director and CEO of KPLC recently committed to reducing primate electrocutions and we already have insulated one hotspot (see below) with PVC conduit as a temporary measure until KPLC go through the length process required to put in place insulated cable. However we are still waiting for them to provide the necessary permission and assistance to get started insulating more hotspots (the pilot project was a great success) as soon as possible. Let us hope the death of this young male helps us make progress.

Achieving this end goal of using our knowledge and experience to guide future development, as I see it, is done in two parts.

The first part is to use our knowledge and experience to provide guidance to not just to developers but to all involved in the development of Diani (investors, residents, tourists, etc.). This can then be brought into the context of places elsewhere in Kenya, Africa, Planet Earth. Thereby we will allow others to learn from Diani’s history. That is not to say that all development in Diani’s past has been badly managed. That is far from the case. I hope, as many others, that one day we can have a justified, endorsed guideline for development that people will take as law.

The second part is what will come out of the upcoming Diani Wildlife Census & Habitat Management Assessment. We aim to create and maintain an annual record of not just wildlife statistics (populations, demographics and documented fatalities) but a system that allows us to see the results of the projects we are undertaking. Projects including Indigenous Tree Planting Programs, Waste Disposal Management, Pest Monkey Management, Colobridge Use Assessment, our current Insulation Project, Education Programs and more…

With these two parts combined, I believe we can lead Diani, and may be the world, into a brighter future.

That said, back to my story about the poor baboon. It was a truly horrible experience to witness such a needless loss of such a wonderful creature. Many people do not like Baboons, and I see their logic as they can be intimidating and if you are not sensible can steal food off you, but I personally love them. I find their inquisitiveness and intelligence fascinating, especially that exhibited by juveniles such as the one lost today. I have spent many hours photographing and watch Baboons as they investigate their environment with such an intelligence that is so easily related to man’s actions. Initially their focus usually turns on me where we a have a brief unspoken communication as we assess each other. I find these are some of the moments that put someone in touch with nature, much like people speak of Gorillas. Then I laugh as one of them bounces off dragging a rattling Flamboyant seed pod behind it. One of the most fascinating experiences I have had in Diani was observing and a photographing an old female Baboon who found a piece of broken mirror. She explored all of the facets this new and exciting object could before turning to look at me and then instantly positioning the mirror so as to look at me and pull faces. She was making facial gestures which, to her, would have normally intimidated a human. I wonder if she was aware that without the aggression of intrusive body positioning towards me this would not have been so threatening. She then proceeded to look around and at me, through this mirror. Something I luckily caught on camera and have put in below so as you can all appreciate the moment.

Not many people think this way but Baboons play their integral part in Diani’s already fragile ecosystem most people just see them as cheeky little critters, a nuisance or something to be frightened of. The comparison of the charred dead baboon and the young, intelligent, playful ones I have got to know really humbled me. To put my point across I have used the two pictures below. I took one a while back during one of my many Baboon watching sessions and one I took this morning.

The body of this baboon now lies in a grave amongst the cemetery of other animals we have lost, few have died of natural causes, but the majority have humans to blame for their demise. But I’m glad this loss allowed us to achieve some good. A letter is being written to Engineer Njoroge asking for rapid action in the insulation project, with these photos attached.

We are continuing to push and get some physical action as soon as we can. Camps International are still heavily involved and working hard at their end. We intend to start insulating more of the hotspots this month, that is if KPLC grant us permission.

If you want to help us there are two ways you can:

The first is to “donate” button on the right hand side of this blog. All money donated goes directly towards helping support the Colobus Trust and helping us do such work. You can even specify that your donation is to go solely towards the insulation project and ALL of it will.

The second is for you too to write to the Managing Director and CEO of KPLC, Engineer Joseph Njoroge, thanking him for his pledge to help us but reminding him politely that the longer the project is tied up in beaurocracy, the more times members of Diani’s wonderful wildlife will have to suffer such a horrible death.

Address letters to:  Engineer Joseph Njoroge, Managing Director & CEO of The Kenya Power & Lighting Company, Head Office, Stima Plaza, P.O.Box 30099; NAIROBI 00100, Kenya.

This tragic loss triggered me to write this blog which in the end grew into more than I expected.

I hope you appreciate it.

Thanks for the support,

Gwili

Tags: baboon, Electrocution, habitat management, kenya power and lighting company, Primate

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Category: Fundraising | Date: Jan 09 2009 | By: colobus

It is no secret that the Colobus Trust has been struggling financially over this last year. Therefore when Assistant Manager, Gwili, went back to England to spend time with his family over Christmas, his family made it their mission to raise some funds for the new years upcoming projects.

Together with his sister Felicity and with help from Lindsay and Olivia Kennaway of Lalesso, and many many more, they arranged an event they called ‘Monkey Around London’. The event was successfully held on the 16th of December in the City of London. The event centred around a fashion show exhibiting the much anticipated Lalesso Spring/Summer ’09 collection which looks fantastic. Other highlights included a live band and DJ set, as well as a shop selling the Lalesso range and other africana.

The event went off with a bang and had over 200 guests. People came from all over Britain. Friends, families, ex-volunteers and many other Colobus Trust supporters, new and old, attended. It was a great chance for people to be united under one cause and lots of supporters met for the first time, such as long term Colobus Trust supporter, Chip Mitton who finally got to meet Gwili!

The fundraiser collected a fantastic amount of £1700 (KSh 200,000). This will prove to be a great Christmas present to the Trust and the monkeys and forest it looks after. As stated at the event, the money raised is going in to support projects such as the Diani Wildlife Census & Habitat Management Assessment, which is being undertaken in partnership with Camp Kenya in late January. This landmark study will pave the way for all much of the work the two organisations will do together over 2009.

Watch this space next month for more information on the study and its goals.

A belated Christmas wishes and blessed 2009 from all at the Colobus Trust

Tags: colobus, fundraiser, lalesso, london, Monkey

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