Yes, its definitely starting to happen. We have hardly seen a troop of Vervets these last fe
w days that doesn’t have at least one proud mom with a tiny little black-furred baby clinging to her chest. Our friend Brenda, who lives in Manor Gardens, Durban emailed us some delightful news yesterday, and the relevant part of her email follows:
“I just wanted to pass on to you some very interesting "news." I keep an eye on the monkeys that visit our garden in Manor Gardens and noticed that one of the pregnant females is exceptionally "large." I suspected that she may be carrying twins but thought it was unlikely because as far as I know it is quite rare. Well to my surprise, when I saw her yesterday she has delivered her babies and she has had twins! She looked fine and the babies as well. She was struggling a little as she moved around because she was supporting them with her one front limb.
I have tried to find information about what the chance of survival is, for both the babies but have been unable to find anything conclusive. I will keep watching them and I hope that both will thrive.
By the way, I noticed that one of the other mothers has also given birth already. Two of the other younger females were already trying to carry it around!”
We replied to Brenda: “Very exciting that your monk has had twins. Not sure if the survival of both is well documented but I think it is very possible if she has good support from her offspring of three and four years ago, or maybe even another close female who doesn't have a baby this year.”
We’ll definitely monitor those babies to see how the mom copes, and if necessary, and we are able to, we will intervene. Let’s hope for the best! We will try to get a photo of the mom and twins and share it with you in a future post.
It has actually been a relatively quiet week so far by our normal standards. No sight yet of the Umhlanga troop that we need to return our rescued, pregnant female to, but Vincent, our man on site, says he will call us the instant he sees them.
This past Monday morning we were called out by Sharon Pillay for a young monkey struck by a car in front of her house in Greenwood Park (Carol with monkey in pic below). We arrived at the scene to find that the year old youngster had stumbled to the neighours front gate and climbed halfway up, where we found he
r totally dazed and disorientated. We rushed her straight to Kerry, our vet who happened to be on her last day of leave. A thorough check revealed slight bleeding of the right upper lip, no broken teeth or bones and so Kerry suggested we take the baby home and wait for her to recover. By midday she was raring to go and we decided that we would attempt to find her troop the next day.
Tuesday came and went and no sign of the troop. Then today, whislt we were in the midst of cleaning cages and feeding the monkeys in our “high care”, Sharon, who had called us on Monday to rescue the little monkey, phoned to tell us excitedly that the troop was at her house. We covered the fifteen kilometers from our house to Sharon’s as fast as we legally (sort of) could, hoping like crazy that the monkeys wouldn’t leave before we arrived, something that can happen so easily when trying o return a monkey to its troop or to try and rescue an injured monkey.
Such excitement when we rounded the last bend and saw monkeys all over the place. Our little monkey’s response to having her box put out in full view of the other monkeys left us in no doubt as to where she wanted to be. I opened the box and grabbed her by the tail, gently lifting her out of the box whilst getting screamed at by her for my efforts, and had the troop leader run to within a meter of me threatening me with all sorts of violence if I did not release the youngster immediately. So, deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, I did exactly as he said and off the little monkey raced, delighted to be back with her kin.
There can be few better feelings than the successful reintroduction of a rescued little monkey to its troop. And to top it all, the entire process was watched over from an adjacent rooftop by two Vervet moms with brand new babies. Carol and I were elated. Things could have ended very differently for the little monkey. Had Sharon’s husband not seen the baby lying to the side of the road as he left for work, and asked Sharon to call for help, then another car might have run over her, someone else could have picked her up and carried her off, or a dog could have caught her as she tried to follow her troop. But none of that happened! We are seriously in need of a lot more happy endings like this one!
Yesterday also saw us make an early start for the two hour trip to Empangeni to talk to the pupils of the Zululand Remedial School. Aged between seven and fourteen years old the one hundred and ninety-two boys and girls and their teachers were a wonderfully attentive, responsive audience, making the journey there and back well worthwhile. They were very impressed when we told them at the start of the presentation that by the end of it they would know more about Vervet monkeys than almost all of the six billion other humans they share the planet with!
Sharing our love and respect for monkeys, other animals and the natural environment with as many school children and other groups as we are able to, is a vitally important art of what we do via the Monkey
Helpline. Already this year we have spoken to tens of thousands of learners at more than seventy schools, handed out many thousands of information sheets, and initiated monkey “feeding stations” at four schools, amongst many other things.
w days that doesn’t have at least one proud mom with a tiny little black-furred baby clinging to her chest. Our friend Brenda, who lives in Manor Gardens, Durban emailed us some delightful news yesterday, and the relevant part of her email follows:“I just wanted to pass on to you some very interesting "news." I keep an eye on the monkeys that visit our garden in Manor Gardens and noticed that one of the pregnant females is exceptionally "large." I suspected that she may be carrying twins but thought it was unlikely because as far as I know it is quite rare. Well to my surprise, when I saw her yesterday she has delivered her babies and she has had twins! She looked fine and the babies as well. She was struggling a little as she moved around because she was supporting them with her one front limb.
I have tried to find information about what the chance of survival is, for both the babies but have been unable to find anything conclusive. I will keep watching them and I hope that both will thrive.
By the way, I noticed that one of the other mothers has also given birth already. Two of the other younger females were already trying to carry it around!”
We replied to Brenda: “Very exciting that your monk has had twins. Not sure if the survival of both is well documented but I think it is very possible if she has good support from her offspring of three and four years ago, or maybe even another close female who doesn't have a baby this year.”
We’ll definitely monitor those babies to see how the mom copes, and if necessary, and we are able to, we will intervene. Let’s hope for the best! We will try to get a photo of the mom and twins and share it with you in a future post.
It has actually been a relatively quiet week so far by our normal standards. No sight yet of the Umhlanga troop that we need to return our rescued, pregnant female to, but Vincent, our man on site, says he will call us the instant he sees them.
This past Monday morning we were called out by Sharon Pillay for a young monkey struck by a car in front of her house in Greenwood Park (Carol with monkey in pic below). We arrived at the scene to find that the year old youngster had stumbled to the neighours front gate and climbed halfway up, where we found he
r totally dazed and disorientated. We rushed her straight to Kerry, our vet who happened to be on her last day of leave. A thorough check revealed slight bleeding of the right upper lip, no broken teeth or bones and so Kerry suggested we take the baby home and wait for her to recover. By midday she was raring to go and we decided that we would attempt to find her troop the next day.Tuesday came and went and no sign of the troop. Then today, whislt we were in the midst of cleaning cages and feeding the monkeys in our “high care”, Sharon, who had called us on Monday to rescue the little monkey, phoned to tell us excitedly that the troop was at her house. We covered the fifteen kilometers from our house to Sharon’s as fast as we legally (sort of) could, hoping like crazy that the monkeys wouldn’t leave before we arrived, something that can happen so easily when trying o return a monkey to its troop or to try and rescue an injured monkey.
Such excitement when we rounded the last bend and saw monkeys all over the place. Our little monkey’s response to having her box put out in full view of the other monkeys left us in no doubt as to where she wanted to be. I opened the box and grabbed her by the tail, gently lifting her out of the box whilst getting screamed at by her for my efforts, and had the troop leader run to within a meter of me threatening me with all sorts of violence if I did not release the youngster immediately. So, deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, I did exactly as he said and off the little monkey raced, delighted to be back with her kin.
There can be few better feelings than the successful reintroduction of a rescued little monkey to its troop. And to top it all, the entire process was watched over from an adjacent rooftop by two Vervet moms with brand new babies. Carol and I were elated. Things could have ended very differently for the little monkey. Had Sharon’s husband not seen the baby lying to the side of the road as he left for work, and asked Sharon to call for help, then another car might have run over her, someone else could have picked her up and carried her off, or a dog could have caught her as she tried to follow her troop. But none of that happened! We are seriously in need of a lot more happy endings like this one!
Yesterday also saw us make an early start for the two hour trip to Empangeni to talk to the pupils of the Zululand Remedial School. Aged between seven and fourteen years old the one hundred and ninety-two boys and girls and their teachers were a wonderfully attentive, responsive audience, making the journey there and back well worthwhile. They were very impressed when we told them at the start of the presentation that by the end of it they would know more about Vervet monkeys than almost all of the six billion other humans they share the planet with!
Sharing our love and respect for monkeys, other animals and the natural environment with as many school children and other groups as we are able to, is a vitally important art of what we do via the Monkey
Helpline. Already this year we have spoken to tens of thousands of learners at more than seventy schools, handed out many thousands of information sheets, and initiated monkey “feeding stations” at four schools, amongst many other things. We know that the future of urban Vervet monkeys lies in the hands of people who understand and respect them, and also know what to do or not to do when monkeys are around! Are you one of those people?
No comments:
Post a Comment