Fergus, a seven-year old male Roloway monkey, is expected to arrive at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra today, the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission in Ghana has announced.

The Roloway monkey, which is currently at La Vallee de Singles, in France, was once a common species in Ghana, but is now nearly extinct with only a few small populations left in the wild in Western Ghana and La Cote d’Ivoire. This was contained in a press statement copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra yesterday.

“There is currently only one other Roloway monkey under human care in all of Africa, a female by the name of Sweet Pee who lives at the Endangered Primate Breeding Centre (EPBC) located at the Accra Zoo in Achimota Forest,” the statement said.

It said Fergus would join Sweet Pee to produce more of the endangered monkeys for their reintroduction into their natural habitat in the country.

The statement said the Commission and the West African Primate Conservation Action (WAPCA) has been instrumental in attempts to save the species which is managed jointly with the EPBC at the Accra Zoo, where endangered primates are managed, trained and later returned to the wild.

It said Fergus was born in Heidelberg Zoo in Germany, one of the largest breeding colonies of the species in the world, and a managing partner of WAPCA, with 13 other European Zoos funding the preservation of endangered primates in Ghana.

The female Roloway monkey was born in the wilds of Ghana and kept as a pet until she was confiscated and brought to the Primate Breeding Center in 2005.