In Calabar, there’s an ‘orphanage for animals’

In a quiet neighbourhood in the heart of Calabar, an artificial forest has been established on a land not up to a football field. It was started in Nigeria and Cameroon in 1988 by Pandrillus, an NGO founded and directed by two Americans, Peter Jenkins and Liza Gadsby, to prevent the extinction of the highly […]

In a quiet neighbourhood in the heart of Calabar, an artificial forest has been established on a land not up to a football field. It was started in Nigeria and Cameroon in 1988 by Pandrillus, an NGO founded and directed by two Americans, Peter Jenkins and Liza Gadsby, to prevent the extinction of the highly endangered drill monkey Mandrillus leucophaeus.
In the make-believe habitat for endangered species of animals are Tropical Rainforest Drill Monkeys, Chimpanzees and a handful of other smaller, crawling animals and assorted birds.  In this ranch, there is the only bungalow which serves as administrative blocks for the several White volunteers, some of them from Canada. There is also a forest Land Rover jeep with American flag hoisted on it, to show its American influence.  Much human activity is not pronounced except for the stream of visitors who come singly, in twos and in groups every now and again from distant places and states, according to the manager of the place, Mrs Irene Edem, who is the first female and fifth president of the Calabar Paradise City Lions Club.
Whereas the main Afi Drill Ranch is in Boki Local Government Area in the forest where the activity is large and vast, the Calabar Drill Ranch situates off the popular Marian Road by the famous Atekong Drive junction in Calabar Municipality Council of the state where ladies of the night hold sway.
The Calabar Drill Ranch is a zoo-like environment where the last species of drill monkeys picked either in their original habitats, donated by their owners or confiscated, are revived and nurtured back to life.
It is a kind of safe haven for the animals which are the remaining of their kinds in the whole world, according to the managers of the ranch, and are mostly found in the abundant forests of central Cross River State.
At the ranch, it was exciting to see acrobatic displays by the 500 endangered Drill Monkeys and 30 Chimpanzees as well as their off-springs. However, the sights of snakes, assorted crocodile-looking reptiles,   though they in their respective cages, can be scary.  But Mrs. Edem bragged that she does communicate with the snakes, other reptiles and the monkeys and they listen to and obey her. 
She loves and strokes even snakes and claims she could also sleep beside them, and that they reciprocate her gestures by curling round her and excitedly giggling their tails whenever they see her.
“I can talk to animals and they would respond.  I think I am just like another Adam in the world. The ways you treat animals matters, because they can well work for and aid you in the course of life. But hatred for them has become irksome. People think I am crazy because of my love for animals. I think humans inherited this hatred for animals from their ancestors.  If you love animals they will love   and work for you.” 
She said she is happy to give support for the benefit of posterity, because they will come to see certain species of animals that would have gone extinct had they not intervened! “Our work here can as well be seen as national patriotism, because we are also helping to conserve the properties of the forest,” she said.
She says the work of rearing and caring for animals is to her the real work of God. 
“Drills are large, short-tailed rain forest monkeys. Their males reach over 45kilogrammes and are found in Cross River State. The other places these types of monkeys are found are in south-west Cameroon, and on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. Drills have a smooth black face,” it was learnt. 
In Nigeria, little is however known of drill ecology as in other countries. This is because they are elusive and are not well studied in the wild. Unlike most monkeys, they are semi-terrestrial. 
For their food, these drill monkeys search the ground for fallen fruits, roots, leaves, insects and invertebrates; they climb trees to pick fruit and do sleep on tree tops at night. 
Drills communicate with facial expressions, vocalizations and behaviours. That is why workers at the Calabar Drill Ranch, like Mrs. Edem find it easy to communicate with them. They are semi-nomadic, travelling long distances in the forest, perhaps following fruiting seasons of different trees. Like most primates, they are highly social and live in groups of 15 to 30. At certain times of the year, groups come together into temporary super groups of up to 200. They however, like humans, disallow ‘inbreeding’.
Findings show that the primate are among Africa’s most endangered animals, and are the top conservation-action priority of the 60 plus African primate species. 
According to information available at the ranch, there are three possible reasons for their precarious status: their natural range is only 40,000 sq km, smaller than Switzerland. Their range, habitat continues to be destroyed by logging, farming and other human developments and, of course, they are hunted illegally for bush meat.  Hunting is the biggest threat to their survival and drills are said to be more vulnerable than other primates, according to animal experts.
Mrs. Edem described the Calabar Drill Ranch as ‘an orphanage for animals’ and that endangered animals now find solace in their captivity.
On how they get the animals, she said, “We usually collect these endangered animals from the forests or from donors as freewill donations or we can out rightly confiscate them from persons that steal, traffic or maltreat them using the powers enshrined in Decree 11 of 1985 which extends protection to these animals.
“Anyone who hunts for these animals when we get to know we use the power embedded in the decree to arrest and prosecute them. We can enforce this law and confiscate these animals including those listed in the decree.
“We are not a zoo. This place is a wildlife conservation project, majorly for the concern of the drill monkeys which are now endangered. We take in other animals because this place is like a safe haven for them. We kind of give these animals second chance in life to survive having been threatened and hunted by man for food which accounts for their drastic reduction in number across the world.
“We would usually take them at very critical stages of their lives and revive them through medical care and feeding. And this is quite expensive for us alone,” she said.
She said they don’t sell the animals. “We know basically what to do about these animals after we must have nurtured them back to life if we took any in critical condition. We know where to return them when the time comes. We do not sell them as it is against the reason we are set up.”
According to her, “We have 30 Nigerian workers, including veterinary doctors in both places outside the White directors.  There are some White volunteers, some of them Canadian. Like the directors, they are not paid but are given food and accommodation free. All they want is to study and help the animals and be certificated at the end of their stay. Our major challenge is finance. We need sponsors from anywhere because each day these animals are populating.  We expend a lot on their food and medicine.”
What is a typical day like?  “Every day in this place is like Christmas here. We workers can come here with a pre-planned agenda but these can change suddenly owing to streams of visitors, or ‘attitude development’ among the animals. That way, the tempo of activities would remain. During festive periods or holidays, our visitors increase; we have received several school excursions, top dignitaries, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who have visited our Boki sanctuary. This is a natural tourist attraction not like the conventional ones.”
Mrs Edem also said that the monkeys behave sometimes like humans; they have social and political lives and recognize their parents and leaders.
“These monkeys as you can see, they have leaders. They do hold meeting but the novice won’t know. They socialize and do quarrel when a non-member of a particular group or ‘cabal’ tries to dabble into them. You can see how some of them would attack and pursue the others.
“The older, bulkier, heftier one with big reddish ball at his bottom and squatting at the extreme is the ‘king’ here. They all listen to him”, she explained.
The male ones are usually bigger and heftier than the female.  One striking thing is that a ‘husband of one female would hardly mate with another’s female. And they all know who is who. If there is any contrary, there would be provocation. 
On how they mate, she said “When they are in their ‘heat’ period they copulate and this applies to all primates. Their female carry pregnancy for six months and give birth to one baby at a time, but in the history of this project there was a particular drill monkey that gave birth to twins. And again, the babies of a particular parent do not mistake them. They move in families but are coordinated.”
She lamented the high rate at which people kill and subject animals to cruelty. As if invoking the anger of God on those guilty of these, she said that almost everyone thinks that the Biblical law ‘thou shall not kill’ only applied to man.  “This was not specified by God and did not apply to man alone. Those that kill animals are as guilty as those that murder human beings and should receive the same amount of punishment meted out to murderers.”
A public commentator, Ibrahim Tasiu was sad that only certain animals are classified as endangered and as a result are given special attention. He wonders why similar attention is not given to domestic animals like dogs, cats, donkeys, horses that are killed and cruelly treated.
He posted on Facebook, “We see animals as enemies rather than companions in nature.  They have a special role to play in our existence as humans.  Regrettably, we seldom understand this.  I dream of a world where I will live side by side with snakes, tigers, lions, capybara, platypus, dingos, puma, anaconda in harmony and even earn their trust.”