This month, the Foundation was hit hard by a fire that swept across Camelot enclosure, we would like to thank the many people who donated and supported us to enable emergency repairs to take place, we are overwhelmed with the response. You can read more about the fire further down the newsletter and can see some of the monkeys we have been treating in the photos below.

Aside from burns from the fire, a little bandit baby suffered from electrical burns after climbing a pylon and couldn't be saved as the burns were too severe.

With bad news comes good news - Dolly (an adult female) is now fully integrated into sickbay enclosure thanks to Gabi and there haven't been any signs of fighting.

Squeezie a sub-adult from Royal (Top Section) had an open fracture on her tail from a bite wound - she was kept in sickbay for a few weeks during recovery and so her bandage could be changed. The tail has now healed after vet nurse Lacey McCutchen helped splint and re-bandage the tail several times in between Squeezie doing her best to get it off!. Squeezie was given the appropriate name 'Squeezie' by volunteer Jennifer Redinger as she managed on several occasions to squeeze out of her cage despite the size of the mesh. She is now living with Florence at Royal, the two of them are getting along just fine and she has remained in her cage!

Ghosty McToastie gave us all a scare the last few days, he's a geriatric 19yr old ex-pet monkey and he had a couple of seizures during the day, just when we thought his days were up, the next morning after Hillary & Lacey spent the night keeping an eye on him, he started talking and was excited to see his breakfast so we are happy he lives to see another day - we like to think of him as an ambassador of the foundation.

Sophie Clarke (previous Middle Section carer) has started a new venture in England and so we thank Sophie for all her dedication and effort in looking after the monkeys in her care for more than 18 months. Head Primate Carer Dan Grove has been busy training new Primate Carers Melanie Leijding & Joe Apsey on how to look after their areas. Melanie has returned as a staff member to look after the new orphans that come in until they go with vervet foster mums as well as to look after Middle Section and special diets. Joe will be looking after the Bottom Section monkeys.

Assistant Manager Hollie Vercoe has returned from the PASA Education workshop in Uganda and has also been busy with some team-building games in the evenings to help welcome our new volunteers. The games have helped strengthen the teamwork and living community and have been a hit all round.

Joe Apsey, Sophie Enns, Erika Kilgore, Ian Harryman, Joanne Sudworth, Sarah Ludlam.

Welcome back:
Melanie Leijding (pictured below with orphan Ruby from last yr)

Joe Apsey – Bottom Section Primate Carer
My name is Joe Apsey I am from Stoke-On-Trent in the UK, I have always had a fascination with animals ever since I was little. I started off volunteering at a local dog kennels near where I lived, I really enjoyed it so after finishing high school I went to college to study a National Diploma in Animal Management. There I got the chance to work hands on with more exotic species like primates, reptiles and so on. Whilst at college I managed to obtain work during weekends and holidays at a primate sanctuary, which was a dream come true for me. I continued my education up to university studying Animal Behaviour, and as part of my degree I needed to obtain a work placement for 12 months. I knew I wanted to work abroad with primates, but the question was where? I had always been intrigued by the culture and wildlife of Africa, so when I stumbled across The Vervet Monkey Foundation whilst browsing online it ticked all the boxes and before I knew it I was on the next plane to Johannesburg. I'm still finding my feet amongst the hundreds of vervet monkeys but I know I am going to have the most amazing year here.

Melanie Leijding – Baby & Middle Section Primate Carer
Hi! Let me introduce myself, I’m Melanie Leijding , I’m from the Netherlands and 18 years old. I’ve always loved animals, even when I was little. So when I finished high school last year, I decided to take a break from school and start working with animals in a foreign country. South Africa has always intrigued me, so I decided I wanted to see and experience the country by myself. The reason why I chose to work with the Vervets, is because I read a lot of articles on the internet about the way people see and treat Vervets here. The Vervets are often seen as some kind of vermin, and so I wanted to play a role in conserving  this species. I went to the Vervet Monkey Foundation in November 2010 till January this year. I loved being here, helping around and taking care of the monkeys.

On my flight back to the Netherlands, I already knew that I wanted to go back.
So, here I am, making my dreams come true! I will be here for one year, and I am really looking forward to all the things that I will be doing around here.

Thank you to Joe & Melanie for being patient with the training these last few weeks and for your enthusiasm to help the monkeys. We are pleased to have 2 new members who we know will be an asset to the sections in their care.

September 18th 2011 - a very hot day with gusts of wind. There had been many bushfires during the morning which everyone had been watching in anticipation of needing to be prepared in the event one of them should spread to the VMF and put the monkeys in danger.

The anticipation turned into reality as everybody was asked to keep an eye on Koko & Camelot enclosures should any of the ashes fall and start fire there. Koko was the first concern as the fire was near the back of the enclosure - Hollie, assisted by Hillary moved all the babies quickly to safety to Disneyland in case the fire hit the enclosure. The orphans were looked after by Gabi who was still on her crutches. The fire near Koko was brought under control as was one near Skunkey enclosure. Sammy and some of the workers had started backburning to extinguish the fire before it reached Camelot.

But then our biggest fear, a gust of wind and a call on the radio from Lacey who was watching Camelot saying the fire has started inside the enclosure sprung everybody into further action. One of the fires had swept across from neighbouring land across the dirt track and into the largest enclosure Camelot (2 hectares) where burnt ashes were spreading the fire rapidly. All staff and volunteers despite days off and exhaustion in the heat were present doing everything possible to save the monkeys. There were fire beaters, sprayers, bowls and watering cans everywhere filled with water. A line of people quickly formed carrying large amounts of water to the fire. Other volunteers helped provide masks and drinking water to those fighting the fire - every single person played a part and so ensured the rest of the monkeys on the foundation were ok. Dan was one end, Dave, Chris & Matt another, and myself also shouting instructions and informing people where the fire was spreading to to stop the fire inside the enclosure. David was also inside the enclosure controlling the edges of the fire with a spray pack.

Skinnie & Mini in Camelot D cage and Minkey in Camelot A were running round like crazy and all the monkeys inside intro cages were given rescue remedy to calm them down in fear that they would jump through the fence into the fire.

A decision was quickly made to open the gates to let the monkeys out as the fire was becoming unstoppable after Dan had seen one or 2 monkeys jump through the flames in fear. The fire was stopped before it got to Skinnie & Mini & Minkey who remained safe. Many of the monkeys climbed to the highest trees where they waited it out.

Eventually the fire was contained in the enclosure and right through dark, people were putting out small flames in case anything should start up again. Joe shouted out as he found something in the enclosure he was concerned about - Lacey came running out the enclosure with a little baby in her arms - it was Thumb's baby who hadn't made it out of the flames in time but it was too late for her. Thumb's baby had some old injuries from bite wounds that were healing but it meant she was a little disabled which is probably why she couldn't get out. Nobody slept well that night....we knew some monkeys had been burnt but the darkness had already set in so all we could do was wait until daylight...

The next day was the aftermath of the fire and trying to find those monkeys that had been let out as well as to find any that were burnt to bring in for treatment. Dave and Dan put ladders and branches up the side of the enclosure for the monkeys to climb back in to be with their troop and many managed to get in by themselves and some were waiting by the gate who we let back in. Rosie has been missing since the fire and we are still looking for her, she had no burn wounds as she was seen the evening of the fire so we hope she is ok and still around waiting to return to her troop.

The aftenoon of 19th September, again a very hot day, searches were done of the entire enclosure but in the afternoon 1 junior was found dead and 1 baby was still alive but having convulsions who we picked up and took to sickbay to give immediate first aid treatment but it was again too late.

A few days later another baby succumbed to the smoke and was taken to sickbay by Dan & Joe and looked after by Lacey, HIllary & Gabi where eventually the fight became too much.

Staff and volunteers have been making shelters, putting out many bowls of water and rehydration for the monkeys in the troop, giving out meds, extra food and checking all are ok throughout the day.

In all the tragedy of the fire, there is always a positive side (not in the tragedy itself) but how the support and teamwork of individuals can make a massive difference. This fire could have easily spread much further and we are very lucky that most of the 90 monkeys in Camelot survived. There are still a couple recovering from burn wounds - Sherman and a little sub-adult female who we are keeping a close eye on and treating but for now the worst is over and the vegetation will grow back with the rains to come.

Thank you to Lacey's blog, a facebook appeal and all those who contributed, we have managed to raise all the necessary emergency funds for the repairs to Camelot, the water pipes and electrics so that it won't interfere with our progress for the vervets.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE - YOU ARE ALL HEROES IN THE WORLD OF THE VERVETS

Sammy, Gift, Given, Dan, Chris, Hollie, Melanie, Joe, Hillary, Lacey, Paul, Gabrielle, Matt, David, Alex, Sophie, Luci and Dave.

And now for some good news....It’s been an eventful few weeks here at the foundation and there’s been some changes up on Top Section. Those of you who know Apie, will know that she’s always been difficult to integrate in with other monkeys due to being kept as a pet for 4 years. We tried her with Colin and Lalie but she bullied them and started fights. We tried her with Jet but she tried to dominate him and got herself bitten quite badly for misbehaving. So when Josie suggested that we try her with Flash, one of our friendly old males, I was very keen to give her another chance at socialising with other monkeys.

When I moved her into Flash’s cage and opened the crush cage, she climbed out and Flash climbed straight in, looking for bits of food. Having discovered a disappointing lack of food, the next thing on his mind was mating and he immediately tried to mount Apie. Unfortunately, she wasn’t impressed at him taking her affections for granted, and made a few angry noises, bared her teeth a bit and smacked him in the face. Luckily Flash decided that this wasn’t worth getting worked up over and changed tactics. He figured a ten minute grooming would get her in the mood. Naturally, Apie turned him down again and after a few more attempts he decided to give up.

Later on that day things took a turn for the worst when Apie got into a fight through the fence with the bandits and I ended up carrying her in my arms down to sickbay for treatment, but a couple of days later she was back with Flash in a new cage further away from bandit territory. These next few days were a bit of a worry. She seemed scared of Flash and wasn’t keen to come take food unless I stood in the doorway to the cage handing pieces to her. I was starting to get a bit worried that things wouldn’t work out between them, but a few days later I was giving someone a skunkey intro and happened to turn round to face her cage. Apie and Flash were sat on the floor, and spent a solid hour grooming each other non-stop. Over the next few days she began to eat better, and cheer up a bit, and the two of them have now become good friends. When I walk past, I often see them grooming each other. One of Apie’s favourite things seems to be to sit next to flash with her legs and arms resting over his, and they’ve started sharing a sleeping perch at night now, huddling together for comfort and warmth.

With the success of Apie and Flash, we decided to put Batman and Shortie together. To begin with, they were not quite such an affectionate pairing. They seemed quite happy to be in the same cage but there wasn’t a great deal of interacting going on. However, the last few days Shortie has been seen grooming Batman frequently, it seems they were just a bit shy!
With all these moves, a few intro cages have become available up at Goliath. Twitch has moved from special cases up to Goliath H and will be joined by Titan who is recovering from a case of ascarids in sickbay. Twitch had never experienced electric fences before, but soon got the idea, and spent the rest of his first day up at Goliath showing off to all the males in the troop for all he was worth, head bobbing, eyebrowing, grunting and waggling what vervet males love to waggle the most!

Another thing to mention about things going on at Goliath, is Speedling’s progress. Some of you will know that he recently decided to try and hang out with the big boys at main feed, and found out that Jessie (the Alpha male) doesn’t take too kindly to low-rankers and young adults trying to feed with them, and gave him a few nasty bites. Luckily for Speedling, Japie (one of the high ranked males) was nearby and put a stop to the fight before things got too nasty. I ended up having to bring Speedling down to sickbay twice for treatment but he’s fully recovered now and his wounds are just scars. He’s learnt his lesson about getting ideas above his station and keeps to the back at main feed, well away from the high ranked boys, though Japie seems to like to check up in his low-ranked friend now and again.

More good news is the construction underway at Gismo enclosure. One thing I have always hoped to see during my time here, is this enclosure being extended to create a nicer environment for the monkeys, and it’s now happening. The extension will almost double the size of the enclosure, bringing in some acacia and silver cluster leaf trees, but also two really big mango trees which will start fruiting in a few months time.

On August 21st my adventure at the 2011 Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) Educational Workshop in Uganda began. 20 delegates from Primate sanctuaries throughout Africa congregated for a 5 day workshop to learn and share educational tools, activities, success and obstacles, in implementing primate educational programmes within our African communities.

The main focus of the workshop was teaching us how to implement a new 'Communities for Primates' Educational Programme that has been designed by Disney Nature. It was also to show us the success that Uganda's, Ngamba Island had with this programme last year.

Day one took us to Ngamba Island on Lake Victoria. This is a famous tourist attraction, where you can view the rescued and rehabilitated chimps living in their sanctuary forest.  After the very bumpy 2 hour boat ride to the island my excitement could finally grow, we were about to see the rescued chimps. Around 40 chimps were already waiting for us at the forest clearing, all hooting for their meal. Some held their hands out demanding their share, some caught the thrown food while others sat sulking that no food had been thrown their way yet. The cheeky ones collected more than their share and ran off bipedal style back into the forest to indulge in private. Once feeding time was over we were then privileged to a behind the scenes tour of the Island.

Last year, Ngamba Island carried out their Primate Educational Programme in Hoima, due to wild chimps living in the area. This was an area where bush meat and deforestation was on the menu. So it was off to Hoima to see their success!

Ngamba Island created a Wildlife club inviting children to join and learn about the true value of the forest and chimps in it. The programme was a tremendous success within the wildlife club and so expanded to the entire village. Bush Meat is now frowned upon within the village and they have also united against cutting down the forests, enveloping the value that if one tree is cut down then 2 trees must be planted in its place. This is an enormous accomplishment within the community.

Our visit was during the children’s school holidays but despite this, they proudly returned to school to perform 4 songs for us. Their voices raised the roof, their dancing shook the ground and their enthusiasm and smiling faces will stay with me always. It was truly magical."Africa is our true motherland. Uganda!"

While all Educational Officers were still humming the children’s songs, we were off to trek the community’s wild chimps. It was amazing to have the privilege of entering this private, protected and now valued forest. Unfortunately the closest we came to sighting the chimps was by seeing a chimp poo and a knuckle hand print in the mud on the path, but still, what an experience.

As an additional plight to save the forest, Ngamba Island taught the community how to build energy saving stoves. Each stove uses 6 times less wood than their old 3 stone style stoves. The people were so proud to have us in their home to show us their new stoves. 

Overall, the weeks focus was on each sanctuary implementing a new Community for Primates programme and seeing first hand the success that can be achieved. It would involve inviting members of the public to join our Primate Group, where they become united and proud of what they represent, a community respecting the Vervet and environment and being proud to educate others of the plight of the Vervet. By the end of September we hope to be accepted for this funded project by Disney for Nature.

Thank you Hollie for attending the workshop and giving a presentation. Thanks also to PASA., we hope our education programmes will help the community develop a more positive attitude towards vervet monkeys.

Click here to view the VMF online shop

We have just added the following items to our online shop:

• Skunkey monkey & Forest fridge magnets
• VMF 2012 Calendars featuring monkeys at the VMF

Thank you this month to:

Wendy Morgan – donated a bag of carrots, a tin of babymilk,  butternut.
Glynn Meter – donated monthly for her sister-in-law’s (Jeannie Davies)  birthday.
Claire Turnbull, Sarah-Jane Smith, Zoe & Josh for helping to get the calendars printed.

Thank you to all those who gave donations towards the fire damage:
Kimberly Su
Joanna Mills
Lesley Caillault
Dianne Hall
Maggie Calkins
Joyce van der Wateren
Alexandra Lagreze
Margaret Brown
Chris May
Catherine Bentley
Natalie Marr
Frederique Bertrand
Susan Neville
Wendy Morgan
Caroline Skold
Taryn Ryan
Diana Grove
Philip Tyson
Clare Humes
Kathleen Lepitzki
Lauren Horwitz
Susan Brown
Cherie Bescript
Tamara Martin

For those who would still like to donate, please click here:

Click here to donate

As part of our on-going education drive, we have recently attended two schools in the Haenertsburg area. This area was one of our priorities as we are starting to see problems develop between some members of the community and the local troop of Vervets. We are fortunate to have Susan Ettmayr (our local contact in the community) keeping an eye on things and helping us make contact with interested parties within the school community.

The two school visits went very well. The children seemed really interested and enthusiastic during the presentations and they certainly seemed to take some of our key messages on board. Some of the students were very entertaining; I learnt that Dinosaurs are a natural predator, some Vervets have 6 fingers and 11 toes and apparently I am originally from Mexico? However, in between the chaos, I was pleasantly surprised at some of the questions I received, the students genuinely seemed interested in the Vervets and how they live, which was great to see.

Both schools have Vervets visit their campus daily, so the information we gave will no doubt be very beneficial for both the students and Vervets alike.
This is going to be an on-going process in this community, we have made contact with the local Secondary School and have made plans to visit them in the coming weeks.

Thanks Chris for the fantastic presentations and also to Susan Ettmayr, a member of the community at Haenertsburg for making us aware of the education needs within the village.

The Vervet Monkey Foundation will be having a stand at the Sustainable Living Festival on 30th Sept - 2nd October at Hoedspruit WIldlife Estate, South Africa - the new 2012 calendars will be on sale there also.

Click here for more info

It is every man's obligation to put back into the world – at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.
– Albert Einstein.

Lucy Knight, Alice Deroo, Danny Keam, Katharine Richardson, Cori Bailey (return), Matt Stephenson, Jessica Markey, Sophie Clarke, Natalie Rutstein, Gabrielle Bertrand.