Local guide feeding Lowe's monkeys Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, Ghana
Despite the signs asking you not to feed the monkeys, as soon as you arrive at Boabeng-Fiema local women appear selling bananas, for you to feed to the monkeys. Our local guide while showing us around gives a banana to a Lowe's monkey.
Lowe’s monkeys (Cercopithecus lowei) are often still called mona monkeys as they were in the past considered by some taxonomists to be a subspecies of the mona monkey, after other taxonomists concluded that another subspecies, the Campbell’s monkey also called Campbell’s mona was a distinct species, Lowe’s was then deemed to be a subspecies of Campbell’s, now it is generally regarded as a separate species in its own right.
The guides at Boabeng call these monkeys monas, however, the true mona monkey (Cercopithecus mona) in Ghana only occurs east of the Volta River in the southeast of Ghana. Lowe’s monkey is one of the more common forest monkeys in Ghana, because they are not dependent on primary rainforest, they can survive in secondary logged forest, if the area of forest is large enough or fragments are still connected or not too far apart. However, common is a relative term. In most of Ghana, certainly in those regions that were once forested all monkeys are now rare, 80 to 90% of the original rainforest has been destroyed, much of what’s left isn’t that well protected, some forest reserves apparently no longer have any forest in them at all. The problem for monkeys like Lowe’s that can survive even in severely degraded forests, is bushmeat poaching, monkeys have been all but wiped out by commercial bushmeat poachers armed with shotguns, from most forest reserves. Lowe’s monkeys are now rare outside the best protected parks and reserves, those where action has been taken to stop illegal hunting.
Although I encountered Lowe’s monkeys in the Ankasa Conservation Area in southwest Ghana, I was never able to get a proper view of them, their reaction to people there, is still to flee or hide, showing yourself to people, is not a good idea if you want to survive. I only actually know that they were Lowe's monkeys because the ranger who was with me said so, I never saw enough to tell, and am not sufficiently familiar with their calls to identify them by sound. This makes the experience of visiting the villages of Boabeng and Fiema all the more remarkable, you really just don’t see monkeys elsewhere in Ghana or if you do see them you likely don’t see them that well. BFMS is really one of the only places in Ghana where you can be completely guaranteed to see Lowe’s monkey.
The following history of the monkey sanctuary is taken from the Boabeng-Fiema website.
In about 1827 Nana Kwabena Panin, the Chief of Sesedom, a suburb of Boabeng was commissioned by Nana Damoah Kwaku, chief of Boabeng to give a portion of land to the people of Fiema who had then migrated from Kokofu in Ashanti and had traveled all the way to Nkoranza.
Nana Nkoranza manhene at the time asked his son Nana Damoah Kwaku the Chief of Boabeng to give a place to the people of Fiema for settlement. For security reasons, Nana Kwabena panin on the instructions of Nana Damoah Kwaku gave a portion of the land very close to Boabeng to the people of Fiema for settlement and to engage in farming
Before the settlement of the people of Fiema Nana Kwabena Amoah of Boabeng had found the Fetish Daworo, in a mysterious place and circumstances.
The Fetish DAWORO was surrounded by two Mona Monkeys “KWAKUO” and Black and White colobus monkeys “EFOO”. Nana Kwabena amoah brought the Fetish Daworo to the Village of Boabeng and the four Monkeys followed suit.
An oracle was consulted about the relationship between the fetish Daworo and the mysterious monkeys. The Oracle declared that the monkeys were the children of the fetish Daworo. The oracle also declared that the monkeys should not be killed or harmed because they were sacred.
Local guide feeding Lowe's monkeys Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, Ghana
Despite the signs asking you not to feed the monkeys, as soon as you arrive at Boabeng-Fiema local women appear selling bananas, for you to feed to the monkeys. Our local guide while showing us around gives a banana to a Lowe's monkey.
Lowe’s monkeys (Cercopithecus lowei) are often still called mona monkeys as they were in the past considered by some taxonomists to be a subspecies of the mona monkey, after other taxonomists concluded that another subspecies, the Campbell’s monkey also called Campbell’s mona was a distinct species, Lowe’s was then deemed to be a subspecies of Campbell’s, now it is generally regarded as a separate species in its own right.
The guides at Boabeng call these monkeys monas, however, the true mona monkey (Cercopithecus mona) in Ghana only occurs east of the Volta River in the southeast of Ghana. Lowe’s monkey is one of the more common forest monkeys in Ghana, because they are not dependent on primary rainforest, they can survive in secondary logged forest, if the area of forest is large enough or fragments are still connected or not too far apart. However, common is a relative term. In most of Ghana, certainly in those regions that were once forested all monkeys are now rare, 80 to 90% of the original rainforest has been destroyed, much of what’s left isn’t that well protected, some forest reserves apparently no longer have any forest in them at all. The problem for monkeys like Lowe’s that can survive even in severely degraded forests, is bushmeat poaching, monkeys have been all but wiped out by commercial bushmeat poachers armed with shotguns, from most forest reserves. Lowe’s monkeys are now rare outside the best protected parks and reserves, those where action has been taken to stop illegal hunting.
Although I encountered Lowe’s monkeys in the Ankasa Conservation Area in southwest Ghana, I was never able to get a proper view of them, their reaction to people there, is still to flee or hide, showing yourself to people, is not a good idea if you want to survive. I only actually know that they were Lowe's monkeys because the ranger who was with me said so, I never saw enough to tell, and am not sufficiently familiar with their calls to identify them by sound. This makes the experience of visiting the villages of Boabeng and Fiema all the more remarkable, you really just don’t see monkeys elsewhere in Ghana or if you do see them you likely don’t see them that well. BFMS is really one of the only places in Ghana where you can be completely guaranteed to see Lowe’s monkey.
The following history of the monkey sanctuary is taken from the Boabeng-Fiema website.
In about 1827 Nana Kwabena Panin, the Chief of Sesedom, a suburb of Boabeng was commissioned by Nana Damoah Kwaku, chief of Boabeng to give a portion of land to the people of Fiema who had then migrated from Kokofu in Ashanti and had traveled all the way to Nkoranza.
Nana Nkoranza manhene at the time asked his son Nana Damoah Kwaku the Chief of Boabeng to give a place to the people of Fiema for settlement. For security reasons, Nana Kwabena panin on the instructions of Nana Damoah Kwaku gave a portion of the land very close to Boabeng to the people of Fiema for settlement and to engage in farming
Before the settlement of the people of Fiema Nana Kwabena Amoah of Boabeng had found the Fetish Daworo, in a mysterious place and circumstances.
The Fetish DAWORO was surrounded by two Mona Monkeys “KWAKUO” and Black and White colobus monkeys “EFOO”. Nana Kwabena amoah brought the Fetish Daworo to the Village of Boabeng and the four Monkeys followed suit.
An oracle was consulted about the relationship between the fetish Daworo and the mysterious monkeys. The Oracle declared that the monkeys were the children of the fetish Daworo. The oracle also declared that the monkeys should not be killed or harmed because they were sacred.