Today is Sunday, and I have just returned from the Limbe Wildlife Center (LWC) here in Cameroon. I am a postdoctoral fellow at the San Diego Zoo's CRES working in the tropical rain forest studying the elusive drill monkey. Drills are the most endangered primate in Africa, and we know very little about their behavior, feeding habits, and status in the wild. So why did I go to the Wildlife Center? Because almost exactly a year ago, when I was on my way back from the forest, I stopped at a roadside stall to buy fruit. And there I found Soso - a tiny, 6-week old baby drill tied to a post with a piece of string and obviously in very bad condition.

I spent several hours discussing conservation issues with the men selling him, who were not the men who had shot Soso's mother, but go-betweens who were hoping for a quick profit from his sale. They did not expect to meet a CRES researcher however, and my official papers together with a careful explanation of why what they were doing was wrong allowed me to take him from them, without payment, after much (heated) discussion.

Soso fell asleep for the next few hours until I arrived home, when I was able to persuade him to drink some milk while I decided what to do next. Soso ended up staying with me for four days until I had the opportunity to take him to the LWC, where he was mothered by a human volunteer for three months before being introduced to another drill orphan, Eumujock. They soon became firm friends, and now when I visit Soso I am happy to see them playing together.

My mission here in Cameroon is to study drills in the wild, but inevitably living in such an environment causes you to consider the plight of orphans such as Soso, of which there are all too many. The Zoological Society of San Diego has supported the LWC's parent organization, Pandrillus, for many years now and it is great that we were able to help each other out with this case. CRES is also conducting long-term studies of bushmeat markets in Cameroon, which I will talk about in future Weblogs.

Only last week when I was driving past the same roadside stall, I saw the carcass of an enormous male drill for sale as bushmeat. This time I could do little; the hunter was defensive, and having lived in Cameroon for many years I know that only the government has the power to confiscate bushmeat. I did manage to discover that this enormous male drill came from the same forest as Soso. Given that it is only the few large male drills that father infants in a drill group, as I drove away sadly I asked myself if that fantastic specimen of one of the most spectacular animals in existence might just have been Soso's father.

Dr. Bethan Morgan is a Millennium Postdoctoral Fellow for the San Diego Zoo's CRES, working in Cameroon, Africa.

Posted in Conservation, Default, Field Studies, General | Link to this post

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