Drill
Ranch is the nick name for the Drill Rehabilitation and Breeding Center started
in 1991 in Calabar, Nigeria by Peter Jenkins and Liza Gadsby to promote the
survival of every endangered and long overlooked African primates.
It is
located at Nsefik Eyo Layout Ndidem Iso Roard in calabar .The
Drill Rehabilitation and Breeding Center is the region’s first primate
rehabilitation project, illegally held
drills orphaned by hunting are donated by local citizens or handed over after
seizure by authorities; no animals are purchased or removed from the wild.
Drill ranch is a non governmental organization (NGOs) which started with 5
drills. By January 2009, there were 298 drills at the Ranch having over 75% of
captive drills in the world and rehabilitated to life with members of their own
species, after thorough medical screening.
Drills
are large, short-tailed rainforest monkeys that has a smooth black face, the
matured male drill have a bluish-pink colour on their buttocks.
male drills are
larger in size than their female counterparts. They are semi nomadic and semi
terrestrial, foraging mainly on the ground but climbing back to the trees to
sleep at night. Their diet is similar to that of man, feeding on everything man
eats. They can only be found in Cross River State, Nigeria; South western
Cameroon and on the Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. In western zoos, drills
have reproduced poorly, but the Drill Rehabilitation and Breeding Center (
DRBC) has recorded over 250 births to
rehabilitated wild born parents and their offspring, making the project the world’s
most successful captive breeding program for an endangered primate.
Today, 298
drills live in 6 family groups, each in their own natural habitat enclosed in
an electrify fence. The first groups of drills were released to the wide in
2008.
The project has two sites. The original site in
Calabar, the Cross River State capital is where it all began. Today, “Drill
Ranch Calabar” serves as the project headquarters, office, quarantine facility
for new animals and our veterinary surgery, with housing for the directors and
rotating volunteer staff. One of the project’s 6 drill breeding groups is also
here so everyone who lives in or visits the state capital has the opportunity
to see drills. This group now numbers 39 animals in 4 generations, including
our first drill, named “Calabar”, now a great grandmother
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