This month saw the arrival of a new orphan (approx 5 months) who was named Anté as a birthday present after volunteer Anté who will be leaving us soon. Little Anté arrived and fitted in very well in the Disneyland enclosure and after a few one on one introductions and hardly any fear, he made new friends with the other orphans and juveniles as if he'd been at the sanctuary his whole life. Scritch, a male juvenile even carried him around like a proper mum and looked after him (which is unusual being a male!) Anté didn't know how to feed from a bottle but learnt quickly just from watching the other orphans. It took him a while to actually suck the bottle but he can now feed himself without the need of any interference from humans. He still has his innate fear of people which will be great for his rehabilitation.

Nights and early mornings are getting cold now winter is here so Edwin and John made a baby box for the orphans to sleep in at night which they all took to immediately.

A baby baboon also came in who was found being sold on the side of the road. He is now at CARE Baboon sanctuary. The difference in baboons and vervets is quite considerable and each of them have their own quirks and screams!

We had an annual visit from the Primate Study Group, Ball State University which went very well and it was nice to catch up with Brandi and Shawn who run the group.

Although being short staffed this month due to the early departure of Jo (bottom section) and Rudi (driver), we thank all those who have put in extra effort for the foundation to help the monkeys. Hilde will also be returning back to Belgium for a couple of months so we thank Sophie, Dan, Claire and our volunteers for all the extra hours and support.

We welcome back Eoin, John and soon Danny (aka the 3 irish guys) this month and wonder what's in stall for a fundraiser this time!

Nina Rossie, Viviane Reijak, Hilary Brown, Emily Elmer, Claire Laide, Samantha Robertson, Phil DeFabio, Molly Maria, Alana Andrews, Elle Haskins, Chloe Rankin, Mark Ashcroft.

Welcome Back:
Eoin McDowell, John Wade, Danny Bergin (the 3 irish guys!)

• Lionel & Pervie (two adult males) have finally moved out of their old cage at Maroela and into a nicer introduction cage at Goliath I. Maroela is now non-existant and has at long last been knocked down!
  

• Brownie (a very brown low-ranked female) from Koko enclosure has just returned to Koko troop after recovering from a large abscess on her back that our vet nurse Claire & vet Becky helped to drain.
  
  
• Sickbay is now completely empty so it will soon be re-furbished.
  
  
  Bachelor Boys
• Some of the males here can be difficult to integrate into large troops for various reasons and it was decided to enable them to have a better quality of life and to socialise with other monkeys we would form a small bachelor group.
  
  The new Bachelor block is situated opposite Gismo troop. We used the old Neverland (or Blind enclosure) as the framework and then added maintenance, additional repairs and pipes using a donation that was given in memory of Mark von Bucher - a previous volunteer from 2007 who had a tragic snow boarding accident early this year.
  
  First to go in was Artreo who is a 20yr old male (from block C3). Artreo came in a long time ago after he was brought to us from a zoo and confiscated from a monkey hunt. After a few days of him settling in, Eddy & Elton (two adult males from block C2) joined him and were introduced one by one. They all had some play fighting and all was well until a big bundle took place which ended in some minor injuries to Artreo. Artreo wanting to be the boss does not look like he will back down and was quite tired the following day from all the excitement. We decided four other bachelor males might be a bit much for him at his age and so although he can still be in contact with his new friends it will be through the fence only for now. The enclosure has interleading doors which we can open up to the other side.
  
  Top Right & Top Left (2 adult males from old C Block named due to their canine teeth) were introduced to Eddy & Elton after being next to them many years. So far so good, only one or two minor wounds to sort out who will be the boss.
  
  At first, some of the males found the pipes difficult to balance on along with the new trees in their bigger space, so we hope it helps them gain strength and balance and live more naturally after being in smaller, confined areas.

PASA Education Workshop – 23-29 May 2010 – Johannesburg / Nelspruit

After quite an eventful trip on the bus – it took about 2 hours to get from Tzaneen to Haenertsburg which is about 30kms – I arrived just in time for dinner at the Southern Sun Hotel in Johannesburg.  Most of the educators had arrived by then and it was nice to see some faces I knew from last year, quite a few new faces too. 

The first workshop day was spent in Johannesburg Zoo where we started the day outside with an icebreaker game.  After that, we spent most of the day in the Zoo’s education centre where we got the first presentations.  Through a game we took our first steps into the brand new PASA Education Manual.

Tuesday morning, we started early to go on a long bus trip all the way to Nelspruit.  We arrived at Chimp Eden around noon and enjoyed a lovely lunch at the lodge.  After that we got a tour around the sanctuary.  Chimp Eden is a wonderful place for both chimpanzees and people.  Since we were special guests we were allowed to take a look behind the scenes, which was of course very interesting.  Before we left, Phillip Cronje, Manager of Chimp Eden was honoured with a GFAS (Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries) certificate (Standard of Excellence).  Late afternoon, after the usual group photo, we drove to the Emnotweni Hotel in Nelspruit where we spent the rest of the workshop.

Wednesday was a long and tiring day with lots of interesting lectures on interpretation, conversation, evaluation etc.  The day started at 8am and went on until about 6.30pm with homework included.

Thursday was a more ‘airy’ day, with a few individual and group assignments.  We spent quite some time outside doing activities and got a lecture on leadership combined with another fun activity.  At that time we were still catching up with time we had lost on Tuesday.  Today was the day I proudly received the VMF’s Global Federation of Animal Sanctuary (GFAS) certificate to take back.

Friday, and already the last day of the workshop we only had the morning left to go through the last part of our workbook.  There again we got entertained with a few games we can implement in the education programs at our sanctuaries.  After finishing this part, we came to a section everyone always talks about but until now had never started ... Networking.  A tool that can be very useful for the educators of all the PASA sanctuaries to stay in touch and to get problems solved if necessary.  Just post your question and you’ll get the answers…  Hopefully the chosen ‘Yahoo group’ will soon get born…

Before closing the workshop we went through the topics we had set out on Monday and that we wanted to see raised and discussed.  We actually found out that 9 out of the 10 topics we had chosen got resolved during the workshop.  We finished with an evaluation which I think was positive for everyone.  It was great to spend time with so many interesting and dedicated people.  Thank you PASA and thank you Nadine and Kathy (from Disney Florida) for a fantastic week.  I’m taking a lot of useful tips and tricks back to the foundation.

Thank you Hilde for attending another successful workshop and thanks PASA & Chimp Eden for hosting it.

Thanks to PASA and to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska, USA, we have been able to distribute some second hand uniforms to all our staff at the Vervet Monkey Foundation (VMF). We hope to be able to get the shirts embroidered with the VMF logo soon too.

From left to right (starting from back row):
Solly, Gift, Edwin, Innocent, Steven, Sammy, Evans, Benny, Given, John

The staff were very happy to receive them after Maggie sewed on all the PASA logos. A big thank you to all our local staff for their continuous efforts.

I have been at the Vervet Monkey Foundation for about six weeks and will be working here as a veterinary nurse until April 2011.

My name is Claire Kelly, 27 years old from Northamptonshire, England. I started working as a kennel assistant at a veterinary practice in my local town 4 years ago, after vast experience in a variety of animal related jobs previously.

After a year at the practice I was offered the opportunity to train as a veterinary nurse. The course took two years and was a day release course in which I had to travel to Warwickshire one day a week to study. At the end of the first year was a  theory exam and at the end of the second a theory and a practical exam, along side this a portfolio of work had to be completed each year to provide evidence of the practical skills I achieved at my work.

After qualifying I knew I wanted to do a bit of travelling and see a bit of the world so I regularly visited a veterinary nurse site to check up on volunteer jobs abroad, which is where I came across the Vervet Monkey Foundation.
Originally I was only planning on staying at the foundation for 3 months but was offered the opportunity to stay for a year, which I have decided is a much better idea as it takes about a month to get used to finding your way around and there are lots of vervets here to get to know which would be very difficult in a short space of time. It is very important that I get to know every monkey both physically and personally so that I can notice any subtle signs of ill health or odd behaviour in a specific vervet.

I was introduced in the first couple of weeks to the foundation by assisting other volunteers in different areas, for example, helping on top, middle or bottom section, helping in quarantine and helping in sickbay area; this gave me an overall understanding of how the foundation works together in looking after the primates. After I was a little more familiar with the place and people I was put onto meds, which generally involves making up a selection of nutrition supplements, de-worming, homeopathic and herbal remedies to assist certain monkeys with specific ailments. This sort of medicine is becoming more popular and can play a very important part in healing and the prevention of certain conditions. Doing ‘meds rounds’ has helped me a great deal in getting to know the certain monkeys that need that extra little bit of attention and also in finding my way around the foundation.

I have also been trained in monitoring the monkeys, this involves walking around the whole foundation and noting any injuries, odd behaviour and signs of ill health, I usually do this a couple of mornings a week unless we have a veterinary surgeon at the foundation, in which case I will be assisting in vasectomies; both the surgery and sick bay areas have recently been tiled in preparation for this.

At the end of May, two vets Becky & Kirsten came to volunteer and so male vervets were caught from the enclosures using trap cages with food inside to intice them in. They were then sedated ready to vasectomise them.

A vasectomy is the procedure in which a small piece of the vas deferens (the tube which carries sperm from the testicles to the penis) is removed so that the male is infertile, this prevents over breeding of the vervets. The vervet monkey is not yet an endangered species so a breeding program is not needed, although their numbers are decreasing and they are listed on CITES appendix 2 so we need to care and protect the ones we do have to prevent them from becoming an endangered species.

After the male vervet is sedated I will carry him to surgery and weigh him. A health check will then be performed, where I will check his breathing, his heart, his temperature and look for any injuries that need to be attended to, such as wounds, loose teeth, etc. His microchip is also scanned too so we can keep medical and rehabilitation records of every animal.

I will perform a TB test, this involves injecting a small amount of tuberculin into the lids of the eyes, avian in the right eye and bovine in the left. Over the next 72 hours we monitor the monkeys eyes for any signs of swelling which could indicate a problem, the monkey may then need to be isolated and other tests may have to be performed to check for the possibility of Tuberculosis. All volunteers must also be tested for TB before volunteering at the foundation as vervets are very susceptible to picking things up from us.

Next, I place an IV catheter into the vein in the monkeys arm, this is to enable me to inject a top up of sedation if needed. I then clip and clean the scrotal area of the monkey ready for the vet to perform the vasectomy, during which I will monitor his heart rate, respiratory rate and other signs of the sedation being too ‘light’, such as jaw tone becoming tight and blinking. Pain relief and anti-biotic drugs are given to the monkey during the operation.

After the procedure I remove the catheter, take some photos to assist in identifying the monkey once he returns to his troop and take his temperature again. Usually whilst under sedation an animals temperature will drop slightly, this is due to lack of movement of the muscles to keep the body warm.

The monkey will then be returned to his cage where he will be covered with a blanket in an effort to prevent his temperature dropping. Usually he will be awake within an hour and when conscious enough will be given post operative nutritional support, colloidal silver (a natural antibiotic), milk thistle to assist his liver in eradicating toxins from the sedation given during the procedure and homeopathic arnica to assist in any discomfort and the healing of the body.

The two vets stayed for just over a week, in which time we performed around 16 vasectomies. Just over a week later one of the vets, Becky returned for another week and a half so more were able to be completed. We are expecting more vets from August until November so will hopefully get many more vasectomies completed to enable us to provide sanctuary & rehabilitation to more orphans.

I have also assisted in faecal sampling, which involves looking at a sample under the microscope for any parasite infestations. I have also helped in deworming and lancing and cleaning abscesses - a dirty job but someone has to do it! I have thoroughly enjoyed the responsibilities given to me and my time at the foundation so far has been very productive, educational and enjoyable, and I am looking forward to the rest of my time here.

Thank you Claire and also Becky & Kirsten - this month's vets. Becky & Kirsten were two of the first ever VMF volunteers who are now both qualified veterinarians.

Over the past month we have been busy with the integration of Honeybear in Skunkey Troop. Honeybear seems to have quite a lot of friends in the troop; she often spends time grooming the juniors and the females Hawk and Jose. Every time she spots them coming she starts talking and runs towards the fence, waiting for them to come for a chat and lots of grooming. Lee and Pan, two juniors, even manage to play with her through the fence.
Bevan and JC often sit by her cage, observing and trying to interact with her, but apparently the only adult male she runs to as soon as he turns up is Big Charlie, the alpha male. Like a good gentleman he grooms her chest, back and legs, and proudly walks away.

A couple of weeks ago we allowed Hawk to come inside her cage, so that they could interact one by one and bond a bit more. As soon as Hawk comes in, she starts chatting and searching for food from the ground. Honeybear decides to stay on the platform looking at her friend exploring her cage. She then comes down to groom Jose that just appeared by her cage with Bevan. When Hawk tries to approach, Honeybear bounces away. Very shy, Honeybear then decides to give it a try and groom Hawk. After half an hour Hawk goes back to her troop. All the juniors and the females hug her and happily chat welcoming her back.

Jose too had her chance to come in with Honeybear. After exploring around the cage and having a quick argument with Honeybear, she goes back to her troop for lots of hugs and then apologizes to Honeybear by trying to groom her through the fence. We will keep trying to introduce Hawk, Jose, and eventually other monkeys in Honeybears cage, so hopefully she can be part of the Skunkey Troop soon.

A quick update in Bottom section: Pepper has returned with Angela, after spending time in Sickbay being monitored and gaining weight. She and Angela will still be getting special Diets in the morning and normal Main Feed in the afternoon.

Julie & Kelsey a low ranked female & male from Robert enclosure, have happily been released back into their troop after a period of ill health. We will make sure to monitor them at feeding time as being low-ranked often means they are the last to feed.

Thanks to Hellen who has been looking after Bottom section. Eoin (return vol) will also be helping on the area whilst he is here. Robin from Robert Troop is seen below having a large wound cleaned up by vet nurse Sam after a fight with another male during mating season.

Donations & Thank you's May / June 2010:

Emma Opitz & her Mum Susan – donated various medical supplies

Mark Ashcroft – organised a world cup raffle and raised £50

Karcher - donated 2 semi-industrial Karcher high pressure cleaners which will be very useful in our sickbay and quarantine areas.

Hairy Armadillo - donated printing costs of letterheads & advertising materials.

Angelina & Ben -  donated £50 instead of favours for their wedding

Worldwide Veterinary Service - donated more veterinary supplies

Orphan enclosure Appeal
Target left to raise $6100 (£4150) (5000 Euros) (R47,000)

Our target to raise funds for the new orphan enclosure is $10,000 or R75,000. So far, with your help, we have raised $3900 so need another $6100 to complete it and time is ticking on as we need to start building it before this year's orphans arrive. A list of contributors will be published in our newsletter on completion. Every person who donates $100 or more, we will put their name on a special plaque on completion of the enclosure.

Click on our fundraising page to donate:

VMF Fundraising page - click here

Christina Emery Torres, Carl DeSantis, Emma Opitz, Rachel Plotnek (return), Monica Monteiro, Kirsten Sprissler, Becky Sylvester, Hannah Evans, Suzy Mirvis, Alexandra Koby, Rebecca Green, Daniel van Rijswijk, Claudia Dompeling.