Nanga Eboko, the young chimpanzee orphan that we brought from Yaoundé to the Limbe Wildlife Centre (LWC) last week, has had an operation to remove two of the three shotgun pellets lodged inside his body. (Read Bethan's previous blog, Traveling with a Baby Chimpanzee.)Felix Lankester, veterinarian and manager of LWC here in Cameroon, successfully removed two pellets: one from Nanga's left leg and the other from his chest. The third pellet, which had fractured a bone in his right leg and lodged there, has now started to heal over, so will be left alone.

I saw Nanga just after his operation, when he was still a bit drowsy. Jody Ubert, a volunteer with LWC, has been looking after Nanga 24 hours a day since he arrived. Jody is a special-needs teacher from Colorado and has spent the past year volunteering at three different primate sanctuaries in Africa.

The day-to-day work at LWC is overseen by a team of dedicated keepers and support staff, many of whom have worked with the LWC for many years. For example, Matute Johnson (photographed) has been working there for nine years and is currently working with the chimpanzees. There are three groups of chimpanzees at LWC: a boisterous adult group, a slightly demented juvenile group, and the infant group, to which Nanga will be introduced once he is a bit more confident.

These groups are not what you might hope to see at a normal zoo. Because LWC is a sanctuary for victims of the commercial bushmeat trade, all animals are rescued and normally arrive at the Centre when they are young and often recently traumatized. The youngsters will grow up together, and the lack of a hierarchical age structure is confusing to them and often causes headaches for LWC. Other animals are rescued after years of being tied up, often alone, and sometimes abused and mental trauma is evident in many of the animals. Introducing new animals into a group is a difficult but necessary task, given the lack of space at LWC and other sanctuaries in Cameroon. LWC is just finishing their latest addition, a specially constructed chimpanzee enclosure that will greatly increase capacity and allow some of the juvenile chimpanzees to enter the adult group, hopefully with minimal disruption to harmony.

Every day Nanga is improving a little. At first he was quiet, shy, and slow to respond to stimuli, but he is gradually starting to relax and play a little. Johnson and other keepers at LWC are spending a few hours every day playing with Nanga and will take over duties when Jodie leaves Cameroon.

Nanga's story is all too common. He has been lucky: he hasn't ended up as a pet or on someone's table like his mother. Just like Soso, the little drill that I blogged about some time ago, I hope that Nanga fits in to his new life at the LWC where eventually, one day, he may be released back into at least a semi-natural environment. Until then, he is in the best possible hands.

Dr. Bethan Morgan is a Conservation Research Fellow for the San Diego Zoo's CRES.

Here's more information about Bethan's project.

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