It has been an incredibly busy year here at Colobus Conservation! We would first like to give an enormous thank you to all our supporters, without you, our work would not have been possible. So much has been achieved this year and there are many exciting and new projects in the pipeline. We are currently compiling all the nitty gritty numbers for our annual report, which will be available in January 2016. Colobus Conservation continued to answer welfare calls, work on the colobridges along the main Diani Beach road and work with residents and hotels to reduce negative interactions with the local monkey populations. We also continued to work closely with the local communities and provide weekly education days for local school children. We wanted to share some of our highlights and the work that has been done over the last year, work you have helped us achieve!
January – We began the year with the birth of Molly, our first captive born infant, mother Mwangaza. While we do not promote captive breeding, accidents do happen. The aim is always to release all our captive monkeys, therefore we do not stop them from breeding, as this can encourage natural behaviours. This also means Molly will not be subjected to a life in captivity, a release programme for our captive troop is underway, and we anticipate their release will be within the next couple of years. There was also the arrival of Chale, a young female Syke’s monkey from Chale Island, who is now fully integrated with our other orphans.
February – Orphan season is often over by February, however, the orphans kept coming this year. Cashew a young galago arrived and Laila, an infant female vervet monkey. To our delight both orphans formed a unique friendship and kept each other company in these early and often stressful beginnings.
March- Chip our resident male colobus monkey celebrated his fifth birthday, although he was unaware, Colobus Conservation team were delighted.
April- We held our annual tree sale, where Colobus Conservation work with local tree sellers to promote the sale of indigenous trees in Diani. There was also the arrival of the Boobie, a species of sea bird, who came in very weak and unable to fly. Colobus Conservation often face new challenges and the Boobie was most definitely a new challenge!
May- We saw the arrival or a young colobus infant, May, who tragically passed away within a few days, a horrific fate that orphaned colobus often face, the transition to a human carer is often too much for this sensitive species. There was also a new arrival, another galago orphan, named Netti.
June- We enjoyed Diani rules, an annual fundraiser for Kwale Eye centre. Always an enjoyable weekend, which provides a great break and a team bonding experience for the hardworking Colobus Conservation team!
July- Colobus Conservation hosted their first progressive dinner. It was a fantastic turn out, with many Diani residents getting involved. It was a fun filled evening and helped raise much needed funds. We also saw the arrival of Kui, a young male colobus with his mother. Kui’s mother died while at Colobus Conservation. Kui had to be cared for by human carers initially, but to our delight was adopted by Betsy, an adult female colobus. Betsy is doing a fantastic job in raising Kui, he grows stronger and more independent everyday. After four months in our care the boobie was finally ready to be released, it took a few weeks for him to fly, but with a lot of dedication and visits to the beach from the Colobus team he finally flew away!
August- Saw the arrival of yet another orphan, a female vervet, named Lilly.
September- Colobus Conservation began their annual mapping of Diani, assessing the changes of the local environment overtime. This long term program in co-ordination with our annual census helps Colobus Conservation understand how the local primate populations use the environment and also helps us address potential issues, allowing us to adapt our projects in the future, where necessary. Yet another orphan arrived at the centre, a young female vervet, named Kadogo. We also held our beach golf fundraiser, raising 115,000 Ksh!
October- Colobus Conservation began their annual census on the primate populations in Diani. Counting the vervet, Syke’s, colobus and baboon populations in Diani to understand whether numbers are increasing or decreasing. The colobus, baboon and vervet populations continue to increase, while the Syke’s have shown to be decreasing. Amani, a young female colobus arrived at the centre, both her parents were killed when they came into contact with uninsulated electricity cables. Another orphan arrived at the centre, an infant male Syke’s monkey, name Haki. He was found alone and incredibly dehydrated. Both have now been integrated with our captive monkeys and are doing well. We also hosted the Petanque family picnic fundraiser.
November – Colobus Conservation welcomed Kelly Martin to the team. Andrea Donaldson will be taking a 1 year sabbatical to finish her PhD. Kelly will be the new Conservation Manager at Colobus Conservation in Andrea’s absence. We also received a new male colobus, similar to Amani, had lost both parents to electrocutions. He also fell victim to an electrocution on uninsulated cables, his arm was badly infected and had to be amputated. This procedure is not something that is done likely and to our delight he survived and is doing incredibly well. He is slowly being introduced to our colobus troop. Due to the sudden increase in the Colobus troop we began our campaign to raise funds for a larger enclosure for the five colobus. This year has seen an increase from two individuals to five! There was also the release of the Syke’s monkeys, which are now being closely monitored by our researchers. They are so far adapting well to their new environment.
December- An event was held to raise funds for a new colobus enclosure, the night consisted of magic and scrumptious Italian food, raising 82,323 Ksh. This month also saw the arrival of a new baby in our wild Colobus troop.
The next year looks to be a busy one as we begin designing a new enclosure for our colobus troop. We have also begun planning the release of our galagos. Colobus Conservation continue to work closely with Base Titanium to help reduce crop raiding, looking at the next stages of this project and implementing mitigation methods. Colobus Conservation also hope to increase our community work and continue working with the local schools.
Again thank you for all your continued and much needed support. From all of us at Colobus Conservation, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a fun filled New Year!
Yours Sincerely
Team Colobus!
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