Born Free

Category: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre | Date: Nov 27 2008 | By: bornfree

Another rescue for us, this time a small baby impala (antelope). Our vet reckons he is only 3 to 4 weeks old and it looks like his leg has been caught in a poacher’s trap. National Parks of Malawi called us to say they had the poor animal, and one of our carers quickly jumped into a truck, fetched him and brought him back to the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre.

We have named him Mitambo. He has two breaks in his right front leg about 4-6 inches up from his hoof. The upper break is a ‘v’ break through the bone and the lower break (they are about 2 inches apart) is a nasty one as it has broken right through the skin.

Wendy, our vet, had to come up with an idea that would keep the leg splinted but also allow her access to check the open wound…. So a piece of plastic piping was used and cut open so that she could attend to the wound but would also hold the leg in place and keep it clean and stationary.

Mitambo has surprised us all and can actually stand on this ‘cast’! He looks a little uncomfortable when lying down as he cannot bend this leg under him as he would normally do when sitting. He still is not eating solid food yet, only taking in liquids and the next couple of weeks will be vital for him.

Please send your donations so that Wendy can continue to give little Mitambo a fighting chance.

Tags: Antelope, Lilongwe, People and Wildlife, poachers

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Category: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre | Date: Nov 24 2008 | By: bornfree

Hello blogsters.

Well, the Olive baboons are settling in well and are coming close to the end of their quarantine period. We have, however, been able to introduce one of the pairs named Jack and Jill (we had two pairs and a group of four in three separate night rooms) into the night room with the group of four and things went very well. So, now these six baboons can move around the two night rooms and stretch their legs a bit more, so to speak. We had expected a bit of a stand-off with the two larger males but they got on fine. It was two of the females who were a bit antsy but they soon sorted things out and now the group make an impressive bunch. It is our plan to eventually introduce them to the other pair and then all eight of them can live as one large troop.

On a different note let me introduce you to our latest rescues. They are two tiny, tiny bush babies. One of our education team was taking a tour group around the Centre when suddenly something fell out of a tree just outside our perimeter fence. On inspection it was identified as an adult bush baby. A group of children had been chasing her and she had lost her footing and fallen, probably breaking her neck. The children ran away at this point when we intervened but shortly afterwards we heard the cries of her babies looking for her. They were coming down from the tree tops straight into danger. Luckily for them our team were there to take them in. They are so small they were still suckling. So out came our collection of small dolls’ bottles (yes, dolls!) - human baby bottles are too big!

The two babies, now called Barack and Obama (no less!) are being cared for night and day, thanks to our team of carers and volunteers and are slowly building up their body weight and are just starting to climb out of their box and start exploring the world.

Bush babies, mostly nocturnal, are a little similar to humans in that they need to stay with their parents for up to nearly a year before they are strong and wise enough to set off on their own, so you can imagine how much time and care that will be needed to help these two little chaps find their feet in the world.

Once again, please keep you donations coming, every little bit helps us to help rescued babies like these.  For more information you can visit our website at http://www.lilongwewildlife.org/.

 Many thanks, Lee

Tags: bush baby, Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, olive baboon, rescue

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Category: Sea Sense | Date: Nov 20 2008 | By: bornfree

We have had a busy week. One team travelled north to Tanga near the border with Kenya to hold introductory meetings with Regional and District government authorities in preparation for starting turtle (and other marine) conservation activities in the area. The other group headed south to complete the judging for the primary schools’ recycling and marine conservation competition.

Just south of Tanga there is an island called Maziwe which until about 30 years ago was vegetated and which was one of Tanzania’s most important turtle nesting grounds, particularly for the green and olive ridley turtles. However, all the trees were cut and it now remains as a sandbar which is completely covered by sea during the spring tides. Turtles continue to nest there but the eggs are inundated and do not survive. We expect to work with a local group, Friends of Maziwe, and other interested parties to start closely monitoring turtle nesting activity on the island and moving eggs to mainland beaches just a few kilometers away. There are a number of popular hotels along this stretch of coast and many have already shown an interest in supporting us and local communities to initiate a successful turtle tourism programme. We plan to hold a stakeholders meeting before the end of 2008 to look at the options and discuss relevant issues.

The primary schools; competition has been a great success. All the school entries, from both students and teachers, have been collected and the final ceremony will be held this weekend to announce the winners and hand out the prizes. There will be about 200 official guests and we hope that many hundreds of local residents will also come and watch the songs, drama and artwork.

Next week we hope to conduct an aerial dugong survey in the Rufiji Delta where several live sightings have recently been made. A microlight will be used as it can fly low and slow. Fingers crossed that we will see some and that the weather is calm and clear. More on the results of that at the end of next week.

Thanks, Catharine

Tags: dugong, Sea Sense, turtles

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Category: LAGA | Date: Nov 13 2008 | By: bornfree

At the end of October, LAGA (Last Great Ape Organisation in Cameroon) managed to track down an ape dealer who regularly orders apes from hunters and sells them in towns. He was arrested trying to sell a baby chimp in a sack in the Eastern Province of Cameroon. Felix, a promising new recruit of the legal unit has had his baptism with this first operation he had to fight for. He was joined by Julius, head of operations unit in the morning of the operation and the arrest went smoothly as planned.

The problems started when we realized the dealer is well known to the authorities as they tried to help him and sabotage the legal process.  

After a lot of fighting from Felix we managed to fight corruption and put the writing of the complaint report back on track.  Only when Felix and Julius managed to ensure the dealer was locked away could they focus on the health of the baby chimp.

Felix was heart broken, this was the first time he held a chimpanzee and realizing the chimp was very sick he called Ofir at headquarters, alarmed, saying that although he may not have experience with chimps he knew this chimp was terribly wounded. Ofir underestimated the problem and later realized that the wounds on the chimp were not the common wound on the waist caused by ropes - the chimp was in fact burnt - her capturers poured boiled water on her.

Felix tried to feed her and insisted on getting her to a vet, but the authorities took their time.  In between caring for the little chimp, Felix had to ensure that the dealers were not released, and ensured in a two hour meeting with the state attorney that the dealer should not be granted bail.

Felix won the fight of getting the dealer into jail, but lost the first chimp he knew.

When the baby chimp arrived to Dr. Sheri Speede’s chimpanzee shelter - the Sanaga Yong Sanctuary, it was too late. The baby chimp died a few days later as a result of the infection caused by the open burns.

We are all shocked by the extent of cruelty taken against the baby chimp that could have outlived any of us. Vincent and Eric of the media team prepared radio newsflashes explaining the cruelty. They continue to get the message through TV and written press.

Felix will continue to fight for justice for animals and people.

Ofir

UPDATE: 14th NOVEMBER 2008

Felix travelled for 8 hours on dirt roads to the east to fight again in the second court hearing.

He called Ofir last night to say the second court hearing passed well.

His work discussing with the prosecutor on fighting against any release on bail paid off.

The hearing passed as we wanted without opening the debate insuring another month of jail time to the dealer before the next hearing. Felix is staying to make a jail visit and ensure the dealer didn’t bribe the jail wardens to release him as is often happening.

For more information please do not hesitate to visit our website at http://www.laga-enforcement.org/ .

Tags: ape dealer, Cameroon, chimpanzee, LAGA

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Category: Sea Sense | Date: Nov 10 2008 | By: bornfree

We had a rare occurrence a few weeks ago when an enormous sperm whale washed up dead on the west coast of Mafia Island. This incredible marine mammal measured 16 meters long and attracted huge crowds of people which gave us a great opportunity to raise awareness about sperm whales and about marine conservation in general to a captive audience. Sperm whales can grow up to 20.5 meters and weigh 41 tons!

It seems as if the whale swam through a gap in the reef and became stranded when the tide went out. The carcass is now being protected so that the bones of this enormous animal can be collected and hopefully reconstructed.

Next week we continue with a marine conservation and recycling primary schools’ competition which we started last month. Kids from 10 schools are competing with each other to produce art / sculptures and teachers are competing to make teaching aids, all from flotsam and jetsam washed up on the beach. The competition also includes singing and drama and will culminate in a colourful ceremony on 22 November when the winners will be announced and prizes given out.

At the end of next week I will be travelling north to a coastal town called Tanga where we will soon be expanding our marine conservation activities. 

We always need more funds for our ongoing work with turtles and dugongs in Tanzania, please do think about donating and helping us to continue our work protecting marine life in Tanzania.

More on that and the competition next week!

Thanks, Catharine

Tags: Mafia Island, Sea Sense, sperm whale, Tanzania

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