The story of Stumpy the baboon
Category: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre | Date: Aug 05 2008 | By: bornfree
Hello, today’s blog is a bit different in that it has been written by someone who brought a rescued baboon to our attention at Lilongwe Wildlife Centre. This is a typical story for many wild animals in Malawi:
Stumpy was first seen on the 10th of July at a market in a village on the Lunzu Road. He was kept on a short rope, tied around his neck to a pole with no shelter. Although there were lots of vegetables for sale around him he was given little food and was under nourished. It seemed all in a day’s entertainment for kids to throw stones at him, confident that he could not escape and cause them any harm.
Stumpy was confiscated from his owner the next day by Parks and Wildlife. After explaining to his ‘owner’ the village butcher, that it was illegal to keep a baboon as a pet he willingly gave Stumpy over to them.
Despite having most of his teeth removed and only having one arm Stumpy is still in good spirits. Thankfully we now have the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre as previously there really wasn’t a facility to accept so many of the injured or orphaned animals like Stumpy.
Stumpy will spend the next month in quarantine, then he will move into a larger enclosure and be introduced to a troop of other orphaned baboons where he will be able to live a more normal life and perhaps one day be released back into the wild.
Thank you to all the staff and Volunteers at Lilongwe Wildlife Centre for all there hard work at dedication to the animals. Without a facility like this Stumpy’s story would not have such a happy ending…..
Bev Trataris
Please keep your donations coming in so that we can continue to help animals like Stumpy. Just $20 will help us to feed someone like Stumpy for a week.
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Tags: baboon, Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, Malawi, Stumpy
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5 Responses to “The story of Stumpy the baboon”
Christine C., on 05 Aug 2008
Ah, poor stumpy…his story is just so sad…do you know what happened to his arm and teeth? I am so glad he is now in your capable hands…but do you really think that he will ever be able to be released back into the wild given his physical condition?
Annie, on 05 Aug 2008
Poor fella …thanks for helping him…what an awful experience he had..I hope he will improve!
Sherri S., on 05 Aug 2008
So you think he might be able to be released back into the wild even though he is missing a hand?
bornfree, on 06 Aug 2008
Response to comments on Stumpy from Tracey at Lilongwe Wildlife Centre -
Thank you for all your comments!
Unfortunately, as in most of our rescue cases, the details are sketchy so we have no idea what happened to his arm but we imagine he was caught in a snare and left for some days to suffer until he was found. I imagine he received no veterinary care what so ever and that it healed naturally. We assume that his top teeth were removed to prevent him biting anyone.
As for his possible release, once he joins one of our troops at the Centre we will monitor his progress to see how he copes with natural foods such as seed pods, fruits and bark and then decide whether or not he can be released again. Our release programme is such that the baboons will be released into a relatively safe environment like one of Malawi’s National Parks where we will be able to monitor them full time for a year after release. So don’t worry, if Stumpy is released, he will still be under our watchful eye! We see quite a few wild baboons (in the wild) with one arm or one leg surviving extremely well…baboons are amazingly resilient creatures.
Thank you very much for reading our blog and for your concern for Stumpy well being. I will keep the blog posted with his progress.
Thanks
Tracey
Christine C., on 06 Aug 2008
Thanks Tracey — and please keep us posted on Stumpy’s progress!
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