An exciting month started with the release of the juvenile wild female that was bitten by dogs back to her troop in the wild - you can see her briefly in the link to a video further down the newsletter.

Long awaited adoptions and the VMF Vegetarian & Vegan recipe book are launched this month. Thank you to everyone who has helped complete these. The VMF will be attending two UK events in May - the Vegfest in Bristol and the Bristol Festival of Nature for the first time. If you would like to help with these please do contact us.

18 year old Meisie, a very special monkey being one of the first monkeys at the centre, moved to Dino & Daniel enclosure recently to teach the juveniles some lessons in monkey social behaviour.

Dave and myself are looking forward to the PASA Management workshop in UK in May whilst our dedicated staff look after the monkeys.

So all in all, a productive month with much more plans ahead for the year.

Eric Heussner, Niamh O'Rourke, Franki Revell, Rachel de Guelle, Philippa Mofat, Sacha Muller.

On Thursday 24th March 2011 the 14 babies slept outside for the first time! At 6pm when the usual routine of the night cage coming in to collect them all for bed never happened, 14 little suspicions began to rapidly grow. It was amazing to see that although many of them made us play chase each night at 6pm to get them in their night cage, acting as though they hated it, as soon as that cage disappeared from routine the tears came out.

I must admit that they all set me a fantastic challenge of making my way out of Disneyland with no babies glued to me, but after 40 minutes of desperate cuddles and clinging for me not to leave, I was out. The first time in over 5 months that the babies had been left alone.

We stayed outside the cage for a little while encouraging them all to make their way to the perches set up high in the corner of Disneyland trying to assure them that they were all fine. They all quickly migrated to the perches  wanting to be close to us, in hopes that we would come to their rescue. Once they were all on the perches and we had somewhat calmed them down, it was time to walk away and spend a sleepless the night  in the baby cabin worrying about them.

Surprisingly after only 20 minutes most of them were asleep, with only a few softly crying still. Within an hour they were all peacefully sound asleep. Wahoo! We tip toed out there petrified we would wake them, but they were dead to the world all sitting up on the perches in 3 little groups. Amazingly they slept right through the night!

At 5.45am we awoke to screams, yes Big Boy (a male bandit) had woken them up during his morning rounds. They were super happy to see us and gave great cuddles when we went in with them. And an added bonus, Nicky, Milco and Johan were ecstatic to learn that bath time was no longer. It was very sweet to see their endless yawns and to be the comfy cushions for their 4 hour nap. Perhaps they didn‘t sleep as soundly as they had made out!

Despite a few getting a little upset every other night before we leave them, they are now little pros at sleeping outside.

So we leave this era of baby night shifts with Johan officially winning the competition of evade and escape for both bath time and being caught for the baby night cage. Well done Johan!

All 14 orphans are up for adoption - Frankie, Mowgli, Alec, TJ, Grace, Nicky, Milco, Laux, Nahla, Luka, Irene, Hazel, Ruby & Johan.

If you are one of the first 50 people to adopt a monkey then we are offering a special price of R250 (South African Rand) plus postage and packing for the initial pack. Otherwise the fee is R300 per adoption pack.You can look up what the fee is in your currency at www.xe.com

The adoption pack includes:

Adoption certificate
Photo of your adopted monkey
Fridge magnet of your adopted monkey
History of your adopted monkey
Volunteer poster
Postcard
6 month update with photo by e-mail

Please e-mail josie@vervet.za.org if you would like to adopt a monkey or give an adoption as a gift and we will send you an adoption form to fill in and a list of profiles of the monkeys up for adoption. The first adoption packs will be sent out in June.

There is also an option of purchasing a gift with your adoption pack of either a vervet soft toy, t-shirt or vegetarian & vegan recipe book for an additional R150 plus postage and packing.

Thank you to Alex Crawford for designing the adoption folders, Hollie Vercoe for doing the baby write ups and photos, Alasdair Davies for helping to design the certificates, Hellen Bersacola for her artistic skills and St Austell printers for offering a discount for printing the folders.

Spiral bound VMF Vegetarian & Vegan recipe books are available for R150 each plus postage and packing and are unique in that they contain favourite recipes contributed by volunteers from all over the world with some fantastic comical yet artistic sketches of vervets. There are more than 60 vegetarian recipes (most of them can be made vegan).

Please e-mail josie@vervet.za.org if you would like to purchase one. Payment can be made into our UK account, South African account or by using our click to donate button on our website. All profits will go towards helping vervets.

Thank you to Deb Simpson for initiating the project, Hellen Bersacola for the amazing sketches, Tim McSweeney & Kerry PIckles for helping to edit the book & Claire Turnbull for assistance getting the book printed at St Austell printers who have offered a discount.

Apologies to those we missed off the last newsletter donating towards the new Dino & Daniel enclosure, the names below will also appear on the enclosure plaque:

• Von Bucher family
• Animal Medical Care Foundation: http://www.animalmedicalcarefoundation.com/

Other donations this month:

Lacey McCutchen donated bandage scissors, oregano oil, milbemax tablets
Arlene Brahm & Julie Hart – baby bottles & 2 tins babymilk
Teresa Fahrbach donated $250 towards the VMF as a birthday gift for Hilary Brown
Mitch, DIY volunteering – donated 2 large bags of peanuts for the monkeys
Kerry McGann – brought items to donate to schools
Joyce Van Der Wateren – bunny bottles, Vit C, bottle brushes, medical supplies
Emily Jones (vet nurse) – syringes and various medical supplies
Emily Jones (previous volunteer) – fleece baby blankets, bunny bottles
Simone Kunisch – syringes and medical supplies
Animal Medical Care Foundation – sent another parcel of medical supplies

If you may be able to help collecting items, please e-mail josie@vervet.za.org for our latest wish list. We often have volunteers who can help bring the items out.

• On 22nd March 2011, all 14 orphaned juveniles spent their first night out in the enclosure together. Some of the female alphas Mistletoe & co decided to sleep in the safety of their introduction cage for the first night but soon got the hang of sleeping in the trees following nights.

• After one week of one on one introductions with the juveniles in Dino & Daniel enclosure, 18 yr old Meisie is now fully integrated and happily living in the enclosure teaching the juveniles a few manners! Being a wise old lady, the juveniles are learning to have a lot of respect for her and she is teaching them many monkey social skills so it is great for their progress & she is also having a great time catching all the insects. Juvenile Bebe who struggled settling in initially is also now fully integrated and tends to follow Meisie around.

• Global (an adult male who lived with Meisie for a long time) has moved up to Dino & Daniel enclosure and is getting to know the juveniles through the fence before one on one introductions can take place.

• The little wild female juvenile who was bitten by dogs made a full recovery and was released back with her troop in the wild. You can see a video of her returning to the wild that vet nurse Lacey took:

Click here to see release of the wild juvenile

• 1 x 50kg bag of supplemental dried food costs R300 (£28, 30 Euros, $45)
  
  
• Cost of additional food approx R2000 (£180, 204 Euros, $300) a day to feed 570 monkeys
  

• 1 tin of babymilk 750g costs approx R140 (£13, 15 Euros, $21) and lasts approx 2 days for 14 orphans
  

The VMF will be having a stand at the Bristol VegFest on 28th & 29th May this year as well as at the Bristol Festival of Nature on 18th & 19th June.

Vegfest is a vegan festival with lots of stalls, entertainment, talks and more.

Vegfest, Bristol - click here

Bristol Festival of Nature - click here

If you would like to help with these events, please contact josie@vervet.za.org as we are looking for organisers and people to be there on the day.

Thank you to Sarah-Jane Dowling who has put together a great stand kit in order for the foundation to hold professional events in the UK.

Indrani Schelling, Kim, Johanna Berlin, Terra Schropp, Samuel Allis, Helen Marsh, Hannah Molennar, Annemieke Wijburg, Tim McSweeney, Emma Stansfield, Karim Ladha, Arlene Brahm, Julie Hart, Kerry McGann, Kerry Pickles, Holly Seare, Alice Pollard, David Fancsali.