Dear Friends and Family,
We have had some cold days and some warm days, some busy ones and some quiet ones; and we should be grateful and appreciative for this variety.
This month has been especially rewarding to see the excitement and enthusiasm of Community Service children learning about primates as they work. Educating learners about primates as they help and care for them is our aim.
Those of you who have my book will have read my autobiography as well as learn much about monkeys.
Healthy food makes for healthy monkeys and I need to repeat the following list of foods that we are always in need of:
PROTEINS like chicken, bullybeef, polony, eggs, lactogen, nuts, cheese, yogurt, fishfingers, fishcakes, mince and sausages.
And also Baby milk, Calmag, Vitamin C, Vidaylin and some body building products.
On another note if you can help us, we are still in need of more cages and willing to collect if not too far.
This past month the helpline service has been quiet which can be a good or bad sign. Good if no monkeys are getting ill or displaying odd behaviour but bad if they are silently dying without help. And that is why we need to spread the word that we are here to help wherever we can!
We did have two calls regarding monkeys running around in a built up area and I asked for photos or videos which were sent to me and were helpful.
Most people don’t realise that feeding vervets can create a problem. If they become too humanized then they will attack humans and then it becomes a vicious circle because people will harm or kill them.
Please remember that most of the natural environment and habitat of monkeys is being cut down and destroyed with the encroach of humans and the monkeys are then forced into other areas. Some small baby monkeys end up being illegally held as pets and when they get bigger they become a problem because always remember they are not domestic pets like cats and dogs! They are wild South African animals! Any rescued monkeys which we can verify and authenticate can usually be put back into the wild providing the correct procedure is followed.
It’s absolutely appalling that some monkeys are shot with pellet guns and others are poisoned. The cruelty of some humans is unbelievable!
To catch a vervet in a built up area is really not as easy as some may think. To catch and relocate them to a safe area requires professionals to carefully contain them without hurting them – and assuming that they are still there when the professionals arrive.
Please remember that I can always offer advice and contact numbers to call for help if needed.
Well just after I thought winter was about over yet another cold snap hit us. We must not forget how it snowed in 1983 on the 10th of September and then again in 2011.
All our monkey cages were then completely covered with snow but fortunately we had already worked hard to ensure that they were warm and cosy and all comfortably snuggled up in their boxes inside their cages!
We are looking forward to Spring which is about to arrive and probably just around the corner .
Thank you to the people that donated some sleeping tents and blankets for the monkeys and thank you to those that help. May you be Blessed.
Yours sincerely
W. Macleod and the Monkey Team.
