Bratty Monkeys: Working with the trouble makers

These two monkeys in the photo do not look like brats, do they? Well Marula and Innocence (the one sleeping) are two of the three trouble makers I looked after this week as they were put in "time-out." In other words, they didn't get to join in with the other babies in the "Disneyland" enclosure for a few days. The other trouble makers I am referring to are the wild vervet monkeys who pester local restaurants and their patrons. These were the two main projects I got to focus on last week- and it was great!

Scooter (a high-ranked male), Marula (duel personality syndrome-one minute a snuggle bunny and the next the evil biter), and Innocence (the "princess" baby and not so innocent!) were all put in a time out for several days for stirring up trouble in the baby group. Instead of going out each day to the Disneyland enclosure as the current routine goes, they had to stay back in their small night time enclosure, along with Suffolk (a human-wary young female). Lucky me got to go in with them to keep them company and watch over their behavior! Well, one would think going into a small enclosure with the brats who like to bite and pull hissy fits would be terribly scary and against one's instincts! However, it turned out to be my favorite task yet! They were lovely! Scooter, who had been testing and threatening me a bit previously was a total love bug. At one point he fell asleep on my shoulder, head resting on my head and one little hand on my face.

Marula, who is known to pull a "Sybil" at any given time, never so much as raised an eyebrow at me (which in monkey communication is a threat)- in fact she would quickly become one of my best buddies.

Innocence, who is a bit of a spoiled young baby, did put on a few tantrums, but I was explained how to deal with this behavior. In the wild, the mom would grab the scruff of the baby's neck and push her down to the ground and hold her there until she calms down. When she is calm, the mother will then comfort her, as if to say its ok now, with a grooming session. This is what I did and she responded fine to it! I put her gently in her place and the other monkeys did not even blink and eye, as if they instinctively know this behavior from both participants (in other conflicts were the monkey is vocalizing distress they would come to her aid by attacking the perpetrator). I really felt like a monkey at that moment! Innocence has since snuggled a lot with me- she even fell asleep underneath my t-shirt while sucking her little fingers.

The four of us had a lot of play sessions and even the nervous scaredy cat Suffolk warmed up to me and got the courage to touch my fingers and play with my shoestrings. Yesterday they were back in Disneyland with the others after "doing their time." I was there for most of the day and could feel the lasting effect of our new friendship as at one point the three "brats" fell asleep on my lap...

The day before yesterday I went monkey patrolling for the second time with a few other volunteers. We went back to the Tea Garden restaurant to talk to the owner who has complained about the pesty troop of monkeys showing up every day. The majority of their seating is outside overlooking a gorgeous, lush valley of overgrown abandoned tea plants. This was once a working tea plantation but went out of business due to cheaper tea from other countries.

The owner had told us that the 15-20 member troop is quite cheeky and will steal food from patrons and off the tables (usually once the people leave). She says that they even "terrorize" the children on the playground (we allowed her a bit of possible embellishment). We returned to give her advice about two solutions to her problem. First we advised her that we cannot just simply remove the monkeys, as she so frankly requested, for obvious reasons to us but apparently not to her. Even if we were to remove all these monkeys which would be a major time-consuming difficult task, once the territory was freed up most likely a new troop would move in. We suggested her to either put up an electric fence or put out their scraps and left over food in one consistent spot away from the kitchen and eating area. The latter of course was the option we were really pushing for. We advised her that this has worked in the past and that it would not be a major task at all. Simply get a bucket for the scraps and have a worker throw it outside twice per day in the same spot and they will find it. This may then satisfy their appetites thereby they may not bother to venture to the human territory. Hopefully she will put this to practice and do it faithfully so it will have a chance to produce the results she desires.

We were then off to a trail in a forest where there supposedly are some wild vervets. It was a beautiful trail, looking similiar to a lush rain forest. We didn't see a lot of vervets, but we did have the rare pleasure of seeing the shy Samango monkey. Samangos are not brash or as brave as the vervets are where humans are concerned. They do not normally pester human areas and will stay up in the trees. Seeing the two Samangos was very special, although the dominant female didn't agree and proceeded to put on a good disply of threats in our honor.

Our mission here was to try to get a good count of vervets in this particular small area, but they were being shy. We saw one jumping away high in the trees and later heard one's alarm call (maybe also in our honor).

Overall it was an interesting and fun week. I had a nice day off where I went to a lovely lodge for the day and treated myself to a couple of spa treatments. I embarrassingly had to apologize to my pedicurist for showing up with a big fresh rip in the front of my pants (near the crotch no doubt) and for my horrifying monkey-laboring feet! She responded with something like "I've seen worse from the Vervet Foundation" and handed me two safety pins!

Well, I only have five days left here- boy did that go by fast! I will surely miss the monkeys but am also looking forward to getting back home to Aly and our comfy house! I will hopefully get one more post in before leaving.

Hope everyone is well! Take care.