Wanicare Foundation

Wanicare received a big donation of the Triodos Foundation. With this money we can help a lot of animals. For example, we will use it for the Eagle Release Program by making a habituation cage in the release site and also to make new rehabilitation cages in the center. Many thanks to the Triodos Foundation for this huge help!

A big project in our center is the education program. Education is very important, we raise awareness by the people and show them how important wildlife and nature conservation is, also for them. First of all, we go to schools. Some volunteers together with local people give presentations about our work. In one area were eagles will be released, we tell the scholars about raptors with a focus on eagles. Why those birds are so important and why they are threatened. We tell about our release programs; why and how we do it. Last but definitely not least, we tell them what they themselves can do. Don’t throw any rubbish on the ground! Call CWC as soon as you see a injured or captivated eagle, and, most important, help us to spread the word. Tell your family, your friends and neighbours about this!
Around the area where we release animals, we also go to the local people. We talk to the local people about the animals we release and about nature conservation in general. Today, we talked with a lot of local farmers about the eagle release program. They were very positive about the program, because birds are also important for them: they catch worms (and worms eat their crops). We organize meetings with the whole village, for example in a mosque, so that everyone knows what is going on and what to do.
We need the support of the local population, after all, if they don’t support us, we can’t stop illegal trade and hunters and can’t continue our release program. Therefore, this education program, in which we raise awareness and involve the people in our projects, is very important.

It was dark. Red lights were shining. A group of people was standing very concentrated around a slow loris: we were putting a collar around the neck of this slow loris.
This collar collects all sorts of data. For example height, speed and temperature. With a special computer program, we can read it all. The best thing about this collar is the fact that it collects data, without any human disturbance. The animal shows his real natural behaviour!
This project was in cooperation with LPG, Little Fireface Project. We do more in cooperation with them, think of the camera’s in the cages of our slow lorises!
This was a test, if it works well, we’ll put one on by a wild slow loris. It will be a bit more advanced, it will be smaller and there will be a camera in it.
With all those data, we can protect this animals better in the future. Because the more we know, the better we can protect them!

Since more or less half a year, we have two gibbons: Jona, a whitehand gibbon (Hylobates lar sp.) and Manuel, a Bornean gibbon (Hylobates Muellerii). Jona worked in an attraction park and Manuel was kept as a pet, before they came to our Center. When they arrived in Cikananga, they first were in the quarantine, to ensure they had no dangerous diseases for other animals and human. Luckily, that was not the case. They were ready for their new, bigger cages in the center! They were finished, after a few afternoons hard work.
In order to move them, Willemijn and keeper Usup sedated them with a blowpipe. Now they were sedated, we did a medical check-up (they were perfectly healthy!) and a deworming.
After that, we put them in the inside cage (from their new cage), so that they could recover from the sedation. Still a bit sleepy and duff they were walking and looking around. The working from the medicine got less and less, so we opened the door to the big, outside cage. Jona got it immediately and was out in less than a second. Manuel didn’t get it straightaway, but after a minute also he was swinging from the right to the left to the floor and back. He even made a lot of somersaults! Touching and heart-warming to see. They were so happy, so completely over the moon! It is amazing to see that, especially when you keep in mind how and where they were half a year ago.
In the movie you can see them yourself!

A month ago, suddenly macaque Sylvie was standing in the front of our gate together with her owner! He brought her to us because he couldn’t take care of her anymore. He told us that he had her since 3 months and that he had her from somebody else who wasn’t taking very well care of Sylvie. She was held with a chain around her belly that was much, much to tie! We immediately sedated her to take the chain away and to do a medical check up. Her first TBC Test and Hepatitis B/C were both negative.
Hopefully, after Sylvie’s quarantine period, we can introduce her soon to one of our other macaques. She is a very sweet female and she had a big fan who adopted her straightaway at arrival; Mrs. van der Velde-Rijlaarsdam.
Many thanks to Mrs. Van der Velde-Rijlaarsdam, who was so kind to adopt Sylvie!