Sarah and l did the morning feed together this morning, which included giving Papi his insulin injection (he was such a good boy), then Nina explained the Lemur medication to us.
Sarah and Jackie went up to do the monkey supplements, while l settled into some admin work. I was just planning my day when Sarah came running down from the Marmoset enclosures with the sanctuary phone and handed it to me saying “there is a lady on the phone who wants to us to collect a baby vervet monkey”. The whole days plans were about to change. I quickly jotted down the address of where the baby monkey was, we prepared some milk in a hurry, grabbed a blanket and Sarah and l jumped in the car and raced off to collect the baby monkey. Jackie continued with the sanctuary supplements and medications.
In about an hour, we had arrived at our destination and a lady came out holding a tiny baby in her arms. We quickly fed her some milk and set off to take the baby back to the sanctuary. The baby had not been fed all night so she was very hungry and stressed, calling for her mom (who died when she was hit by a car) until she fell asleep in Sarah’s arms. Then she woke and decided that it was play time, so she bit Sarah’s nose and deposited a smelly pooop on Sarah clean T Shirt.
Once home, the volunteers enjoyed the company of this delightfully cute little creature while l phoned Bambelela (vervet monkey sanctuary) to collect the baby. For those of you who don’t know – its our policy to send indigenous animals on to sanctuaries who will release them back into the wild. We only keep exotic primates at our sanctuary, but will get involved in the rescue of just about any animal who needs us.
This afternoon, l took Kate and Nina (volunteers) to the airport, leaving the baby monkey in the very capable hands of the volunteers. On the way back, l stopped to do some shopping and Bambelela phoned to say that they would collect the baby vervet monkey this evening. I was anxious to get back to the sanctuary to prepare Sarah for the collection of the baby.
When l arrived back at the sanctuary the little baby girl was sleeping comfortably in Sarah’s arms and l was told that she had been drinking well all afternoon. Bambelela arrived around 7:30pm to collect her.
Although it was difficult to part with this beautiful little creature, she now has the chance to go back to the wild one day, instead of being captive so we all knew that it was the right decision for her.
Fortunately, our own monkeys behaved well today. Puma took his supplement and his monkey pellets, so he is feeling better.
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