Meet Penny, one of IPPL's
Sanctuary Gibbons
Two of these monkeys had been run down on a beach road. Because of my reputation as a wildlife/conservation type, I was called on to "do something." An injured adult female, and a dead sub-adult male had been moved to a private home by Mr. Van Velzen, who was visibly shaken. Removing them from the scene of the accident was most heart-wrenching, the colobus troop were distraught and in a very uncharacteristic manner aggressively tried to prevent him from removing the bodies by rushing him with threatening barks and growls.
All of us who offered assistance were horrified and very upset. The injured female seemed to be in fairly good shape as she sat proudly, allowing us to stroke her while she gazed questioningly into our faces. At the time it was not obvious that she was suffering from severe shock.
Being Sunday, no veterinarians were available so we called the Nairobi based Kenya Wildlife Veterinarian at home. She talked us through a physical examination. Our worst fears were confirmed, she had broken her spine near the tail. The vet would have had her flown her back to Nairobi had there been any hope.
As we stood discussing the terrible task of humanely euthanizing her, she began to collapse, put her head down, started wheezing and within an hour had died. We stood paralyzed, helpless, and very angry. It was this event that catalyzed the "Save the Colobus" campaign, and prevents us from ever turning back.
The Angolan Colobus monkey
The Angolan colobus monkey is a large conspicuous handsome black monkey with white shoulder flashes, cheek hairs and tail tip. It has an extraordinarily gentle nature and unusual habits. Mothers allow their strange looking woolly white newborn infants to be handled by other troop members.
Although colobus are extremely shy in the wild, they can become very trusting when habituated. These quiet leaf eating monkeys become captivatingly playful garden guests in the homes and hotels of the seaside resort area of Diani, on the south coast of Kenya.
They have become an expected component of a successful garden, and the sound of the morning chorus of growls, or the banging of a troop displaying on the roof, have always been appreciated. Habituated colobus troops are extremely entertaining as they cavort through the gardens playing games of tag, chasing each other and Sykes monkeys, playfully swinging on one another's tails.
I never tire of watching them, especially when "catch the white cat" is on - the colobus think the white cat is an infant and run through the garden trying to catch and hold her. The white cat thinks the colobus are crazy and runs dodging them in a mock escape effort - I think she enjoys the attention!
Diani is home to some 200 of these wonderful monkeys, a significant proportion of the species in Kenya. The colobus however are declining at an alarming rate as a result of habitat loss and road kills.
The Diani colobus conservation movement began as an emotional outcry against forest clearing and high speed traffic on the main road, and led to a publicity campaign to "Save the Colobus." It has resulted in the acceptance of the monkey as the official Diani mascot. We have now registered a conservation trust, "Wakuluzu, Friends of the Colobus", which is a charitable organization determined to save the Angolan colobus monkey in it's natural habitat.
Although not currently listed as threatened, the Angolan colobus monkey is at a minimum susceptible to extinction as result of habitat loss. This sub-species is now restricted to forest fragments in the northern Tanzanian highlands and southern Kenyan coastal forests, having already disappeared from much of it's former range.
In Kenya, it is officially protected only in the Shimba Hills while other populations in Diani, Shimoni and Chale forests are already declining and will almost certainly disappear unless ongoing forest clearance is checked. In Diani loss of 75% of the forest cover has caused the disappearance of lion, leopard, hyena, bushbuck, small cats and elephants in the last 50 years. Nevertheless, many other mammals survive in these fragmented forest patches, including three monkey species (Sykes, vervets and baboons), two species of bushbabies, colorful red bush pigs, dwarf antelopes such as duikers and suni, genets, an assortment of mongoose, and civet cats.
Two mammals, the golden rumped elephant shrew and bushy tailed mongoose, and one bird, the Uluguru sun bird, are rare and threatened with local extinction. Diani Forest still has a wealth of biodiversity and boasts over 127 bird species. The forest is on private property and is not open for public access.
Establishing the status of colobus in Diani
On the 30th of November, we conducted the first colobus census in Diani, an event that drew 30 volunteers and generated a wealth of information regarding the primates and habitats in Diani.
As we suspected, the Diani colobus population is not very big at only 200-230 individual monkeys in an area of almost 10 square kilometers. We can say with confidence that the colobus population has declined significantly since 1989.
Half of the population survives in an area of 1.5 square kilometers of relatively undisturbed forest. This is also the area with the highest rate of road kills where 18% of the resident monkeys died in 3 months. This forest has recovered significantly from degradation since 1989, but renewed clearing is a serious threat.
Ironically, the private ownership of this property which guaranteed protection to this date, represents the greatest threat today: property owners seeking financial benefit are sub-dividing their properties and selling land.
The lowest density of colobus monkeys was in private gardens and hotel grounds where most of the forest cover and natural food plants have gone. Surprisingly the tiny "protected" sacred forests or kayas, had small populations of monkeys, amounting to only 10% of the total population of colobus. We suspect hunting was the cause for the colobus monkeys' timid behavior, their skins are still used in traditional dances.
Dealing with road kills
Colobus monkeys are unusually handicapped when it comes to crossing the high speed beach road and they are more prone to road kills than the other monkey species. Over a period of less than three months, we recorded 17 road killed colobus monkeys along a two kilometer stretch.
This road bisects the forest habitat with the highest concentration of these monkeys and unfortunately, movement to the other side of the road is essential for the primates to access the different parts of their home range.
Since we cannot stop the monkeys from crossing the road, we decided to offer them an arboreal means to do so. Four "colobridges" have been erected to link trees on each side of the road at known crossing points and accident black spots. Though still regarded with suspicion by some colobus troops, they are used by all primate species.
Sadly, we still have had some road kills near the bridges. For reasons we do not understand the bridges are not used consistently. Regardless, the road kill rate has declined sharply and we are now working on redesigning the bridges to be more "colobus-friendly" by adding a vertical aspect, and by baiting them with fast growing vines - colobus delicacies.
Vines will take months or years to grow so we are also looking at alternatives to get rapid results. Since sykes and colobus frequently socialize and travel together, by baiting the bridges for the sykes monkeys (a very simple task), we hope that the colobus will follow suit.
Implementing speed control is one of our main goals, and we have already secured the necessary government permission to put in road signs and speed bumps. Work is already underway. To change peoples' attitudes, we have been distributing posters, press articles, questionnaires, information sheets, stickers and posters around Diani and the positive response has been very rewarding.
The future
Our plans for the future include an environmental awareness campaign, continued lobbying for speed reduction on the roads, research studies and further censuses, fund raising events and proposals for managing the remaining Diani forest patches for the conservation of the local flora and fauna.
There are other conservation issues we intend to approach include:
IPPL has provided a $500 grant to the Wakuluzu Friends
of the Colobus which is a registered Trust in Kenya. The Trust is interested
in setting up a colobus adoption scheme for monkeys in well habituated
troops in the near future. Anyone interested in further information should
contact the Wakuluzu Friends of the Colobus Trust, POB 5380, Diani Beach.
Kenya. If you wish to make a donation to this wonderful group, please send
a check marked "For the Diani monkey" to IPPL, POB 766, Summerville, SC
29484, USA, and we will consolidate checks and send them safely to Kenya.
Meet Penny, one of IPPL's
Sanctuary Gibbons