Archive for the ‘Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation’ Category
The plight of Guereza colobus monkeys in central Province of Kenya was exposed into the limelight by a local farmer back in 1998. He reported that several human induced mortality agents and sub lethal threats were decimating the local population of these primates.
The colobus Trust managed to capture and translocate 14 colobus monkeys from malewa valley in Kipipiri to Soysambu in the rift valley Province . The success rate of the project was 82%.
The Colobus Trust would like to send two field assistants back to both capture and release sites to find out:- (a) If there are other colobus monkeys at the capture site, and if they monkeys are still a problem to the communities. Budget Transport 9,000.00 Subtotal 50,200.00 Please join the many people dedicated to conservation, by sending your contribution to us via the “donate” button. Thank you very much. Hamisi Pakiah.
It’s the start of a New Year and we are planning on starting afresh here at the Trust. New projects are under way, including the building of more water troughs in the forest for the animals during the dry season, and building a taxi shed by the Colobus Trust cottage. We are now also discussing and making solid plans for the release of the ex-pet vervets being rehabilitated (see Sal’s ex-pet vervet post). Our annual fundraiser at the kite surfing competition at Forty Thieves Beach Bar was a great success, as we have raised around 80,000 KSh from the sales of our raffle tickets as well as receiving part of the proceeds from the entrance fee for Hawaiian Night at Forty Thieves and half the proceeds from the sale of Lalesso Clothing items which were being sold throughout the event. With regards to the political situation, we have only been indirectly affected by it here in Diani. Last week was when the situation was a bit more tense, especially in Ukunda and Mombasa. Some governments have issued alerts for their citizens to leave Kenya, and so last week we lost 4 volunteers who decided to go home early. Here in Diani we had only been affected by food and fuel shortages, as well as the lack of cash in ATMs. But thanks to our wonderful cook Jared we were able to make do with the little that we had. Right now things seem to be mostly back to normal and we’ve even had two new volunteers arrive this week. All of this still cannot take away attention from the plight of the colobus — road traffic accidents and electrocutions have continued and will continue to happen regardless of any other problems we may be facing, so this week we have resumed our work and once again Diani’s primates are our primary concern. Isabelle
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
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
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
Yesterday we had an animal welfare call at Leisure Lodge for an electrocuted young male Colobus that was still alive. When we arrived he already looked like he was in pretty bad shape, with a visibly injured arm and burnt fur on his face. During the time we were waiting for equipment and extra help to arrive, we had the unfortunate experience of seeing him get electrocuted once more and fall to the ground. It was quite awful, but we wasted no time and moved in quickly to get him while he was still on the ground. We did manage to catch him, but had to face a very large male on the way to the truck, who was very protective and very angry, which was quite scary. We finally got the injured colobus in the truck and brought him back to the Trust, where our vet Sal treated him. He is now in the quarantine cage for observation. The spot where this electrocution happened had been identified as an electrocution hotspot a few weeks ago, and Kenya Power had been informed. Unfortunately nothing has been done about this yet, which is very frustrating for all of us, as electrocutions will continue to happen as long as nothing is done about the uninsulated power lines. Isabelle
This week at the Colobus Trust we began preparations for our annual fundraiser, a kite surfing competition, which will be held on December 28th and 29th at Forty Thieves beach bar in Diani. We are going to receive part of the entry fee for the event, and also raise money through raffle tickets. Yesterday some of us went to Mombasa to contact hotels and other businesses and get them to donate prizes for our tombola and get them to support us in other ways too. It went fairly well, and some hotel managers seemed enthusiastic about the idea. Tuesday was a long day for our volunteer vet Sal. In the morning we picked up a pregnant suni who was having trouble giving birth, and Sal performed a cesarian on it, but unfortunately neither the suni nor the baby could be saved. That same day we received an animal welfare call, which turned out to be a young injured vervet. It was in pretty bad shape and unfortunately had to be euthanised. There were many other things going on this week, which kept us volunteers quite busy. Every day this week as well as last week we received a group of Gap Year kids from Camp Kenya, and our assistant manager Gwili has been working very hard to accommodate their needs while still trying to show them what we do in terms of conservation work, giving them lectures and taking them out in the field. Yesterday we took them on a Colobus diet analysis at the site of the old Colobus Trust, and we tracked a troop of 8 Colobus and observed them eat for a couple of hours. We hope they enjoyed it, I certainly did. Isabelle
Things have been busy in our Rehabilitation Cages of late. Over the last two years we have built up a collection of mainly ex-pet Vervet Monkeys & we are aiming to release them as soon as we (& they) are ready. Having been taken from the wild from a very young age, these poor animals find it quite difficult to be monkeys in the way that wild ones do. Luckily two of our volunteers (Neda & Sal) have taken charge of the monumental task of preparing them for release. This has involved not only finding a release site but also creating a troop that will survive in the wild. The difficulty in this lies in the fact that they have had limited social contact for so long. To ready them for release the girls have been introducing the monkeys to each other & studying their responses. This, so far, has gone well. However, next week is the introduction of the two mature females. Their alliance will prove key to the formation of a stable troop. Let’s hope it goes well and soon we’ll have our very own troop ready to be reintroduced to the wild, which they left long ago.
Diani colobus census was carried out last month with the help of the volunteers. Now the data is being entered into the computer for analysis and will be ready next week. However, road accidents are still taking toll on the primates in Diani. So, more must be done on educating the public to change their attitude towards drivind too fast on the beach road. This I say because last week we have lost one colobus monkey through road accident and one vervet is recuperating in the quarantine cage with injured head. Please help in conserving the primates. Paul G.
The Colobus Trust plot has many monkeys living around and near it. All of them are amazing mammals, living in complex and continually changing groups. The Vervets in particular, display dynamic interactions and behaviors. The monkeys in the Colobus Trust rehabilitation program are mostly Vervets due to them being a favorite as pets and more likely to become pests around human communities. Last year a group of “graduates†were released onto the Trust grounds. As one of the Colobologists I have been monitoring two of these rehabilitated monkeys. Overall, the program seems to have been a success. Our released vervets are foraging well, interacting with their adopted wild troop very well and staying generally healthy. It’s incredibly interesting to see their behavior around humans and each other. There’s no denying that the wild Vervets living around our facilities are habituated to a degree. Often one will hear the distressed shriek of a volunteer coming from the veranda as their biscuits are stolen by a brave Vervet. One of our The resilience of these incredible little primates is astonishing and as a member of this team it’s great to see them doing well after going through our program of rehabilitation. Eric Neilson - Colobologist |
|
graduates is comfortable enough that I can sit within a meter of him while observing him. This is not ideal for our released Vervets but he seems readily able to forage for himself and is not one of the biscuit thieves. Number 3 and 4, their respective ids, are often found together. Even when the troop is not in proximity, they can be seen together foraging and grooming, sometimes even playing with juvenile Sykes monkeys.
The Colobus Trust was established in Diani Beach, Kenya, in 1997 to save the endangered Angolan colobus monkey which was a frequent victim of roadkills. The Trust's trademark is Colobridges - bridges over the roads for save overpass. Gwili, a Welsh volunteer at the Trust reports on the day to day activities in an busy local primate conservation charity 
