A UNIQUE WLD ANIMAL FACILITY

[Guest guest]

*Woolly Monkey sanctuary

 

Here Brian Milton, Trustee, outlines the work of the Monkey Sanctuary Trust.

 

 

The Monkey Sanctuary at Looe, in Cornwall, is the home of thirteen woolly

monkeys, all born at the Sanctuary, and one rescued monkey, a capuchin

called Frosty. The Sanctuary has always remained several steps ahead of zoos

 

in the way it looks after its monkeys and its attitude to captivity.

Recently we took the important steps of adopting a non-breeding policy here,

 

and beginning to rescue monkeys living in poor captive conditions.

When the Monkey Sanctuary was founded in 1964 it was at a time when hundreds

 

of infant woolly monkeys were being taken from the wild by hunters, snatched

 

from their dead mothers and shipped to Europe and America to be pets or zoo

exhibits. Those who survived this journey would be put in a small, bleak

cage, usually alone, where they would live maybe just a few weeks, possibly

a year or two.

For his time, Len Williams, the founder of the Sanctuary, was revolutionary;

 

he was appalled by the trade in monkeys, and the way they were kept in zoos.

 

He rescued unwanted pet and zoo monkeys and gave them the space, freedom and

 

social conditions to develop their natural social lives. He was unique in

devoting all his space and resources into looking after this one species,

and he created the

first captive breeding colony of woolly monkeys in the world.

The woolly monkeys who now live at the Sanctuary are all descendants of

those originally rescued by Len.

Over the years, many changes have taken place here, as the difficulties of

keeping a long-term captive group of monkeys became more obvious, and

unforeseen problems arose. The new team of keepers who took over running the

 

Sanctuary shortly after Len's death in 1987 made many changes and

improvements, continually increasing the space and diversity of the monkeys'

 

territory as the group increased in size. However, keeping a group of

monkeys in such artificial conditions was increasingly seen as unacceptable.

 

Alternatives such as rehabilitation to protected areas of their native

rainforest were investigated.

In 1997 an important discovery was made which had major implications for all

 

captive woolly monkeys. A virus was discovered, initially in monkeys at

Louisville Zoo, and in our own group when tested in summer 1998. Most of our

 

monkeys had been infected and successfully fought off the virus; one monkey,

 

Max, was a carrier. Though specific to woolly monkeys, viruses can mutate

and possibly jump species barriers, with implications for public health.

Sadly, our plans for rehabilitation had to be abandoned, as Governments are

understandably concerned about viruses being brought into their country. The

 

status of the virus in the wild population is unknown.

Another problem, which has developed recently, has been an imbalance in the

sexes, possibly due to prolonged captivity. Far more males have been born in

 

the last ten years than females, and this has led to social problems as

males have competed for space and for the dwindling number of females. All

these problems inevitably led us to the decision, a couple of years ago to

stop the woolly monkeys breeding. It had not, in recent years, been our

intention to keep a breeding group here indefinitely with no hope of

rehabilitation. With inbreeding

and increasing social problems, this decision was entirely necessary,

despite the loss of social enrichment it involved for the monkeys.

Most of the changes carried out in the last seven years have been aided by

the foundation of the Monkey Sanctuary Trust, in 1994, dedicated to

improving the lives of the monkeys here and elsewhere. It has financed the

building of enclosures, including a huge fence surrounding a large part of

the garden and two mature beech trees, allowing the woollies access to much

more space. It has enabled us to bring Frosty here, and we are now hoping to

 

rescue another pet capuchin, Peppy. Other monkeys will be rescued as space

and funds become available. The Trust is also working with a rescue centre

in Chile, where around 70 monkeys, of seven different species, have been

rescued from miserable, isolated lives in circuses, zoos and as pets.

As an organisation that has housed monkeys for 37 years, the Sanctuary is

well placed to show, from first-hand experience, how monkeys in even the

best captive conditions suffer from their captivity. Long-term captive

breeding can cause unforeseen problems, viruses can linger for years

undetected, the weather, the lack of space, the boredom caused by living in

a safe and artificial environment; all these cause stress and health

problems. This is an important message we give to our visitors in the

summer.

When I first came here, 14 years ago, I had no experience of caring for

captive animals, and little knowledge of primate welfare. I liked animals

generally, and was intrigued by the idea of spending a couple of weeks

looking after some monkeys. As someone who had never questioned the

desirability of zoos, at least those that provided what seemed to be a

reasonable amount of enrichment, my time here has been a revelation.

As the weeks turned into months and years, I have come to understand the

needs of our monkeys. I have become more and more sensitive to how captivity

 

adversely affects their lives and stifles their potential. This was an awful

 

revelation, for if our own monkeys suffered, how horrific must it be for

those imprisoned in zoos or in laboratories? *