"Yesterday, a road patrol seized gorilla hands and pieces of gorilla meat," we were told by ecoguard Tomiwhen we stopped by the ECOFAC office in Djoum. We are back in Cameroon, south of the Dja biosphere reserve. We are in an area that generously supplies Yaoundé and other cities with bushmeat.
Twelve ECOFAC officers stationed in Djoum are supposed to throttle or curb the supply. As our photo report suggests, it is a futile effort... (You can expect more on the topic plus very sincere interviews with ecoguards, ecoguards after we return from Africa.)
16.11.2009 Twiggs was born in the wild in Cameroon around the year 1997. She and another female gorilla, Brighter, was smuggled across the border to Nigeria as infants to be sold as pets on the locale pet marked.
09.11.2009 When Pitchou was very small, she was brought to Hotel Ilomba in Kribi to be sold, after her mother had been killed by hunters. She stayed there for three days, until the hotel owners could no longer bare to watch her suffer. The family donated her to the LWC.
02.11.2009 Chella came to Limbe Wildlife Centre when he was only two years old. He was found in the back of a bush-taxi sitting on his dead mother. Wildlife officials confiscated him and kept him three weeks before bringing him to the Wildlife Centre.
21.09.2009 Adjibolo came to Limbe Wildlife Centre when she was only about 6 months old. She was confiscated by senior civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Adjibolo, from a hunter who tried to sell her.
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