News
November 2016
>18th November
WAPCA was present at the Friends of Paradise Wildlife Park (FoPWP) fundraising event at the Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne, UK. Andrea Dempsey gave a presentation about WAPCA's work to members of the public and experts from the conservation, zoo and primate fields. It was a rewarding evening with £250 donated from FoPWP!
Another bit of news...the annual Zoological Society of London's comedy show "Roar with Laughter" took place on Nov. 18th. It was the 5th event of this kind and featured famous comedians like Dara O'Briain, Seann Walsh, Aisling Bea and many more. The profits are going towards ZSL's work towards combatting illegal wildlife trade and to WAPCA!
>12th November
Andrea Dempsey, WAPCA's Country Coordinator attended the "Dog Fun Day Out" Dog Show where WAPCA had a stand and distributed flyers to inform the dog lovers of the work our organisation does. Hopefully some new supporters were gained as a result but most importantly the people in attendance learned about the rare primates that call Ghana home. On another note it was great to cuddle some puppies.
October 2016
>29-30th October
The Rufford Small Grants Conference took place in Accra this weekend. Recipients of the West African Rufford Small Grants were in attendance to enhance the communication and partnership between the regional grant recipients. WAPCA, as a grant recipient was present. Andrea Dempsey reported: "it was great to spend the weekend with like-minded conservationists who work together to protect the multitude of species in West Africa." It is hoped that the conference is the first of many events like this.
>4th October
It is International Zoo Keeper Day! Zoos all over the world celebrate this day to say thank you to all the people who help promote species appreciation, awareness and conservation. Happy Zoo Keeper Day to all our fellow keepers! We commemorated the day with some home-made Ghanaian "Red Red" stew to thank our staff at the Accra Zoo for all their hard work!
September 2016
>20-24th September
The annual EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) conference took place in Belfast! Of course WAPCA was in attendance and had its Annual General Meeting updating attendees, which included the WAPCA Europe Board, WAPCA members and supporters, about WAPCA's activities and plans.
>10th September
The beautifully hand-crafted mangabey ornaments are now finished and about to go on sale! The mangabey was created by the British sculptor Casey Banwell who has worked on films like Cinderella, Pan, Tarzan Unleashed and Alice Through the Looking Glass. The original clay model was brought to Ghana where it was carved into wax and then into brass by the artists at Wild Gecko Handicrafts. Each ornament is hand-crafted so every mangabey is unique. The ornaments will soon be on sale at Wild Gecko with a donation made to WAPCA for each sale. HUGE thanks to Casey, Poem and all at Wild Gecko Handicrafts!
August 2016
>22nd-26th August
Andrea Dempsey and David Osei (the Field Project Coordinator) attended the IPS/ASP Conference in Chicago, U.S.A. This is the joint meeting of the International Primatology Society and the American Society of Primatologists. Both Andrea and David gave presentations and throroughly enjoyed meeting world renown primatologists.
>3rd August
British Member of Parliament and Chair of the All Party Parliament Group for Zoos and Aquaria-Andrew Rosindell came to visit us today! We showed him around the zoo and the Endangered Primates Breeding Centre and elaborated on our work. The picture below shows us with Mr. Rosindell (without uniforms as it was already the end of the working day!)
>1st August
Monday 1st August was Mangabey Awareness Day! Alongside Barcelona Zoo, Gaia Zoo, Fota Wildlife Park and Dublin Zoo, who organised events in Ireland, The Netherlands and Spain, WAPCA celebrated the occasion at the Accra Zoo. The day was a great success! Visitors learned about the various zoo animals and the role of the Primate Breeding Centre in protecting White-naped Mangabeys in the West-African Upper Guinean Rainforest.
As part of the event there was a raffle to name one of the zoo's monkeys: a spot-nosed male. The lucky winner was Kennedy Agbeve! He has decided to call the monkey: Adzato.
Here is a brief background on the name:
"Adzato" is the name of a town in the “Anlo” district of the Volta region, originally founded by a warrior called “Agbeve”. Over time, the population of the town has grown tremendously and Kennedy hopes that the monkeys at the Achimota Forest will multiply and grow in their population size just like people in the town “Adzato”.
Thank You Kennedy for such a great name!
July 2016
>25th July
WAPCA welcomes new intern Lisa Kopsieker! She will be joining us for 4 months and will be helping with any office-based work.
>10th July
Pupils at Holmer Green School have been working hard to build fundraising money boxes. Pupil Robert Ayres explains
"During this summer half term, in Resistant Materials we have been constructing money boxes for a charity called WAPCA. We worked in groups of two or three to construct these boxes. Each person in a group was assigned a job. Whether that job was to create a set amount of one part or to create one whole box, everyone had something to do. These boxes will be sent to Ghana were they are to be distributed in shops so that the local people can support the charity. The WAPCA charity was created to help monkeys in Ghana. They rescue monkeys from people keeping them as pets and stop people cutting down the forests where they live."
If you would like one of these money boxes please get in touch via our contact page.
June 2016
Zoological Society of London Vet Nurse Heather MacIntosh visited both Accra Zoo and Kumasi Zoo. Heather worked with keepers to better understand signs of illness in primates, good barrier methods and quarrentine procedures.
May 2016
Senior Zoo Keeper Nicola Plaskitt from Paradise Park in the UK visited Accra Zoo to help implement behaviourial training programmes to assist in the husbandry and veterinary managment of the animals. Nicola is an expert trainer and has worked with a variety of species at international level.
Country Coordinator, Andrea Dempsey, attended the 2016 EAZA Conservation Forum held at Bioparc Fuengirola in Spain. The Forum was a great opportunity to hear about other conservation projects and learn from each others experiences. WAPCA had presented a poster on its activities.
Senior Zoo Keeper from Heidelbery Zoo - Tobias Kremer and an animal biologist from Frankfurt Zoo - Sabrina Linn spent one week wat Accra Zoo helping the keeper with enclosure maintainance. The pair were very generous and donated a number of useful itemsto the zoo and WAPCA.
April 2016
WAPCA confiscated a one month old Lowes monkey. The monkey was being held in a community, tied to a wall by a piece of string round the waist. The monkey was under-weight, dehydrated and due to a human diet a swollen abdomen.
WAPCA is working to improve the heath of the monkey, named Nuala, and once stable will join a monkey group at the Endangered Primate Breeding Centre at Accra Zoo.
March 2016
WAPCA in collaboration with RASAP-CI held the first trans-border workshop. Community members, government officials, primatologists and NGO representatives from both Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana gave presentations on community activities and managment systems, ecology, law enforcement, examples of transborder projects in Africa and an overview on IUCN Guidelines on transborder initatives. Read more on the transborder project HERE.
WAPCA welcomes Dave Morgan - a Senior Zoo Keeper from Colchester Zoo in the UK. Dave is spending three months in Ghana working at Accra Zoo developing husbandry techniques and behaviourial training programmes.
February 2016
The new mangabey enclosure is completed and Annan and Obyibiefe make themselves at home.
Two of the worlds most famous primatologists - Professor Simon Bearder and Professor John Oates make a visit to WAPCA
The new extentsion to the Roloway enclosure is completed and the pair are given access for the first time.
January 2016
Accra gives birth to a healthy baby boy! The new baby joins Dad Ape and Sister Chaachele.
WAPCA joined Wildlife Divsion to congratulate Zoo Keeper Boateng on his retirement from Accra Zoo after 20 years.
Accra Zoo Manager gave a farewell speech as did Head Keeper Evans. The elebration concuded with a heartfelt speech from the Wildlife Division Executive Director Nana Adu Nsiah. A presention of gifts from Wildlife Division and WAPCA were given.
Past News....
For archived news please click on an Annual Reports below