Born Free

Category: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre | Date: Dec 29 2008 | By: bornfree

In mid-November the Wildlife Centre unveiled its latest addition - The Watering Hole bar.

While The Watering Hole is not an animal, it will help to support the animals in its sales of drinks and small snacks such as crisps, peanuts and popcorn.

The Watering Hole provides a place for visitors to relax and quench their thirst after a tour of the Centre and learning about its rescued wildlife.  It also allows parents a place to sit while their children play on the newly updated Adventure Playground.  

On Saturday, November 29th, The Watering Hole played host to families and friends of the centre for its Christmas Adventure themed fund-raising campaign.  There was even a fear factor challenge for the kids who were brave enough to try it!  The bar is also open for functions, such as birthday parties.

So far the Watering Hole has generated enough profit to cover the expenses for building and is on its way to raising much needed money for the centre.

Thank  you  to everyone who helped get this project completed and special thanks to Richard Papworth who traveled over from Guernsey to help manage much of the build.

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

Hello blogsters.

You remember recently I told you about two tiny baby Bush Babies we rescued, Barack and Obama? Well an update on our boys.

They are growing well, they weighed only about 112 grams each when we got them and now they have doubled in size and weigh just above 150 grams! They were syringe fed at first every evening and early morning but now they are lapping by themselves and also eat fruit, grasshoppers and boiled eggs for protein.

Being nocturnal animals they sleep all day but spend all night chasing each other around their enclosure! They are becoming quite adventurous with their climbing skills but when it comes time to sleep they still snuggle up in each others arms for comfort and warmth - this is such a sweet sight to see. They NEVER sleep apart or alone.

Once again, please keep you donations coming, every little bit helps us to help rescued animals like these.

Have a very merry Christmas from all the team at Lilongwe Wildlife Centre and all the very best for the New Year!!  We look forward to giving you lots more interesting blogs to read!!

For more on the work we do here in Malawi visit Lilongwe’s website at http://www.lilongwewildlife.org/

Tags: bush baby, Lilongwe, Malawi, rehabilitation, rescue

5 responses so far

Category: Born Free, Born Free Ethiopia | Date: Dec 24 2008 | By: bornfree

From all at Born Free Foundation and the projects which we support, we would like to wish you all the best for the holidays and for the New Year!! 

A special thank you goes out to Nadia K who has made her second donation, this time of $75 - your continued support is so appreciated and you can be assured that this will significantly benefit the projects in the coming year.  Thank you and merry Christmas!!!!!!

2009 is the 25th anniverary of the Born Free Foundation and we have a very special appeal with regards to the Ethiopian Wildlife Rescue, Conservation and Education Centre which is featured on this blog - we are hoping to raise the much needed funds to support the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority and provide resecue, rehabilitation and lifetime care facilities to a number of animals including Sheba and Menelik the cheetahs, the Italian lions and of course the Dolo lion. 

Please visit http://www.bornfree.org.uk/give/new-year-appeal/ and donate any funds you can, this is a massive project for Born Free and one we feel can significantly improve the lives of many individual animals as well as the conservation of species in Ethiopia.  Many thanks.

Thank you too all who read the blog and to all those who have donated to the projects in 2008 - we are looking forward to a very active New Year as Born Free and all the projects featured on Wildlife Direct continue to keep wildlife in the wild!!!!!

Many thanks to you all,

Andrina and the team at the Born Free Foundation

Tags: ethiopia, lions, thank you

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Category: Born Free, Born Free Ethiopia | Date: Dec 15 2008 | By: bornfree

Thanks for all the comments and donations following the previous Blogs.

Apologies for the lengthy delay since the last Blog. Ethiopia may be seven years behind the rest of the world (this year it is 2001) so maybe that explains why I always seem to be catching up and need a few more hours in each day.

As usual with this project, I have both good and not-so-good news to report. The good news is after a year of negotiations and meetings, the land for the new Wildlife Centre has officially been transferred from the Ministry of Defence to the Office of the President of Ethiopia and from the President’s Office to Ethiopia Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA). This really is quite a milestone and I am immensely grateful to His Excellency President Girma, his son, and the team at the President’s Office for all their support this past year. I am now finalising a Land Management Agreement with EWCA, but since they have already signed a Project Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding for the new Centre project, this is more of a formality.

The not-so-good news is that the Ministry of Defence have asked for a hefty compensation for the living trees on the site, so back I go to the negotiating table! It has taken more patience than I knew I possessed to get this far, I now need to find a little more!

Meanwhile, the land boundary demarcation stones have been prepared, so as soon as I can get the compensation figure reduced or waived, we can get started with the boundary demarcation and perimeter fencing. When we actually get started on the construction I think my whoop of joy and relief will be heard around the planet!

Enough of red tape. This Blog is to share the story of Menelik, the cheetah cub that I am now caring for.

The cub was found by a development worker in a dusty town on the edge of a north east desert of Ethiopia. The cub was tied by a string at the back of a shop.

The staff at the shop said it was a tiger, but most Ethiopian’s think Tiger is the English word for cheetah. The cub was very small, clearly malnourished and so covered in dust that the dust combined with the furry shoulder mantle that all cheetah cubs have made the cub look as though it did have stripes! The development worker begged the shop assistant to let her take the cub to a vet in Addis. The shop assistant refused and alternately patted and then kicked the cub. The development worker took a digital photo and tried to convince as many people as possible in the town that the animal needed medical care. A few people humoured her, but in a country where life is tough, the welfare of an animal did not have much of a priority. The development worker circulated her photos to friends and colleagues and one ended up being forwarded to me at Born Free Foundation Ethiopia.

After the Wildlife Authority had given permission for the animal to be confiscated, a veterinarian who generously donates her time to Born Free Foundation Ethiopia collected the cub and had to give it intensive care for a few days. The cub had been fed such a poor diet it could hardly use its back legs.

The couple who had so successfully cared for Sheba (Story in Blog 5) agreed to provide the cub with a home for a few weeks until I had built a temporary enclosure in the Born Free Addis office compound.

I collected the cub on 24 November and named him ‘Menelik’ after the famous Ethiopian Emperor and because I have never known a cat that licks so much. The cub seems to be particularly fond of licking my bald head. That rough tongue may be great for skin exfoliation, but is ruining my tan!

I have designed the enclosure so that it includes the back door into my office. The cub comes and goes from the garden into the office. He spends most days in the office lying on, or wrestling with, his blanket or watching birds outside the window.

Menelik has settled in well and I hope that when the cub is a bit older, we can introduce him to Sheba and the two male cheetah will share an enclosure at the new Wildlife Centre.

As I write this Blog, Menelik is purring loudly from his blanket. He’s a complete minx and has already managed to shred a rug. He seems to have a fascination with cutlery. In the morning I have my bowl of muesli sitting on the steps that lead down into the cub’s enclosure. Menelik invariably steals the spoon and rushes off to his hay-lined sleeping shed to play with the spoon; flicking it into the air and batting it like a tennis pro.

Please do help our project if you can.

The Wildlife Rescue, Conservation and Education Centre will cost around UK£600,000 to build and equip, and it will cost UK£ 250,000 (US$ 500,000) per year to fund the Centre and its conservation and education programmes.

The enclosure for Menelik and Sheba, and for other animals at the Wildlife Centre will cost between £12,000 and £40,000 to build.

We must get Menelik and other wildlife in captivity in Ethiopia into spacious enclosures as soon as we can.

And if anyone wants to help pay for the care of Menelik, he costs £2 (US$4) per day to keep at the moment. However, he is growing fast and the costs to keep him will continue to grow - as an adult cheetah it will cost approximately £6 (US$12) per day, or £40 per week to provide care for him.

You can donate at Born Free’s website where the Centre is the subject of our New Year & 25th Anniversary Appeal see www.bornfree.org.uk/give/new-year-appeal/, stating that you would like the funds to go towards the Born Free Ethiopian Wildlife Rescue, Conservation and Education Centre. 

For more information on Born Free, please visit www.bornfree.org.uk and should you want more information or think you may be able to help please leave a comment here on Wildlife Direct and we will come back to you as soon as possible.

More news in a few days,

James

Tags: Born Free, cheetah, conservation, education, ethiopia, rescue

6 responses so far

Category: Born Free, Born Free Kenya | Date: Dec 13 2008 | By: bornfree

I’ve just come back from a place called Ilmarba where we’ve been working in this great little school called Olmoti. It’s next to Amboseli National Park. I’ve told you this before, I think, but anyway, when we started work there in 2004, there were about 70 children in the school. And yet, we found many others out herding goats or fetching water.  For Born Free, this wasn’t great.  Because we’re educating the community about wildlife conservation, when children don’t go to school, it’s harder for them to get the message.
 
So we pledged to help build up the school infrastructure and lobby the government to get more teachers on condition that the community brought more children to school.  The community were delighted.
 
We started small, first renovating the existing classrooms and an old dorm that was falling down. The community said that if the school could be turned in to a boarding one, with a place for the children to sleep, then more could attend classes.  By January 2006 the number of kids in school doubled and continued to go up throughout that year.
 
We introduced a group of sponsors interested in supporting the community, through what Born Free calls the ‘Global Friends Programme’.  We raised the money we needed to put in a second dorm so that both boys and girls could sleep in school. Also because the number of kids was increasing practically everyday, we built more classrooms. At the same time, the Government, through the District Education’s Office provided more teachers to cope with the increase in enrolment. There was a lot of progress in 2007.
 
Now there are 282 children enrolled at the school – with about 180 using the boarding facilities! There are 4 new classrooms and a brand new dorm and in total, the school has 8 classrooms and 2 dorms. Which is exactly what they wanted. 
 
You should have seen the faces of the little children when we drove in there last week accompanied by the people who had sponsored all the new developments!  I hope the pics I took of my colleague Manoa and the children, show the joy we saw.

Alice

Tags: Born Free, education, Kenya, school

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Category: LAGA | Date: Dec 08 2008 | By: bornfree

On Saturday Felix found himself again alone in front of another ape arrest operation, with another chance to save a baby chimp.

Felix had to make all the planning for this operation alone – a very small rural town three hours from Yaounde. He had to discuss plans with the LAGA undercover agent, be shown how to use the recorder and choose a tactic for this sting operation. Our target was to arrest two main dealers in meat of protected species working regularly with several poachers and supplying the big towns, and of course, save a baby one year old chimp. The biggest challenge was fighting corruption – in this small town the state attorney, police, Ministry personnel… and criminals – are all neighbors. This makes the usual bribing attempts much easier. Felix held back the information from the arresting team till the last moment to avoid information leak and was ready to fight any corruption attempt. The two dealers were successfully arrested in the act and the chimp, in a small cardboard box, was rescued. This time he managed to get the baby chimp to vet care on the same day and in the night the chimp arrived safely to CWAF organization.

But Felix stayed behind insuring that the two are behind bars over the weekend until the case is transmitted to court. He knew most chances the dealers will try to bribe their way out. Right after his last verification in the cell at 21:00, as Felix went to his motel satisfied, the Ministry official together with another government official went to the police station to illegally release the two dealers. Felix discovered it only early morning. Following the discovery LAGA put high pressure on the authorities to quickly reverse this act of corruption. And the state attorney responded by notifying the officials for the illegality of their late night maneuvers, and ordered for the re-arrest of the dealers and their stay behind bars for the coming week, till their trial begins. The investigation led to a third dealer beingg arrested over this trafficking affair.

This time Felix returned not only with the achievements of getting 3 dealers behind bars but also knowing he saved a baby chimp.

For more information or to donate, please visit LAGA’s webpage at http://www.laga-enforcement.org/  

Tags: bushmeat, chimpanzee, LAGA, poaching, wildlife trade

2 responses so far

Category: Born Free, Born Free Kenya | Date: Dec 03 2008 | By: bornfree

Anyone who’s been on Safari will tell you how difficult it is to see any of the big cats in the wild. The time of year, weather, location, luck and even one’s choice of safari guide all play a role in the Big Cat experience. And what a joy it is when you see these animals go about their daily lives, unperturbed by the happenings, the lazy lion stretching in the morning sun, the lithe cheetah stalking her prey and of course nothing beats seeing the extremely elusive leopard!

In nearly six years of having worked in the field of wildlife conservation I have only seen a leopard twice! in the wild. This most secretive big cat lurks in the dense foliage of trees, its fur providing the perfect camouflage. It is no wonder that when a leopard is sighted in the wild, word spreads like a bush fire. There is often a frenzy when Madoadoa ya juu * -as the animal is known among the Safari circles - is spotted.

It was therefore shocking!! to see a mass of leopard fur lying by the side of the Nairobi Mombasa Highway as we drove back to Nairobi on our way back from shooting a documentary on the illegal bush meat trade. We immediately pulled off to the side of the road to examine it closer. It was indeed a leopard! We suspect that it was killed by a large vehicle, a cargo trailer driven by an exhausted driver perhaps… Well, we thought it wise to call in the Kenya Wildlife Service as leaving the carcass unattended would mean that some unscrupulous person may well take the fur to sell off. We left after having reported the matter to the Tsavo West National park main gate who promised to act on the matter.

Apparently road kills are not uncommon on this highway. A source who had spent months working in the Tsavo area told us that they had seen a cheetah lying by the side of the road a few weeks ago. Early this year, my colleague witnessed a group of villagers scampering to get a piece of an elephant that had been knocked down earlier.

The Nairobi Mombasa Road cuts across a huge area of wildlife habitat, traversing the Nairobi National Park, the Athi Kapiti plains, The Chyulu Kibwezi area and the Tsavo ecosystem. Its supports a huge amount of traffic - vehicles, people, livestock and even wildlife – moving from one area to another. This incident got me thinking that it may be time for a road safety campaign for this busy highway. As the festive season draws closer and the amount of traffic on our roads increase please spread the word to all your friends in Kenya. Let’s all Drive Safely. Save Lives. Save Wildlife!

Best wishes,

Elsie

*Madoadoa ya juu literally translates as the spots above.

Tags: Born Free Kenya, Kenya, leopard, roadkill

2 responses so far

Category: Born Free | Date: Dec 02 2008 | By: bornfree

A little message to Emma T who has made a very kind donation of $50!!  THANK YOU!!

As always, all donations are so appreciated and Open donations will be wisely spent by the projects which take part in this blog.  If you would like to donate specifically to any of the projects, please donate in the “One time donation” box and we can then stream your funds to the project which you would like to support.

Also, don’t forget you can sign up to receive Born Free’s Wildlife Direct blog as and when it is posted (if no blog is posted then you not receive an email so don’t worry about spam!) at http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=2271883&loc=en_US

Thank you again for reading and learning about the projects which Born Free supports, I hope you can support them with us now and in future.

All the best,

Andrina

p.s. if you would like to learn more about Born Free and the work we do please visit www.bornfree.org.uk

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