There are four gorillas in the small troop.
Arno (Arnaud) (male)
Estimated year of birth: 1999
In LWC since: 13 September 2003
Arno had been kept as a pet in a family of a Lebanese businessman who ran a logging business in the South Province. However, when he decided to leave Cameroon, he left his pets to their fate. Arno (together with Anthal, who died recently at LWC) rambled and raided farms in the neighbourhood in a quest for food. A rescue team comprising two LWC employees and representatives of MINEF captured the animals in the village of Nkomo in the South Province and transported them to LWC. Had LWC not taken care of the animals, they would have probably been shot dead. The capture of Arno and Anthal was one of the successes of LWC's educational programme for rural areas.
The gorillas were in good condition and after a short quarantine were put together with Brighter and Twigs. Arno soon integrated in the troop. He became a playful buddy mainly for Twigs, who gained on self-confidence significantly in his company
Arno is a popular gorilla both with the members of the large troop (he was its member until last autumn) and with the keepers. The only one who did not like him very much was Chella, the alpha male of the large troop. Naturally, Arno was becoming his competitor... That was why the keepers decided to move Arno to a new troop - the Taiping Four, which arrived in Limbe at the beginning of 2008. Arno has got his own troop and is growing up to become the leading male.
Taiping Four - Abbey (female), Tinu (female)
Taiping Four originally comprised three females and one male (Izan). Only two of them have survived till these days - Abbey and Tinu.
Gorillas known as the "Taiping Four" travelled a considerable part of the world before finding themselves in Limbe more than three months ago. They come from the tropical forests of Cameroon like many other gorillas with a sad fate. In 2001, poachers killed their troops and the animals - who were young - were transported to Taiping Zoo in Malaysia with false documents. The zoo claimed they were born in captivity in a zoological garden. However, their true origin soon came out.
An international institution for the protection of primates decided that the young gorillas return to their native Africa. Unfortunately, they did not end up in Cameroon but in a zoo in South Africa, which sparked a "property rights" dispute between Cameroonian LWC and Pretoria Zoo. After many DNA tests that proved their relation to Cameroonian troops the court eventually ruled that the now grown-up gorillas return to Cameroon.
After their arrival to the Limbe Wildlife Centre the Taiping Four were placed in cages in quarantine to protect the existing troop against any infection the newcomers might carry. All tests proved negative and the four moved to the large outdoor enclosure inhabited by an 11-strong troop.
Since the arrival of the Taiping Four to Limbe, two other gorillas died under mysterious circumstances. Oyin, a female, died in June and Izan, a male, in December 2008.
Oyin died after a 10-day illness. LWC vets took a blood sample and sent it to a lab in Germany. An analysis was expected to shed light on the unidentified malady. Izan died on December 26, 2008 in LWC after a longer period of time when he showed symptoms like persistent diarrhoea, weight loss, and a particular allergic reaction to medication (face swelling). He was a male western lowland gorilla that became a symbol of illegal trade and African heritage.
This group has constituted the core of a new troop since last November. It inhabits the smaller outdoor enclosure at LWC. Its leading male is Arno, while little Bolo takes care of fun in the troop. Her surrogate mother is Abbey, a calm and reliable female.
Adjibolo (a young gorilla in LWC)
Adjibolo is nearly two years old and is learning to be independent. Her story dates back to December 2007 when Limbe Wildlife Centre director Felix Lankester learned about a find of a gorilla young. It was seized from poachers by an agriculture ministry official in Batouri, a little town in the east of Cameroon. The poachers kept the gorilla in deplorable conditions and tried to sell it on the black market. There was no information about its troop, so the little female gorilla was handed over to veterinarians.
Employees of the CWAF (Cameroon Wildlife Aid Fund) veterinary centre immediately travelled to Batouri and transported the animal to Yaoundé. There she was given the name of Adjibolo (or Bolo for short) after the ministry official who rescued her (it was discovered only recently that it is a female). The young needed a mother to grow up and develop properly.
There were not any suitable females at CWAF, so the keepers decided with Felix Lankester to place in the care of a surrogate mother in Limbe. The keepers had to consider carefully which female would be best suited for the role. They identified Nyango as the most promising candidate.
First, the two had to get acquainted in an introductory programme. Unfortunately, Nyango's interest in little Bolo died away after a short while and did not pay enough attention to her. That was why the keepers decided to give up on this attempt.
[
