White-bellied pangolin (pet) 4

Manis tricuspis, juvenile. Purchased by my friends from hunters who had presumably killed its mother. Although they did their best, it did not survive for very long - which was a great shame as it was an endearing creature. Volta Region, Ghana, March 1975.

I'm really enjoying these scanned photos gl, very jealous of some of these species!

What other "pets" did your friends acquire from these hunters? Ethically I don't approve but obviously things were different back then in somewhere like Africa.

My friends taught Biology at the other secondary school in the town. Most of their animals were inherited from the previous Biology teacher, an expatriate who had gone home. They had five or six monkeys - patas, mona and green, which were tethered on long lines to a tree in their garden. They had a Bosc's monitor too. There was also a small aviary with a Jardine's parrot and an Allen's gallinule. There was a guinea fowl for a while as well: if you've ever experienced a guinea fowl outside your bedroom window every day, you will understand why it became a very tasty Xmas dinner.
Before we left Africa in July 1976, my friends released the monkeys near a small village in the bush which we had previously visited. In the area around the village it was taboo to hunt monkeys, so that seemed the best thing to do. That area was the only place where I saw wild monkeys (Mona guenons) outside the Mole National Park - I also managed to photograph a red-thighed sparrowhawk in the forest there. I must dig that photo out.

Alan