Zambia Primate Project

Cheryl Mvula - Founder

1. Cheryl

Released Vervets

Established by and with on-going support of the Born Free Foundation, Zambia Primate Project (ZPP) is one of Africa’s most established and successful primate release programmes. Run by the wonderful Cosmos Mumba (finalist for the prestigious Tusk Trust Conservation Award 2015), its mission is to rescue and rehabilitate injured, orphaned and illegally held vervet monkeys and yellow baboons for release back to the wild. Once rehabilitated, the primates are integrated into cohesive troops and taught all they need to know to be successfully released into the wild. Once released, their progress is monitored for 6 months thereafter and their survival rate averages a remarkable 95%.

What Zambia Primate Project does

Assist the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) in the rescue of illegally kept primates

Support DNPW with the rehabilitation and veterinary care of the rescued primates

Integrate the primates into troops and eventually release them into the wild

Monitor the release troops and provide supplementary care during the early stages of release

Deliver education programmes to local communities on the negative welfare and illegal impacts of keeping primates

How Olsen Animal Trust helps

Contribution to overall running costs of the project

Financial support for the construction of a new Primate Transit Home including pre-release enclosures and quarantine facilities

Project Images - hover over for details

Cosmas at the primate release camp

This is Cosmas at Mvula Camp, the primate release sight within Kafue National Park. This is where the primates spend the last stage of their rehabilitation programme before being released back into the wild.

'Pet' primate prior to rescue

Primates are often rescued from appalling conditions, usually roped or chained for many years. Sometimes these result in severe, or life threatening wounds where the tether has become too small for their body.

Cosmas rescuing a primate

Cosmas and his team are accompanied by DNPW (Department of National Parks and Wildlife) Scouts on each of their rescues. Rescue missions can be dangerous when primate 'owners' are reluctant to give up their illegally kept 'pets'.

Jeffrey the rescued vervet monkey

A vervet monkey who was illegally tied to a tree as an exhibit, was rescued by Cosmas and cared for by ZPP until he was ready for release. Dave, our OATOKE, assisted in the confiscation process and the monkey was named after Jeffrey Olsen, son of Sue & Jon Olsen and nephew of Dave. He now enjoys a life within the troop back in the wild.

ZPP team conducting post-release monitoring

Before primates are released back into the wild a selection of troop members are collared and then closely monitored by the ZPP team to follow the success of their re-wilding.

Cosmas at the Tusk Conservation Awards

Cosmas Mumba, Manager of the Zambian Primate Project, featured here at the 2015 Tusk Conservation Awards in London. Nominated by our Founder, Sue Olsen, Cosmas was one of the top three finalists and he had the honour of meeting Tusk’s Royal Patron HRH Prince William. We are delighted that Cosmas was recognised for his 15 years of dedication to the welfare and conservation of primates in Zambia.

For further information on the work of ZPP please visit Zambia Primate Project