CERCOPAN’s Summertime Baby Boom

Dr. Uche Anyaorah, Veterinarian, CERCOPAN
December 2006

August is peak hunting season here in Nigeria, and unfortunately, the time of year when many orphan monkeys arrive at CERCOPAN (the Centre for Education, Research, and Conservation of Primates and Nature). This year we have had no less than six new orphans arrive at our sanctuary.

There is Omor, who is the oldest now in quarantine. Omor is a male mona monkey who likes to make his own rules. The impression I have of him is of a senate leader holding the gavel. Omor has passed all our quarantine tests and procedures; he is waiting until we decide whether to have him join one of the existing mona groups or whether to create a new group where he can continue his legislative duties. For the moment, he remains in quarantine, where he is in charge of teaching the new babies tricks like biting the nipples on the milk bottles, running out of the cage, and playing hide-and-seek with the primate caregiver.

The baby who seems to be most adept at learning Omor’s tricks is Runa, a female mona orphan who came to us in August. The Cross River National Park authorities, who found her on a rope beside their gate, donated Runa to CERCOPAN. Possibly someone who bought her as a pet left her there; people often buy orphans from hunters who take the babies after shooting their mothers for meat. Later, people often realize that monkeys are not such good pets and can require as much attention as human babies. Furthermore, they hear about the legal implications of keeping these monkeys as pets and, in a bid to rid themselves of the suddenly unwanted primates, they either dump them somewhere or try to sell the animals to us. This is where CERCOPAN’s education officers come in to inform these people that we do not buy or sell monkeys: we take them in and rehabilitate them when they are donated to us. Runa was such a case. After passing her first TB test, she was introduced into the same cage as Omor. As if by magic, Omor suddenly became more confident and started inventing yet more tricks. Runa tries to do anything she sees Omor do; she even allows him to taste the milk before she drinks it herself.

Next there is 400-gram (one pound) Netim, who also arrived in August. Netim came with a gunshot pellet lodged in his head, which we surgically removed. This had to make him a happier monkey! Imagine walking around during the day and sleeping at night with a round lead pellet right on top of your forehead! Netim got off to a very slow start, and his coordination remains poor, probably due to his head wound. However, he is slowly improving with intensive care. He now shares his quarantine enclosure with Esai, another mona orphan. Esai, who arrived with a fractured right knee, acts like a big brother to Netim and tries to protect him. It is my belief that Esai’s mother escaped from hunters only to die later from gunshot wounds, as the donor saw the decaying remains of the mother with Esai sitting close by. Esai tries to help Netim cope with the challenges of rehabilitation: Netim has problems lifting heavy food chunks, so Esai sometimes chews them into smaller bits that Netim can handle.

Regiy, a putty-nosed guenon orphan, weighs about 0.8 kilogram (one and three-quarter pounds) and loves to be groomed. He is very peaceful and sleeps quietly. He was recently introduced into the same cage as Cross, who is the other putty-nosed orphan and has just the opposite personality. Cross is very active: far from being acrophobic or “gyro-phobic,” he is bouncy-happy—just like a tennis ball! He even bounces on his food. He became very good friends with Regiy after a difficult introduction, as Regiy didn’t like much to play. Regiy was very weak, too, and was not eating enough during his first few weeks in quarantine—he didn’t even seem to know how to eat on his own. This gave me a lot of worry! Thankfully, he is now doing very well. In fact, his name comes from a local dialect and means “good luck”—and that is just what we wish all our new orphans as they move from babyhood to adolescence at the CERCOPAN primate sanctuary.