We have had a quiet few months but volunteers are picking up again now so we will be able to achieve our goals and get going with those very important firebreaks. Although the hours of physical labour may seem tiring, it's all worth it in the end knowing that the firebreaks help us stop fires on the land and therefore prevent putting monkeys at risk.

Some of you may remember the tragic fire from last year... and we thank
all those who helped on firebreaks for those enclosures we were able to protect. Volunteers have also been busy eradicating invader species of purple flowers. It's important to get rid of them before they seed and take over the natural indigenous plants needed for the monkeys. (Evil purple flowers - as Deb calls them!).

Some of you may think it odd but we have had some very keen blanket washers amongst our volunteers lately - first Margherita, then Dani who
both requested to do the washing daily to the delight of the other volunteers!

Not only was Margherita a super blanket washer but has also used her teaching skills on Maggie and Rachel (our 2 maids) and taught them how to tell the time. Last month, Margherita spent time with Maggie & Rachel at the end of each day showing them how to read a clock face. Margherita eventually managed to visit a local school and donated a Natemba book along with some other items of use. Although our focus is vervets and conservation, it just shows how the volunteers can get involved in the local community by donating items to those who need it. They also visit local amenities which may help some of the smaller businesses survive in the Tzaneen area.

This month we have achieved so much already and even have a new quarantine area for our sickbay. The floor in the cottage has been sealed (no more dust) thanks to Cameron and my Dad, we will be working on some tables and chairs to sit out the back of the cottage and a toilet before we enter our busy season with volunteers. Volunteers are also working on making tent village monkey proof again!

My parents visited this month and my mum being a natural health practitioner, tried some homeopathic remedies on the monkeys which
seem to be working very well. Read on for article.

Skunkey monkey (a slightly retarded adult monkey) doesn't bond too well with other monkeys so he cannot be integrated into a troop. But just recently as mentioned in the last newsletter - he has befriended a cat who appeared out of the blue and squeezed into his enclosure. He decided to cuddle up to Skunkey at night and share his food at feeding time! The cat even gets a groom by Skunkey every now and again and is often seen visiting the Goliath enclosure.

Welcome to: Tricia Rose, Stephanie O’Donnell, Yonat Eschar, Kerrie Ruddock, Keith Ogilvie, Vanessa Pape, Daniele Carpitella, Margaret Brown, Ian Brown, Jackie Van Haeran.

You may all remember our last fundraising project was to raise money for a monkey called James for a special enclosure. The enclosure has been completed thanks to all of you who contributed and spent time building it. The sad news is that James got sick and passed away before it was built. However, this enclosure will be in memory of James and will be used for another special monkey to go in. We will keep you updated on who the lucky monkey is.

In the past we have battled to get monkeys to take their medicine when
sick, especially the oral medication. After seeing how easily they take homeopathic drops we have decided to make use of this practice.

Many changes have been made since my last visit here in Nov 2006, the major one being the opening of the new Sick Bay.  What an achievement for the Foundation.  With the improvements in place it was easier to see the monkeys and spend time with them. 

For some monkeys who had been unwell and had difficulty in taking
the conventional medicine, this was an opportune moment to introduce homeopathy.  Having worked with the remedies for many years and being a qualified homeopath, but with only a very basic travel kit in my possession,
I proceeded to make up the required remedies coaching Arthur in this ancient art of treating "like with like" - for example if a large enough dose of Belladonna, commonly known as Deadly Nightshade, is taken by a person, the symptoms would be high temperature, extreme heat, dilated pupils and red burning face and throat.  Therefore, according to the law that "like cures like" a person displaying the same symptoms will be treated with a minute dose enabling the symptoms to heal.

It is not always possible to keep to the human rules of a 'clear mouth' so drops were often successfully administered on a piece of fruit or in water bowls. The monkeys responded very well to the remedies and looked forward to receiving their drops. The drops were chosen with Arthur’s help
in assessing the symptoms and individual cases.

During this time a new quarantine area was set up enabling monkeys that may be infectious, as well as all new introductions to the Foundation, to spend time there.  With us being primates (in addition to the vervets), there may be certain sicknesses that we more commonly pass to the vervets
and occasionally vice versa. For this reason, the addition of masks in the quarantine area is as much for the monkeys benefit as ours!   700 monkeys is a huge responsibility.  Moving the project on even further - a microscope would be of great benefit for Arthur to enable him to do more research.  Exciting times!

Brandi Wren - a parasitologist completed her thesis last year and discovered the majority of parasites vervets picked up were from humans!!! Brandi and the students are visiting us once again in May so fingers crossed we can obtain our microscope in time!

In addition to the monkeys liking the taste of the drops using homeopathy is also working out very economical in SA. Of course there are those cases that need conventional treatment but homeopathy is proving to have an additional and valuable role here.

We need to buy a special microscope with built in camera for Arthur (our primatologist) to use in his sickbay area. This will be an invaluable tool and will help to diagnose as well as be used for research purposes. With the built in camera, it would mean we are able to send graphics to other experts in the primate community. Vervets can go downhill fast when they get sick and it is paramount we are able to diagnose the problem fast in order to treat it.

The cost of the microscope we need is R14,000. Some volunteers have already been busy raising funds for it and we have a total of R4000 raised so far, which means we have another R10,000 to raise. We will list all contributors and keep you up to date with funds raised in each newsletter.

Grant writing - Vervet Forest
A special thanks to Renee who is helping us to apply for some grants. After working through all the details we need, we realised it wasn't as simple as we first thought but it's certainly kept us busy getting all the reports up to date! Renee has also said she will help with the application process. It just goes to show we can use a whole range of skills that volunteers come here with. - Thank You Renee, Vervet Forest here we come!

Click to donate button:
Mark Clyne – 10 pounds
Christina Mollaghan (previous volunteer & vet nurse) – sent some veterinary supplies we were in urgent need of and funded the cost.
Aoife’s parents – donated 250 Euros
Gayle Carda – donated $50
Loraine Stoter (previous volunteer) – sent a big box of clothes for our workers & items for schools

I was last at the Vervet Monkey Foundation in 2005 and now, nearly 3 years later, I found myself back in Tzaneen, writing you all a little blog on what’s changed and what has stayed the same at the Foundation.

Let me start off by saying that I had a wonderful time back in 2005. Quite simply, if I hadn’t had a great time I wouldn’t have wanted to come back. However, 3 years is a long time, and I was surprised and impressed at how much has changed. The basics are the same, we still live in tent village, though in a bigger tent now and the new showers and eco toilets are a vast improvement (there is even hot water everyday, not that you need it in Africa!).

After work, the volunteers now spend their spare hours in the volunteer cottage (so we are now no longer smothered in Daves’ poor choice in music). The cottage has all the old draw cards, like a fully stocked bar, cooking facilities, better internet access and a newly constructed fire pit (which should get some good use as there is no tv in the cottage….). Although it is a lot quieter than the days hanging out in the house.

Thanks to the daily efforts of Maggie, Rachel, Dave and Josie the vegetarian food is delicious and plentiful. Meal time is always something to look forward to now.

Tzaneen has a wonderful new addition to its town – the Country Lodge including a new spa. It is a godsend on your days off. Sure, you can still nip into town with Freddy, but when you’re finished, there is no better way to spend a hot African afternoon than to sit by the pool and relax with a few drinks. Everything is really reasonable and as valued customers, we get great deals. So if you are coming back here, DO NOT forget your bathers!!!

Lastly, and most importantly, the monkeys:

During my last visit I spent my days in the Goliath intro cages with the adult monkeys. Goliath was nearing completion with the volunteers painting the last of the intro cages and tying the knots on the Goliath electric fence.
On my return it’s great to see Goliath completed and with 20 monkeys integrated and many more ready to be integrated. It’s very special to see the monkeys that I worked with now happily living in a troop.

Sickbay is the most dramatic change here, what was once bush, the foundation now has a wonderful sickbay where monkeys can easily get one on one care and attention. Being baby season this is also where we sit in with the babies each day.

SAAV enclosure is also an addition to the foundation, in that it is now an enclosure that can be used for the juniors and babies during the days to explore and get life experience out in the trees with the adult monkeys.

Overall, when you leave the foundation it is easy to assume that things are going to improve and grow, but actually coming back it’s been wonderful to see the new enclosures, the integrated monkeys and that a difference is happening each day for the Vervets. It has certainly reinforced to me the need for volunteers in such a foundation.

Hollie also mentioned what a priviledge it was to work directly alongside Arthur (primatologist & co-founder) in the sickbay area and how nice it is to have long term volunteers responsible for each area and to help educate the volunteers about vervets.

With the help and funds from Neil Wilson (previous volunteer) there will soon be an upgrade cabin available for volunteers to stay in at the VMF (outside of tent village and further up the path). So for all those of you who are thinking about coming back and would like a bit of luxury….or for a few of you who wouldn’t dream of living for a month in a tent again but would love to come back to see the progress….We are hoping to have it up and ready by middle of May but you know South Africa and it could depend on whether I say Now, Now Now or Just Now! Watch this space......

The Vervet Monkey Foundation (Alasdair Davies representing) travelled to Sierra Leone to presented the VMF’s rehabilitation programme through an Adobe flash presentation at this year’s Pan African Sanctuary Alliance workshop. It was our objective to highlight to sanctuary managers how the VMF rehabilitates individual vervet monkeys into viable troops.

We used the same animation as seen on the VMF website, and using a program called Swift 3D we were able to visually describe an introduction enclosure and its use introducing small groups (1 - 10 monkeys) into larger rehabilitation enclosures.

The PASA workshop was a mix of presentations followed by informative discussion. Having the ability to meet and talk to other sanctuary staff allowed us to communicate the needs of the VMF and provide an insight and understanding into the world of vervet monkey rehabilitation. During the workshop we were able to discuss methods to combating illegal wildlife trafficing in the Democratic Republic of Congo, were lucky to view the outcome from a successful monkey release by CERCOPAN and even discovered how Global Positioning Satellite tags are being used to track chimpanzees during their release back into the wild (and importantly, which GPS tags the chimpanzees didn't chew off).

A Tacugama Primate Keeper, Mosses Kapia, was presented with an award for his services to Tacugama (image above) after braving gunfire and running blockades during Sierra Leone's civil war. Mosses would hide his radio by burying it underground as civilians were forbidden to carry communication devices incase they were supporting the enemy. When ready for a food pickup he would quickly call in his location and rush supplies back to the sanctuary when the coast was clear. Mosses bravery awarded him with the Siddle-Marsden award, and it was indeed well deserved. Below are photographs from the workshop. After 15 years of civil war, political corruption, and classed as one the poorest countries in West Africa - if not the world, we would like to add that we were greeted by friendly open arms during our 8 day stay and would like to thank both the VMF, Tacugama and PASA for the opportunity to represent the Foundation during the workshop.

The Great Primate Handshake was created by ex-VMF volunteers as a means to utilizing digital media to raise awareness of primate conservation across Africa.

After two years of development, this summer marks the Great Primate Handshake’s maiden expedition as we embark on a 1 month journey to support South Africa’s primate sanctuaries.

Utilising an overland vehicle as a mobile digital media workshop, the Handshake will be travelling to primate sanctuaries across South Africa in August, together with a team of volunteers onboard. We will be produce a range of resources and digital content to support sanctuaries, with a focus on the Vervet Monkey Foundation.

The GPH aims to:

• Provide a volunteer workforce to produce video, internet and print-based materials to enable sanctuaries to promote their work at no cost to themselves.
  
• Raise awareness of primate conservation in Africa and the importance of supporting primate sanctuaries.
  
• Support and complement educational programmes and fundraising initiatives relating specifically to sanctuaries.
  

The Primate Handshake expedition of South Africa starts in Cape Town. Our focus here will be on exploring chacma baboon conservation activities in and around the cape peninsular. An initial week of digital media training will prepare our volunteers for the tour ahead. Training is continuous throughout as we journey between primate sanctuaries and towards the VMF, where the duration of the expedition will take place.

With an estimated 1.114 billion people now using the internet worldwide, we aim to host a live and interactive website during the tour to enable audiences to actively support the VMF by highlighting the Foundation’s work and advertising the need for support. We also have a team of anthropologist students onboard.

The anthropological element of the Great Primate Handshake will assess attitudes towards primate conservation in South Africa and consider the impact of digital media on raising awareness of the needs of primate sanctuaries and local people who coexist with non-human primates in the wild. The opportunity for anthropology undergraduate and/or postgraduate students to gain valuable practical experience of conducting ethnographic research will enable us to support the creation of documents and materials aimed at highlighting to people why vervet monkeys should not be classed as “vermin” and how both people and vervet monkeys can live peacefully together.

We also aim to work with, and support, the VMF’s Vervet Forest programme and help to establish the first Vervet Forest through the use of digital media to power activities that will raise awareness and understanding to supporters and funding bodies that the Vervet Forest programme is of vast importance in rehabilitating vervet monkeys back into their natural environment.

You can learn more about the Great Primate Handshake by visiting our website at http://www.primatehandshake.org or by subscribing to your newsletter.

• There is a 5 part series called 'Street Monkeys' on National Geographic channel all about vervets?
• The Vervet Monkey Foundation became a member of PASA (Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance) in August 2006?
• Due to popular demand from volunteers, the VMF are starting up thier own veggie recipe book as a fundraising project?

Goodbye & thank you to:

Hayley Galvin, Jessica Tennison, Renee Berry, Margherita Berry, Chris Osborne, Hollie Vercoe (return), Kate Timmins, Dani Samphier, Claire Young, Tamara de Bruin, Nicole Costley, Jo Wright, Lucie Rodgast, Deana Steere, Robyn Stoward (return).

• Regular enclosure updates
• Progress of Neil's volunteer upgrade cabin
• Microscope fundraising progress