In politically troubled, environmentally threatened Nigeria, where exotic diseases flourish, the fauna of the ancient, sub-Saharan landscape beckons. Vermonter John-O Niles is one man who has heeded the call. The newly appointed project manager of an animal orphanage in Nigeria, he will bring a little of that world to his slide show and talk, "Endangered Primates in West Africa," at Burlington's Fletcher Free Library on June 5th [1996].
John-O's Africa is "part desert, part rain forest," he explains. "It's hot and dry, full of what are known as bush farms, which are not terribly productive. It's a place where human and environmental factors hopefully come together with conservation biology." The Middlebury native -- John-O is a childhood nickname derived from John Oliver Niles -- first became interested in nature and photography as a young boy. While still in high school, an internship at the Addison Independent required him to photograph birds at the Dead Creek Wildlife Refuge. He later studied resource economics at the University of Vermont and, in his spare time, helped found VSTEP, a nonprofit student organization that promotes recycling and environmental consciousness.
Upon graduation in 1991, Niles worked as a fisherman in Alaska, earning enough money to later hitchhike his way through ten different countries, including Zaire, Algeria, Cameroon and Uganda. In Africa, Niles came down with salmonella poisoning He stumbled upon the Drill Rehabilitation and Breeding Center in a part of Nigeria referred to as "The White Mans grave" - surely not an encouraging concept for someone recovering from a serious illness - and spent six weeks recovering at the facility. It was there that he encountered his first Mandrillus leucopheaus, or drill, a short-tailed monkey indigenous to West Africa. Drills are one of the most endangered species on the planet, with only a few thousand remaining. These mammals are scattered throughout Cameroon, Nigeria, and Kioko, an island off mainland Africa.
Intrigued by their condition, Niles volunteered to help at the in situ breeding center for endangered primates, run by a nonprofit organization called Pandrillus that houses 40 drills and 13 chimpanzees. Niles found his work cut out for him. Drills are in great demand for their meat, which leads to relentless poaching. Plus, a full 90 percent of the Nigerian rain forest, the natural habitat of drills, chimps, and countless other animals, has been destroyed. As a result, there is less land to support the already strained population. Formed in 1998, Pandrillus does what it can, with an annual budget of only $20,000, mostly from donations. A staff of 15 Nigerians and six foreign volunteers work at two camps, a small 1.5-acre ranch in the suburbs and a 10-acre holding facility in the jungle. The orphans at Pandrillus must go through a three-month quarantine when they arrive in order to prevent the other animals from being infected by diseases caught from humans. Then, the traumatized primates are reintroduced into a social environment, which Niles describes as "as close to a natural group we can possible achieve."
The time required for the rehabilitation of the animals varies from individual to individual. Pandrillus also attempts to breed them. However, this is tricky because of the difficulty in determining and duplicating the drill's natural diet and habitat. Despite these problems, Niles and his coworkers have seen eight Drill births - a phenomenal number, given the fact that Pandrillus' small group of drills makes up 40 percent of the animal. Pandrillus also hopes to reintroduce the animals into the wild, albeit a protected wild that is patrolled by a ranger service. "The chief of the Boki, a tribe that lives in the jungle, instituted the ranger program," Niles explains, adding that, because Pandrillus spends 100 percent of its funds on the animals, the native effort is invaluable.
Niles became close with many of the friendlier beasts at the center, finding himself most attached to a chimp named Pansy. She came down with malaria and slept in his house for a month to recuperate, even enjoying his breakfast and coffee with him. "Pansy is a mischievous creature. She once escaped from her enclosure, lodging herself in a food storage room," he says. By the time Niles got to her, the chimp had sampled an enormous quantity of edibles, "laughing all the while."
Niles used the unique circumstances of his new lifestyle to indulge in some nature photography. This slide show captures his animal mates at play and provides an overview of the country. Niles is currently [1996] in the States applying to Ph.D. programs. He would like to link these studies to his work at Pandrillus, to which he will return in a week. And the ever-hungry Pansy, meanwhile, probably looks forward to sharing his morning coffee again.
This article originally appeared in the 6/5/96 issue of VOX, an arts weekly based in Burlington, VT.
© Todd Meigs
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