Monkeyland - Part One

For about 6 months before we left for South Africa, DD was terrified of the "M" word.  Yup, you got it, we couldn't even say the word monkey without her starting to freak out.  This was not a good thing just before moving to Africa.  We decided she needed to be desensitized.  So we took her to the Monkeyland website and showed her all the cute pictures of the wee little monkey babies.  It worked like a charm.   

With our psychiatric intervention complete we were able to visit Monkeyland, which is a really cool place.  It's the world's first multi-species free roaming primate sanctuary.  It is set in a forest where monkeys and lemurs who have been pets or raised and used for circuses, movies or zoos, all over the world, are brought.  The have 3 quarantine areas where new residents are housed in large cages containing trees among the free monkeys.  They are quarantined for health reasons, but also because most of them have never had the opportunity to learn to climb trees or how to be monkeys.

The park itself is surrounded by a 14 foot high fence that only one of the monkey species can climb high enough to get out of, though I can't remember which one at the moment. 

We were just waiting for the tour to start when one enterprising little squirrel monkey snuck in the cafe door past an unsuspecting visitor and ran straight for the sugar packets on the table.  He was pretty ingenious about it.  He started by getting close and playing peek a boo on top of the table umbrella, keeping a keen eye on the door as all of us visitors ooooh'd and ahhhhh'd.  The second the door was opened by someone distracted by what we were all looking at, he blew through the door, grabbed the packet and was shooed back out by the server.  

Here's the sugar addict with his prize.

Next we met Brad. 

Brad is a Black Lemur.  Brad was enjoying a lazy morning in the sun, when the guide told us that he was born in Canada.  His mate had died a few years back and he was the only one of his kind in the park. 

A lonely Brad, obviously, felt an immediate kinship with his fellow Canadians because as the group moved off Brad joined his Canadian peeps at the back of the pack for a walk.  That's his tail just to the right of DD#2's legs.

He stayed with us for 100m or so before he melted into the forest.  

The largest population in the park belongs to the Brown Capucian monkey.  Unbelievably cute, which is why so many of them are bought as pets and used in ads and movies.  We were told that the brothers and sister's carry infant siblings on their backs and take care of them while mom goes out to flirt with all the big daddy type capucian's.  That's why they are the most abundant in the park.  We got some time to get really close to a group of them.  It was amazing to see how expressive they could be.

This is curious.

This is, back off lady you are waaaaay to close to my sister.

You can't tell from the picture, but this was not a full grown monkey.  This was a juvenile taking care of a younger sibling.  The infant was about 5-6" long.  The eyes were still closed, but somehow those fingers grabbed hold of the older ones fur and it shifted it's weight instinctively with every step or movement that was made under it.  I was amazed by it.   I have a ton of photos of it.

It was never more clear than when I was watching that little group of siblings and cousins that there is some  connection between us and them. 

It wasn't just that I'd had that same, back off lady, expression on my own face a time or two.  

It wasn't this shot of one, nursing a bleeding wound on another. 

It was this one, of big cousin giving a tender puckery kiss to new baby cousin while big brother mopes because his baby sister is getting all the attention and he's been left behind at the kids table, again. 

If that isn't a typical extended Canadian family dinner then I'm a monkey's uncle.

Next Post - Monkeyland - Part 2 - Zabu and friends