Nigerians are not wildlife conscious — Dr Morenikeji

Dr Olajumoke Morenikeji is the Director, Zoological Garden, University of Ibadan (UI). She speaks with DOYIN ADEOYE on Nigerians’ unimpressive attitude towards wildlife as well as animal rights, and how government can boost the economy through wildlife, among other issues.

Does wildlife truly exist in Nigeria?
We have wildlife in Nigeria; we have a very rich wildlife resource, but we are not wildlife conscious people. The country is not really interested in wildlife, as the government is not really doing anything to boost the sector of wildlife consciousness, wildlife management, as well as wildlife tourism. It is an area we have not fully developed as a country and I think it is something we should look into because if we continue to be over dependent on oil, as the case is now, it is failing us already.

There is a lot to gain as a country if money is invested in this sector, because there are many animals that are indigenous to the country; they will not be found anywhere else on the planet, except here in Nigeria. So if we can build tourism around our indigenous species, we will make a lot of money as a country.

What are those animals indigenous to us?

One that readily comes to mind is the Ibadan malimbe, which is a bird that is indigenous to our environment. And there are other animals like that which you can’t find in other places. So we need first, to have a data of what we have, to protect them and ensure that they continue to exist.

As a director of a zoological garden, what would you say it takes to run one?

It takes a lot. That is why most zoos all over the world depend heavily on donations. You have to feed the animals, cater for their health needs, and maintain their enclosure. To do all these, it takes a lot of money.

For instance, we have many lions here; and feeding one lion takes about N1 million annually. That doesn’t include the health needs and the enclosure maintenance. So it takes a lot of money to keep animals in the zoo. Enriching the enclosure and ensuring that it simulates the natural environment of the animal so that they can behave and breed normally is also important.


We also need to pay the staff and make sure that the number of staff is adequate and enough to take care of the number of animals we have on ground. That also takes a lot of money. So these are the areas one needs to spend as it pertains to keeping a zoo. So it takes a lot.

Do you think zoos provide anything close to these animals’ natural habitat?

Yes they do. There are some animals that would have gone extinct, but for the intervention of zoos. When I was in Canada, I saw that they were trying to breed the panda, which is very endangered, with only few left in the world. So that is one of the advantages of zoos.

Some zoos have also actually raised some birds that were going into extinctions and returned them to the wild. So the zoo is a very important place for raising and breeding animals, both the endangered and those that are not, to ensure that we can replenish the wild and that they can continue to survive. If you visit the London zoo for instance, there are different sections which are as natural as possible for the animals. So zoos provide an enabling environment for animals. But that also takes a lot of money.

So zoos can do that if they have enough funding and support.

Many are of the opinion that nothing justifies keeping animals in cages…

Twenty first century zoos have conservation at the uppermost of their mind; they are trying to ensure that animals do not go extinct. Gone are those days when you have empty cages in zoos, UI zoo for instance is not business as usual; all our reptile cages are enriched as well as those of the birds and other animals. They are more comfortable and that enhances breeding.

For example, for the first time, we had our Crowned crane bird lay its egg and hatch it itself. The baby is now as big as it mother; that is an endangered species. Also we had our owl and peacock lay eggs, hatch and raise their babies. These are the things going on here and that is what you gain from ensuring that the environment of the animal is what they have in their natural setting.

As said earlier, do you actually believe that wildlife can serve as an alternative to the oil sector in boosting the dwindling economy?

Definitely. Kenya, for instance survive on tourism, which brings in a lot of money. If you invest in a tourist attraction and tourists visit the place, you are not only providing money for the local environment, you are also brining in money to the county as a whole. So when we visit Kenya, our money is going into their country, because they have developed their tourism and wildlife. The last time I was in Kenya, I was able to see all the animals I wanted to see.

So I think the government needs to look into developing the tourism sector, which will pay us a great deal.

How does the zoo get its animals?

We get animals through exchange with other zoos, or sourcing from parks. Sometimes we can get them from the wild and other times from people who just come across some animals and they bring them as donations to the zoo.

How does the adoption process of the animals work?

Adopting an animal means that you find an animal of interest to you at the zoo, and you can just adopt it. It means that you will fund the feeding, enclosure maintenance and health needs of that animal, either monthly or annually. Then we will write your name boldly on the animal’s cage, noting that the animal is your wild child.

Recently, the Olusi of Usi Ekiti, Oba Adedayo George Akande adopted one of or peacocks.

How would you react to people keeping animals like big cats as pets?

You don’t keep wild animals as pets. It is not advisable. A lion belongs to a place where they can take care of it and make sure that it doesn’t get to wound or kill people.

I’ve seen people donate their wild animals to the zoo, especially when they got them young, and they couldn’t contain them as an adult as they begin to get wild. So we’ve had certain cases like that in the zoo here. Wild animals should be kept in the wilds or zoos, and not as pets.

Are there policies that guide animal rights in Nigeria, especially as regards people just going into the wild to hunt?

That remains a problem in Nigeria. We recently organised a pangolin awareness programme because the pangolin is gradually going into extinction. They are overhunted because of their medicinal use and because they are delicacies in some parts of the world. They are defenceless animals and they do not reproduce in large numbers; they only give birth to one.  So they are gradually becoming extinct as a result of the overhunting.

The programme was a call to save the pangolin because they cannot survive in zoos, as one pangolin will eat around 70 millions insects in a year. They are good pet control agents, so when we overhunt them, there will be an overpopulation of insects and that will leave room for imbalance in the ecosystem. The more animals go extinct, the more the issue for us as humans because all these things are there as buffers. But when we overhunt them and they become extinct, it will also affect us.

A shipment was recently seized in Singapore, which had pangolin scales and raw elephants’ tusks, worth $1.3 million, and they came from Lagos, Nigeria. The kilogrammes of pangolins scales in that consignment will have to amount to killing about 500 pangolins in the country. So that is a major worrisome issue which the government needs to come on board to assist with.

In a country like Cameroon, for instance, you can’t just hunt animals anyhow because they know the number of animals they have in the wild and the numbers that can be hunted and killed. All these we don’t have in Nigeria. So we need the agencies to rise up to their duties.