|
Clockwise: John, Zena, Simon, Intern Tillman, Manager
Richard, research volunteer Lisa, and of course canine Simon (!) at
Rhoko |
January
2009
In January earlier this year, CERCOPAN was lucky to entice Professor
Emeritus John Oates (CUNY), and Professor Simon Bearder (Oxford Brookes
University) to visit Rhoko to conduct further prosiminian surveys (see
report). Founder and Trustee Zena Tooze accompanied John and Simon
to Rhoko where they spent a very enjoyable 4 days conducting surveys.
John has been visiting and working in Nigeria for many years, but this
was his first visit to Rhoko; for Simon it was his first ever visit to
Nigeria. CERCOPAN was very pleased indeed to have these world reknowned
primatologists visit our site, both top in their field. Simon's
speciality is the nocturnal primates - prosimians - which was the focus
of this survey. For Zena it was her first time to accompany both experts
in the field and it was certainly a treat! Lots of night walking
-fabulous. Simon helped all of the team become much more adept at
identifying the 5 of the 6 different prosimians now confirmed to be
present in Rhoko forest, both by sight and sound - Allen's bushbaby,
Demidoff's dwarf Galago, Thomas' dwarf bushbaby, the pallid
needle-clawed bushbaby, central potto and the Calabar angwantibo. Five
of the 6 species were observed during the survey - although the Calabar
angwantibo was not seen, we have previous confirmation of its presence
through photographs. We hope to have some recordings of some of these
species on the site soon. We are very grateful to both John and Simon
for providing their expertise at Rhoko. |
