So much has happened in the last couple of months it's difficult to know where to start....

The foundation has been hit by a lot of tough times and we are lucky to have the staff and volunteers to help us through it. We have a great team at the moment and are receiving a lot of much needed support & dedication. We say goodbye to volunteer Chris Russell this month who has been here for approx 6 months helping in sickbay, with microscope work and also replacing some of the cages with new sand. We now have radio communication back on the centre to make things run smoother.

Welcome back Rudi! Rudi has been away working for a year in Pretoria and has returned to dedicate himself once again to help the monkeys. It's amazing how some of the monkeys remember him and all give him a greeting when they see him. Rudi is older and wiser and currently helping with the driving amongst other tasks so Dave can spend more time at the foundation managing the centre.

We are also working on moving the bandits to Camelot enclosure and have moved some to an intro cage there already.

The tall structure from the old Engeltjie troop has been moved to Gismo troop so they have a higher view and a better sleeping area which they are all enjoying.

All the volunteers are now in cabins instead of tents so if anyone can think of a good name instead of 'tent village' please let us know!

Lastly, return volunteers will be pleased to know that after lots of requests on feedback forms the volunteer cottage has now been tiled at last so goodbye dust!

Welcome:
Sue Peyton, Rebecca Partridge, Jess Link, Keara Sandy, Rachael Wilson, Camilla Sheaves, Sydney O' Connor, Raquel Torres, Ciara Bourke, Natalie Marr, Sophie Taylor, Casey Dwyer, Alison Bunnen, Annaliese White,

Welcome back:
Liz Walsh, Rudi van wyk, Claire Boucher, Barlie Pouncey

There is never a dull moment at the VMF, something I have come to greatly appreciate over the past couple of weeks!

Since arriving at the foundation back in May, expectations were pretty high (as I am an avid traveler), but I can honestly say that these were and proceed to be exceeded. No two days are the same and with each morning comes a new challenge. Getting used to the massive property and all of the enclosures at first was admittedly hard and confusing (getting lost a number of times I might add)! But I now find myself wondering freely around the foundation spending time with my favorite monkeys.

Once offered the position of volunteer co-ordinator, I was practically on the next flight out to South Africa. After being labeled everything from crazy to amazing by my friends and family, I now side with the positive comments! After all, how many people can say they have lived and worked with monkeys on another continent!? My day to day routine keeps me pretty well occupied with supervising and joining in with jobs, creating the Rota, etc… and the social side of things are no less than fantastic. Pub quizzes, Braai’s, toga parties and movie nights have been just a few of our evening entertainments lately, and I look forward to many more!

The volunteers at the foundation are outstanding to say the least, each bringing their own part to our ever growing group. I can safely say I have made some great life long friends here already, and I would like to take the chance to thank them, Dave and Josie for everything they have done for me so far. I am having the time of my life and I cannot wait to see what the next year has in store!

We would like to thank Ryan for his help so far during some of the busiest times at the foundation yet!

Saturday 27th June 2009
At Hopwood Community Centre, Redditch Road, Hopwood, Alvechurch, West Midlands, B48 7TL

Entry Fee:  £1 per class

Rosettes 1st to 5th place in each class, Prizes for Best Pedigree and Best Novelty in show.

Show open at 10.30 am,  Judging Commences at 11 am

Also lots of other stalls and attractions, including a fantastic raffle with great prizes!

ORGANISER: Danielle Ackrill  07793035823 (evenings and weekends only please). cometgazer65@hotmail.com

Danielle Ackrill (previous volunteer) has organised the dog show to raise funds for the VMF - please spread the word to any dog / monkey mad friends, family and also join the event on facebook. Previous volunteers - Daniel Grove, Jo Turner and Sarita Gulati will also be there helping with a VMF stand. We hope some of you can attend.

Some of you may remember Chico from the old Engeltjie enclosure (particularly when on orientations he used to smack his hand on his bum when volunteers were walking round!) We have got to know him very well since he has been in sickbay and we are pleased to say he is on his way to recovery to full health.

Chico is one of the most groomed monkeys on the foundation, (purely due to the fact he is continuously smacking his lips to persuade all walking by to join him grooming). He has been known to pass up bananas to turn around and stick his backside against the fencing whist furiously still smacking his lips. If a blanket is left on the ground in his cage he has been found to leave his plate of food on it and proceed to have a picnic for one, although he would never refuse the company. It has been said (Eveline) that all he is missing is a candle and a bottle of wine.

Although Chico is a favorite to all and has a very nice manner about him, he has been known to snub certain volunteers. He does this when they call his name by turning his head and looking in the other direction, acting as if they are not in the room. He has several reasons to become a bit of a snob: If you don't groom him all the time, if a constant flow of his favorite treats, such as cucumber and sweet corn are not supplied, or if the boss (Dave Du Toit) walks anywhere into the sickbay area. When asked by several volunteers to describe Chico it has been said: Refined gentleman (Lorna), Awesome guy (Ryan), Terribly English (Mel), Hugh Grant (Liz), Shameless flirt (Leanne), Happy Chap (Natalie), Prim and Proper (Jess), and Horse monkey (Mark). You may ask, why horse monkey? Well, Chico has a long slender body and face. He moves very slowly and properly inspects every individual piece of food before consumption, sometimes throwing it down in disgust if it does not meet his high standards.

We have collectively decided that if Chico was a human he would be 55 years old, probably wearing an English cap, drinking a Brandy on the rocks, smoking a very expensive Cuban cigar, in his large classic Italian leather chair in a room filled with books including original Shakespeare, with his younger, more easy going party animal friend Larry, his sickbay acquaintance.
 
With all my love to Chico,
 Krissie Sullivan

Ghosty (one of our old monkeys at Goliath) has been getting amorous with Maureen who I'm sure has taught him new tricks in the last month! He's looking much happier thanks to people spending extra time with him and he goes wild for his nutrition drinks!

Camilla and baby Angelica were pulled into one of the intro cages weeks ago for treatment as they were looking a bit worse for wear being low ranked but we are happy to say that both are now looking much better and have been released back into the troop. Schmegal chased Camilla for a bit just to remind her who's boss but they soon settled down again.

Skinnie & baby Mini have been moved to an intro cage up at Goliath for a break from the bandit troop. Skinnie is far less stressed and is actually having time to spend grooming and caring for baby Mini who is doing exceptionally well despite the odds of her previous injuries which are now healed. Skinnie is still on her way to recovery and has a way to go but at least now has some rest time from the world of the bandits. Skinnie's junior & eyebrows (another junior) can be seen visiting Skinnie on a daily basis for company.

Shadow has come on leaps and bounds and seems to be back to his old self - the other good news is he is spending more time grooming the troop now than wanting to be with people all the time so he is ready to become a monkey again after being an ex-pet.

The troop are very settled at the moment. Claire calls Schmegal the 'fun police' - there will be no playing whilst Schmegal is around!

Brian and Neil from Block B have had a new cage built for them and the old block B has been demolished. The cage is much higher so they have a nicer view too.

In the world of the wild there is always some sad news amongst the good. As mentioned in the last newsletter, Golly has been full of health and vitality during mating season but his male testosterone sadly led to his death. Tragically - another monkey bit his penis beyond repair. It was devastating for everyone and he was very well known at 17yrs old by all the staff and volunteers. It was the only way for Golly to go and if we didn't keep our humour about us in the cruel world of nature then I think some of us may go slightly insane! There's a picture of Golly below for everyone to remember him by.

Claire and Liz along with many other volunteers have been a great help on top section introducing people to daily cage cleaning and ensuring everything is running smoothly whilst Mel & Leanne look afer quarantine.

We still have lots of cages to build and are in need of a lot more funding for our quarantine area.

When I arrived home from Africa and the VMF at the beginning of the year the temperature was about minus 5 degrees. I assumed I would eventually re-acclimatise and get used to being back home. 6 months later and I’ve given up on that. At the moment all I seem to be thinking about is Africa, the VMF, the monkeys, and how to get back there as soon as I can. In the meantime I need to keep busy, and doing something to raise money for the VMF seems like the best thing I can do.

So on Monday 20th July I’m going to go for a run. A fairly long run to be honest. A 25-mile, multiple hill climbing, cross-country run to be even more honest. The Three Peaks of Yorkshire is a fairly famous walking route, in absolutely fantastic countryside and some of the best scenery around, normally done over the course of several days. Being a somewhat foolish person I’ve decided I’m going to do it in 5 hours, taking in none of the scenery and most probably scaring off any other walkers.

All the money raised is going towards the new isolation / quarantine areas that are urgently needed at the foundation. They will help ensure any new monkeys coming in are completely healthy and any ill monkeys who need to be isolated can be cared for in a safe, clean environment.

Thank you to those who have contributed so far:
Rob Tuppen, Simon Rushton, Jo Turner, Hellen Bersacola, Melissa Liggio

Please all add the 'Sponsor Simon' button to your facebook profiles and other blog sites by clicking on the share button in the right hand corner above.

I just had to include an article about de-worming this month as it's proved to be a very time consuming process no thanks to some fussy eaters!

We have had a problem with whipworm trichurus trichuria in some of our vervets which is very difficult to eradicate with our usual de-wormer but luckily we found a study done on baboons that pointed to using a much higher doseage and strength and repeat at different time intervals. The wormer we are now using is panacur horse paste 18% fenbendazole at a high doseage. As you can imagine this is very expensive as it's meant for horses so we do not want to waste a drop. Whipworm is also very difficult to eradicate in the environment as the eggs are very resistant and can last for many months to years, we are therefore having to replace some of the sand in the cages which is a big job.

We have had some fun experimenting with our sick / fussy animals. Most of the monkeys take the de-wormer readily on bananas with some raw honey on top and a sprinkle of protexin. We also add 2 drops of milk thistle tincture to help support the liver. One evening it came to the last 5 monkeys not taking their de-wormer as they became suspicious so I saw Dave had bought me some hot cross buns which I ate and thought mmm I wonder - let's see if I can't get the last monkeys to take their dose on a hot cross bun (if that wouldnt work then nothing would!) Reluctant as I was to feed something unnatural and sweet but knowing I had to get the de-wormer in to them, I gave in to the hot cross buns! Finally they ate it all with great pleasure and were not suspicious in the slightest (after all they never get such a treat like that).

We had fun de-worming Goliath troop thanks to Schmegal and Babu who patrol the perimeter keeping everyone else away so the bad boys had to be shut in for an hour so the females had a chance. Zelda (son of Regus) proved the most difficult as he is still nervous of the other monkeys in the troop when it comes to food but all ate it readily with success over 3 days.

Thank you to Krissie, Lorna, Keara and Claire who have been helping with the de-worming it's a big job for so many monkeys and we have many more troops to get through but we have already noticed some improvements in the health and some monkeys that had chronic diarrhoea for months we thought we would lose are on their way to recovery.

A plea goes out to anyone who can provide us with more panacur horse paste or panacur 22% granules as we need to repeat this strength at least another 2 times and are finding the funding difficult.

Mayra rodriguez  - $25
Krissie Sullivan – Pictionary evening for volunteers raised R200
Worldwide Veterinary Service donated £334.84 worth of veterinary supplies
Lauren Byrnes - $25
Mary Ann Sullivan - $25
Al & Lisa Davies wedding - raised £300 instead of gifts
Christina Mollaghan - £38 towards droncit injectable and also organised it for us
Droncit injectable - The following people contributed...
Hellen Bersacola, Jo Armson Jo Turner, Rob Tuppen, Michaela Rowley, Sarita Gulati, Simon Taylor, Karolynn Parker, Sophie Clarke, Angi Bowles, Jennifer Redinger
3M - donated 240 N95 face masks

Can you help?
We are currently in need of the following items:
Projector & screen for our new education centre
40 school chairs for our education centre
Latex gloves
Faecal sample pots
Hibiscrub
Digital scales to weigh monkeys (over 5kgs)
Diamond mesh fencing
1ml, 2.5ml, 5ml syringes
18G, 21G, 23G needles
Automatic trap cages

Please contact info@vervet.za.org if you can help or for a bigger list of items currently needed.

The Vervet Monkey Foundation newsletter goes out to over 1000 people including previous & potential volunteers, volunteer organisations, wildlife organisations and some members of the public. If you would like to advertise in this space, please contact info@vervet.za.org for a price. The fee will help us cover the costs of sending our monthly newsletter so that more money can go towards helping the monkeys.

Ashley Chance, Sasha Gotlieb, Meredith Ross, Cara Maunsell, Michelle Hill, Tom Richards, Hazel Stanworth, Colin Taylor, Karen Norrgren, Howard Bates, Carol Munro, Candace Cotter, Dannika Lewis, Maureen Schrapel, Chris Russell.