Afi Mountain Drill Ranch, Nigeria

2019-08-18/20: Afi Mountain Drill Ranch: "Rettet den Drill"

En route to the Afi Mountain Drill Ranch.
We leave Ikom to get the asphalt road from Obudu. We find some checkpoints at the start of the road before it goes into the forest. It is not of very good quality on the first twenty or thirty kilometers with a lot of potholes but becomes much better thereafter.

Cocoa is trying to dry out in the villages.

The small road goes into the jungle.

Monument in the center of a village.

We cross a few villages which seem much nicer to us than Ikom for example and after 75 km covered in one hour three quarters we take, just before the village of Wula, a small paved road which leaves on the left. It is a narrow road that winds between small wooded hills first to the west and then to the south.

The small road to the ranch after Wula.

We cross another village, Olum, before reaching Baunchor after half an hour and 15 km, the last village before the ranch where the asphalt road stops and turns into a bad track for the last six kilometers.
The bridge which allowed to cross the small river at the exit of the village was washed away by the rain some time ago and has not yet been rebuilt. This forces us to make a detour to go for a ford 300 m upstream by a particularly narrow and uneven track. We are even afraid of tipping over in a particularly delicate place, I have to get out of the car to go and test the terrain.
The river is quite deep, about 50 cm, but does not pose a problem for us.

It does not pass, the bridge was washed away.

We have about 3 km of narrow and muddy track in places until the fork to the right for 700 meters to meander between the large trees of the forest (our car should not have been much wider). We finally arrive at the ranch after 6 km of bad track covered in 40 minutes.

The last kilometers of track in the jungle.

 
A white man welcomes us on our way to the "Car Parc". It's Pieter. He was notified of our arrival and was waiting for us. He is a little surprised by the size of our vehicle.
He show us the base camp with the central hut and its small kitchen, the two toilets and the shower in the middle of the forest.

The big hut.

At the edge of the camp.

I then sit under the hut of the base camp with my computer to write. The atmosphere is really "African jungle" as in the films of Tarzan or Dactari.

Night is falling. Pieter keeps me company and Christine joins us soon with the green beans to peel for the evening meal.
Pieter tells us how he got here. Arrived in Africa by Egypt about ten years ago it descended south by the east coast to southern Africa to go up by the west coast. As we are doing, but in reverse. A two-year trip that takes him through Nigeria which he intends to cross as quickly as possible, like everyone else. He stays there 6 months !!
For 3 years he has shared his life between this ranch and another center in Cameroon.
We return to our camper and while the Provencal beans are cooking we are going to take our shower in the forest. A hot shower by the way. Which has been a luxury for us since we have been in Africa.

The Drill Ranch and the monkeys.

Pieter will explain the objectives of this project by showing us around the ranch facilities.
This sanctuary was created in May 2000 but the “Drill Ranch” project for the rehabilitation and reproduction of drills was launched in 1991 in Calabar with 5 monkeys. Today around 600 monkeys live in semi-captivity in Afi Mountain (here) and in Calabar. The monkeys come from private donations or confiscations (poaching, hunting ....).
The goal is to get them used to freedom, which after years of captivity requires a lot of time, with the firm intention of being able to release them into the wildness one day or another. The 5th monkey generation is now living in the ranch.
It is estimated between 2000 and 4000 the number of free drills in the world. Their survival is extremely threatened, it is one of the most endangered species. This is explained by several factors, the most important of which is of course hunting. Their flesh is very appreciated and they are animals easy to hunt because they live mainly on the ground, only climbing trees in the night to sleep. The second most important factor is natural: their area of ​​habitat is very small, barely 40,000 km², in Nigeria, Cameroon and on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea.
Pieter leads us to one of the 5 drills ranch (a sixth one is in Calabar). It is the largest, there are around 200 monkeys here while on average the enclosures only give shelter to about forty monkeys. We can observe there a very beautiful male, the chief apparently, and the attempts of a female to seduce him. This one does not react because the female is not "ready" for a productive coupling, those which are, are recognizable with a big pink protuberance at the bottom of the back. This is called sex appeal.

The dominant male.

A female.

Drills

As it starts to rain again we go back to the camper to get our waterproof jackets.
We then go to an enclosure specially dedicated to chimpanzees. Originally the ranch had no intention of dealing with chimpanzees. But too many chimpanzees live in captivity in conditions of terrible inhuman isolation for highly sociable animals. It is for this reason that the ranch is helping to re-socialize these orphans in a group. Their reproduction is not encouraged or desired because the space here is limited. These animals have no chance of finding their freedom one day because they are too dependent on humans and would not survive in the wild. Worse still, they would represent a real danger for the villages.

The chimpanzee enclosure.

Their enclosure here at the ranch is approximately 8 hectares and is protected by a high electrical barrier of 7000 V. After Tarzan and Dactari we are now at "Jurassic Parc". Here live only the adult chimpanzees (between 7 and 28 years old), there are about forty. A nursery for the youngest is located in Calabar.
We return around 10:00 to the base, because Pieter must make a radio call with the HQ of Calabar. There is no GSM coverage here and of course no landline phone either. The only means of communication is radio.
Twenty minutes later we leave for a walk of just over an hour and a half in the forest. In the real virgin forest where Pieter has to make a machete passage on the path overgrown with vegetation.

We take this opportunity to go around the chimpanzees enclosure. Some of them will accompany us for a time on the other side of the electric fence.

We are back at the motorhome at just 1:00 p.m. After a short break to restore our health, because the extreme humidity is very trying, we nibble in the motorhome. We haven't had our coffee yet when Pieter comes back around 1:30 p.m. It's time for the distribution of coconuts to the chimpanzees and it seems to be a spectacle not to be missed.
So we quickly put on pants to go to the enclosure. We find around twenty chimpanzees sitting in the grass patiently awaiting distribution. Now that we are here, it can begin. A ranch employee goes to get the wheelbarrow full of coconuts. The monkeys understand right away and it's an explosion of joy that takes hold of the small group. They all start screaming, kissing, shaking hands, and gossiping. It's impressive. It looks like street-viewing during the soccer world cup when the national team scores a goal.

Distribution of coconuts.

Once the wheelbarrow is ready at the foot of the fence, they usually stand on the other side, reaching out to claim their ration. They are rather disciplined, waiting their turn and without fighting. I think they were trained for that, because I don't feel like it's in their nature! Once served the rule is that the monkey will move away from the fence with his coconut to make room for the others.The employee reminds them if they forget, showing them his slingshot!
The similarity of behavior and expression with humans is really impressive. The genomes of humans and chimpanzees are app. 98% identical, it is undeniable!
We will still be watching them for a long time because the show is not over. Now they first need to open the nuts to drink the contents before eating the pulp. The techniques are varied. Some manage to open them by peeling them, others will hammer them on a hard object, usually a tree trunk, until they crack. Once the hole is made they use twigs to get the juice and the flesh. If the hole is big enough just pass a finger through it.


An amazing show !!!

And there was more than only drills and chimps to observe:

Read-eared guenon