Colobus Trust

The ex-pet vervets at the Colobus Trust have now been formed into a troop with the exception of the largest male and the infant who came to us recently. The largest male has shown no willingness to socialise with the other monkeys and has severe psychological damage due to his 8 years as a captive pet monkey.

The slow process started two months ago. The vervets at that time were in the four enclosures with three separated off and isolated from the troop of juveniles and subadults. So the juveniles and subadults were without an adult which is not normal for a vervet monkey troop.

The introduction process was a slow procedure because one monkey put in an enclosure with a group of monkeys that already have their owngroup dynamics will not be successful. It is very stressful to a single monkey to be forced to be in the same area as a group that have already formed there own troop. Stress on a monkey is not only detrimental to the monkey’s psychological well-being but can lead to the monkey attacking the monkeys with whom they are meant to be bonding.

So the adult female was initially placed in a cage with the younger adult male and bonded immediately. It was beautiful to see her have such social interactions with him such as grooming and mating which she and he had craved. Then, over the following weeks, the subadults and juveniles were introduced one by one, allowing several days between each introduction for the monkeys to accustom themselves to the new situation. Increasing amounts of social behaviour was noticed by the monkeys who had been isolated.

Now they are a social group with an adult male and an adult female,both significantly dominant over the rest. The last to join the troopwas the subadult female who is still often harrassed but the adult female. This harassment appears to be assertion of dominance to stabilise the adult females position in the troop rather than any intention to do serious harm. This is because the subadult female did try to assume the position of the dominant female when first entering the group but has since realised that she will not be able to take that role. She is now showing submissive behaviour to the adults and the situation is settling.

During the weeks of introductions, an infant female was brought to thetrust. During her time in quarantine, she was assessed as healthy andshe was very playful. When she was introduced to the troop it was a 4step process. First we sat her cage in front of their enclosure toallow for smelling and touching and any interactions. The adult malewas very interested. Next we tried to bond her with the adult female alone who unfortunately showed no interest and did not wish to nurture her. The did not bode well however the juveniles and sub adults showed interest. We next introduced her to the juveniles and subadults.This was wonderful to see. Immediately she played with them and friendships were formed. It was clear how much happier she was to be able to socially interact with other vervet monkeys and it was a good example of why such social wild animals should not be stolen away from their natural habitat and kept as pets. The last step was to introduce her to the adult male with the rest of the troop. Unfortunately she was not accepted by the adult male who tried to kill her immediately and the adult female came to his aid in this so their was clearly no bond.

The monkeys have been at the trust with the intent to prepare them for reintroduction into the wild. Currently they are not prepared and a primatologist or ethologist is required to assess these monkeys. We are also considering the option of finding a sanctuary for these monkeys if they are deemed unable to be rehabilitated back into the wild. We need a primatologist to assess any sanctuary that is found or formed to ensure it provides all that is necessary for these monkeys’ physical and psychological health.

Any interest from a primatologist or ethologist willing to help us in our fight to help these 8 monkeys would be highly welcome. Please send expressions of interest to  luciana at wananchi.com under the subject heading “vervets”.

In future, the Colobus Trust will be aiming to address the problem of the pet monkeys trade. It is horrific that people cruelly remove these animals from their naturally environment, often killing the parents of the infant vervet to achieve this, and sell them as pets.It is also inexcusable that people actually wish to keep these wild animals as pets. Such selfish love is unfair to these animals who need social contact with their own species. As they grow older they can become aggressive and it is also not possible to provide for all their requirements so they often become abused and/or neglected.Please consider how wrong this is and discourage people from having these animals. There are so many domesticated animals needing homes that a cat or a dog is a far better choice.

Sal
Colobologist/Veterinarian