Colobus Trust

Category: Human - Primate Conflict Resolution, bushmeat, community, volunteer | Date: Oct 14 2009 | By: colobus

Yesterday the Colobus Trust team went for a desnaring exercise in the Jadini forest. The forest belongs to the Alliance Jadini Hotel and is situated near to the trust. The hotel has allowed the Colobus Trust to create a nature trail within the forest in order to protect it and also to educate tourists on the local wildlife. Desnaring is an exercise which is done on a weekly basis by the Colobus Trust to discourage and prevent poachers from trapping and injuring wildlife. The snares are typically set for catching Suni and other small antelope but unfortunately the local primates in Diani are typical victims of these traps too. They are relatively simple devices which cause a noose to loop around any animal unfortunate to cross their path. These devices are brutally ineffective in that they trap and seriously injure animals and then leave them to suffer in great pain until they die or the poachers return. Sometimes the animal can break away with the snare still attached to them, in which cases the snare continues to embed itself in the animal causing pain, potential limb loss and even death. (see previous blog)

Above: Peter spots a snare

The task in hand was relatively simple. We needed to clear as many of the snares as possible.

Our day began with a brief background and training on the exercise for the day, followed by a sweep of the route that the eco-tour will take. The area we were exploring was very dense which we thought would make it very difficult to find the snares. Unfortunately, it was all too easy to find them due to the sheer numbers that were around, although Peter’s sharp eyes did help! However, it was more likely to be a sign of the quantity of poaching which continues to take place. In all, we found 17 snares within a relatively small area (clearly a hot spot for poaching), which is worrying when considering how many snares might be laid in Diani. Included in our snare haul were five spring traps. These are snares that are attached to a bent stick which springs back when the snare is triggered pulling its unfortunate victim into the air and suspending them there. Nearby we also found a skull from a Colobus monkey that we fear may well have been a victim to a snare due to its size and dentition.

Above: Rob removes a snare

We hope the nature trail will be up and running within the next few days and that we will be able to keep the trail and all of Diani as snare free as possible.

Thanks for your continued interest in the Colobus Trust!

Rob, Dougie and Mavinya

Tags: Colobus Trust, Diani forest, human-wildlife conflict, Kenya, snares

3 responses so far

Category: Animal Electrocutions, Human - Primate Conflict Resolution, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation | Date: Aug 28 2009 | By: colobus

The Colobus Trust runs a 24 hour hotline which enables local residents and businesses to report any injured, sick or dead monkeys in the area. To the best of their ability the Colobus team then resolves every situation, which may include a Vervet monkey injured at a hotel, a Sykes’ monkey caught in a snare or even a Colobus monkey killed in a road traffic accident.

In this instance, a hotel made a call to let us know that three Colobus monkeys had been electrocuted on the perimeter of their plot. Upon arrival, only two of the three Colobus were still in the area. Unfortunately, one of them was already dead- a large adult male with burns to his hands and feet. Our main concern was now treating the other injured Colobus, an adult female. Catching her was relatively easy compared to other captures due to the injuries on her back legs preventing her from climbing a tree.

Michaela, Andrew and Jody with the Colobus ready to get back to the clinic

Once back at the trust, Andrew, Cara, Jody and Michaela sedated and then examined the Colobus, during which time we discovered that she was heavily pregnant- all the more reason to ensure her successful release back into the wild.

Above: The injury to the Colobus

Below: Treatment being given at the Colobus Trust clinic

Her external wounds (burns to her feet and rump) were treated and multivitamin and tetanus injections were administered. She was then placed in quarantine under observation until she came round from sedation. Later in the day when she was fully alert and able to move adequately, we released her near to the location where she was found.

The Colobus being released by Andrew and Cara

The Colobus trust is working with the Kenya Power and Lighting Company to insulate as many electricity lines as we can fund in order to reduce and even eradicate cases such as these. The public can help us with this by making any donation, large or small, which we would greatly appreciate.

Luckily for this Colobus, and her unborn baby, her encounter with the electricity lines was not fatal- unlike her fellow troop member who lost his life.

Please help now,

The Colobus Team

Tags: Animal Electrocutions, Habitat conservation, human-wildlife conflict, primate rescue, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation

One response so far

Category: Habitat Restoration/Conservation, Habitat Restoration/Conservation, Human - Primate Conflict Resolution, Research, deforestation | Date: Jul 28 2009 | By: colobus

Diani is the most magnificent place ever, I come from western Kenya where people there are so passionate about farming of crops. I am very sure that everyone understand what I mean when I talk about crop farming, not many trees are found here, no forests, no wild animals live here anymore. My main point here today is about Diani, the place I currently live, I have been here for thirteen years now. I have worked with monkeys in trying to fight for rights and help them live a better life but for the last few years I have had sightings that are interesting to see. Lately I have seen a new species of monkey that looks like half vervet and half syke monkeys, I mean from the head they look vervet but from the rear end they look Sykes.This is one thing that many people may not want to believe because Diani has always had only four known species of monkeys, namely, colobus , baboons , vervets and Sykes.

(Photograph taken by Yvonne A. de Jong & Thomas M. Butynski)

I have never heard of cross breed amongst monkeys before,but now it seems to me that the real problem of deforestation in Diani is phasing out other species of monkey who have found it hard to survive on a very limited patch of coral rag forest remaining in Diani. I am now officially inviting people to see this new species so that we confirm a fifth species of monkeys in Diani. It will be interesting to see the effects of deforestation in Diani because many more funny looking species of animals will come up due to serious destruction we are witnessing here.

John Abuor- Colobus Trust, Animal Welfare Unit

www.colobustrust.org

Tags: deforestation, habitat restoration, human-wildlife conflict, Research

2 responses so far

Category: Human - Primate Conflict Resolution, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation, deforestation, volunteer | Date: Jul 16 2009 | By: colobus

 Hello all, Andrew here and I am the new assistant manager here at the Colobus Trust. I’ve been working here for little over a month and it’s been an incredible experience so far. The team here has really made me feel welcome. I came from GVI working with Friends of Shimoni Forest and have now switched Wildlife direct pages to Colobus Trust. There has yet to be a dull day here at the trust and I am learning something new every second.  One experience has really changed my life. It was early Sunday morning and we already had two calls to pick up three dead Sykes monkeys…this was not going to be a good day.  We drove north up Diani beach road to the first call and arrived to find an adult female dead in the middle of the road with a male standing protectively over her.  After fending him off I managed to pick up the female, but while I was doing so one of the volunteers noticed another monkey lying on the grass just next to the road. This one was tiny and at first I thought it must also have been killed by the car that hit its mother. However, as I got closer I realized it was still breathing.  Knowing time was critical it took two of us to retrieve the baby, one to pick it up and the other to keep the male from attacking us as he tried to defend the infant. We rushed it back to the clinic and after checking him over we discovered that miraculously he had not sustained a single injury, despite the fact that he was probably being carried by his mother when she was hit.  He was, however, in acute shock and desperately needed to be rehydrated and warmed up.  We tried to give him baby formula with a syringe but he was too weak to drink and in the end we had to put him on a drip in order to get enough fluids into him.  Slowly but surely he began to improve, although for the first twenty four hours it was a bit touch and go.  As he grew stronger he became a lot more vocal and active, starting to climb bookcases and causing all the havoc you would expect a baby monkey to cause!   We think he is about two weeks old which means that he requires round the clock care. He needs to be fed every three hours (night and day) and someone to carry him round constantly to keep him warm and provide social interaction. It’s a full time job caring for Eric, named after Eric Sykes the British comedian, but we have become quite close. It’s going to be hard when the time comes for him to leave but I know it is the best thing for him. Until that time comes he will remain a member of the Colobus Trust family. He has become quite comfortable sleeping with me and will happily wake me up every morning by running around and playing with my face.  

Caring for these animals is one of the most important things we do here at the Trust. Animals like Eric who lose their mothers due to human disturbance when they are so young do not stand a chance in the wild without assistance. It’s going to be quite a job getting him to where he needs to be in order to be release back into the wild. I truly believe it is our responsibility to ensure that the destruction caused by our kind has as little impact on the wildlife as possible, both the individual and the species as a whole. It’s not an easy thing we do here and it would not be possible without the support of our volunteers and donors like you. I’ll be giving up-dates on how our new family member is doing from time to time so be sure to check back and watch him grow with us! Thanks again for all your support. Andrew Hayes.  

Tags: human-wildlife conflict, primate rescue, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation

One response so far

Category: Animal Electrocutions, Habitat Restoration/Conservation, Human - Primate Conflict Resolution, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation | Date: Jun 30 2009 | By: colobus

On the 26 June 2009, it became very clear to me that electrocution of colobus monkeys is one single change that we still have to fight tooth and nail. On this day a great supporter of the colobus trust and who is also a Diani resident called on our hot line to report a colobus monkey who had just been electrocuted next to her house. As a response team I had to collect all the necessary rescue kit from our small veterinary clinic as fast as my little legs could carry me along. Remembering how bad electrocution cases can be, I was completely caught in between passion for animals and the likely picture I was going to see at the site. I can assure you would not want to see one in your life time.

Rescue mission is one task that always require preparedness and dedication, the colobus trust posses both. It is only possible for the monkeys to be rescued in time if facilities are adequate and sufficiently available. On this fatal day the most unfortunate thing was just about to happen, the only vehicle the colobus trust has was a way at the airport picking up volunteers. A big thanks to Elodie, our acting manager, who allowed us to use her small car for this mission.

“Good lord” this phrase, though not very famous with most people, helped my feelings, because the said electrocuted colobus monkey had just gone up the tree after a huge electric shock he had suffered swept him onto the ground, no burns, no death. By the way before I forget, the most important thing we have done to prevent electrocution is insulting power line wires, and do you know what, one conduit pipe fixed on six metres of power line can save a whole family of colobus monkeys.

The one thing I still want to do for this survivor is to give him a name, a remarkable name, please suggest one for him, would you?.

John Abuor-Animal Welfare Officer-Colobus Trust.

“And remember conservationists and animal lovers do not keep pet monkeys even though they love them so much!”

www.ColobusTrust.org

Tags: Animal Electrocutions, Habitat conservation, human-wildlife conflict, primate rescue, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation

3 responses so far

Category: Habitat Restoration/Conservation, Human - Primate Conflict Resolution | Date: Jun 08 2009 | By: colobus

It’s always great to have media publicity and I even happier when local papers pick up stories. The Coast Spirit, a new local newspaper distributed for free across Kenya’s coastline has published an article by ex-assistant Gwili which was taken from his very interesting blog post about the unique and very serious problems we are facing in Diani. Our two biggest issues at the moment are electrocutions (we have lost 14 monkeys since the beginning of 2008) and road kills.

Currently, we are gearing towards putting it another 170mts of insulation of open electric cables this month and hope to do about the same amount in July. It costs slightly less than a dollar to do one metre of cabling. If anyone would like to contribute, please do donate. THIS REALLY SAVES LIVES.

To read more about this, click on the image below. And thanks very much to the Coast Spirit for covering this critical issue…

Tags: Coast Spirit, diani, electrocutions, Habitat Restoration/Conservation, human-wildlife conflict, primates, Protection, Urban Conflict

One response so far

Category: Human - Primate Conflict Resolution | Date: Apr 08 2009 | By: colobus

Let us begin by thanking everyone for their continued concern for Civet’s state. We received many phone calls and comments on the blog interested in how she was doing. So it is with a heavy heart we tell you that sadly the Civet died the next night after her accident. She died due to severe internal bleeding and a pneumothorax caused by the blow of the car that hit her, which broke five of her ribs and punctured her lungs. After exhausting all medical efforts, we could only hope she would recover but it was getting very difficult for her to breath, and she wouldn’t eat… she died during the night, but at least we managed to take away the pain she was feeling from her injuries.

We thought it important to remind all of us, how careful we should drive when we have animals crossing the road. Civets are nocturnal creatures and during this season (the beginning of the wet season) they are more active as they usually have their young during this time. They are quite rare to spot, but lately we have had alot of civet sightings due to the decreasing forest habitat and the decrease of food. The poor animals are starving, and they are looking for a way to survive, causing them to cross dangerous roads, which like in this case may result in their death.

Let us all think on how to make their lives better and safer: driving slower, the importance of speed bumps, putting out water for all the thirsty animals, and most of all protecting our forests and natural habitats so that these beautiful animals do not loose their homes.

Sorry Civet….

The Colobus Team

Tags: cars, civet cat, human-wildlife conflict, road kills

One response so far