Asendle Trust

Written by A. Hunt

A cool vesper blew through the thick undergrowth and dense trees of the forest. The rising sun was about to break away the shadows and darkness of night. The tranquillity of the coming dawn was broken by the desperate calls of a small baby monkey that clung to his dead mother. She had been shot and during the night, had died. The comfort of her warmth was long gone. He shivered from the cold, his baby coat still too sparse to keep him warm. Yet again, his tiny hands, sticky with his mother’s blood, searched for her teats, finding them he tried to suckle but they were cold, and yielded nothing. He let out a pitiful moan and called as hard as he could for his mother. Lower down in the ravine, another indigenous inhabitant of the forest was making his way along a well-walked pathway that meandered through and out of the forest. He knew the forest well and he heard the pitiful and insistent calls of a creature in distress. He easily found the baby monkey and without hesitation, he took off his scarf and carefully wrapped it around the baby and put the bundle into his shirt and continued on his way. The man’s body, warm from the brisk walk comforted and warmed the baby who snuggled in, and fell fast asleep. Later that morning, the man handed the baby into the care of his employer.

I became aware of this monkey two days later when Dave and Alma, two friends of mine, brought him to work with them. It was the first time I had seen a baby vervet monkey and he looked so unhappy and sad. They told me how they had battled to get this little baby to eat or drink something, whatever they tried had not succeeded, and all it did was make him sick. I could see that the baby was not well and if we could not get liquids into him, he would die from dehydration.

As a honey producer and a proponent of the values of honey, I made up a mixture of pure honey and warm water for him. At first, he wanted nothing to do with the teat that I put in his mouth, but once he began to taste how nice the mixture was, he was soon drinking freely and finished the bottle. He fell asleep, still sucking on the teat, as if it was his mother’s. I named him Regis, the little King.

All this happened in December, nineteen eighty nine and from the moment Regis came into my life I became totally absorbed in this little creature and he fascinated me so much, it changed the direction of my life, and that is, how I became aware of the plight of the vervet monkey in our country.

The simple humanitarian act of saving this ‘orphaned’ little monkey, set into motion events, which made me become aware that we have cruel and unjust laws governing our wild life in South Africa. These laws branded the vervet monkey species as ‘vermin’ and as such, humans were allowed to indiscriminately kill this animal.

In nineteen ninety three, I could not accept that there was no hope for Regis and that his fate was going to be death at the hands of the Authorities, nor could I stand by and see these poor monkeys indiscriminately ‘murdered’. I had to do something to help, so I gave up my career, and became proactive and fully involved. One of my goals was to see if there was a method of returning Regis back into the wild.

For twelve years now I have studied and helped this wonderful species of monkey, and I would like to share some of my experiences with you, in our quest, to save from extinction, this forgotten and amazing primate called the vervet monkey.

THE FORGOTTEN MONKEY

Truly, the vervet monkey was a forgotten and unprotected species, being officially branded as an undesirable animal, and classified as ‘vermin’.

As such, it has no ‘official’ protection, and vast numbers of them have already been eradicated from our country. At one time, before man started his campaign of eradication [just a mere hundred years ago] you could find vervets almost everywhere in South Africa. Old reference books state the vervet monkey was common, and could be found in most parts of South Africa. It is recorded, that they lived in large troops, of between a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty members strong. If you ask the older generations they will tell you, years ago, you could find vervets everywhere. Today you cannot find the vervet monkey everywhere, they are no longer even ‘commonly’ found here.

Unfortunately, over the years, confusing notions about this monkey have ‘crept’ in and it is mainly these notions, which have decimated their populations to the extent that this monkey is now so scattered that if we do not change these misconceptions, it will lead to their extinction… Therefore, it will be my intention to show you, the reader, what these notions are, that have caused this monkey to become so endangered that I believe, it is causing them to become extinct.

Strong words I have written here, but when you consider the facts, you will agree that this is a valid statement. If you, the reader do not know that this monkey is endangered with extinction then I ask you to please read on, so that I may take you on a journey that will lead you to understand what is endangering this monkey, and why you are not aware that this monkey is endangered?

An example of what I am saying is illustrated by the following perception. When people come across vervets and see a single troop of eighteen or twenty monkeys, they get the impression, that there are lots of them, and assume they are in abundance. Yet, the opposite is true, as this number does not constitute a healthy troop. What they are actually looking at is a remnant of what a hundred years ago was a healthy strong troop of a one hundred and twenty or more.

When comparing their numbers now, to what they were in eighteen ninety, you will find that their numbers have drastically decreased to the extent that today, we do not have truly healthy populations. To give you a clear example of the decline in their population, in eighteen ninety, troop sizes were reported to be between a hundred and twenty, and one hundred and fifty monkeys per troop, forty years late, in nineteen thirty the average troop size was recorded to be between fifty and seventy, still later in the seventies, it had dropped to between eighteen and thirty monkeys, and these figures are still dropping. Thus, over a hundred year period the average troop size has dropped from one hundred and twenty to an average of merely twenty. Note: I do not refer to numbers of troops here, we don’t know how many troops we originally had, all we know is they were common, and could be found everywhere. The troop size, is a good way of assessing the health of a population.

As I wanted to develop a rehabilitation program to put Regis back into the wild, I needed to study one of these large healthy troops as described a hundred years ago, so that I could record the behaviour of a healthy troop. I can tell you that it has not been an easy thing for me to locate healthy troops, and keep in mind I went purposefully to track them down. I found it difficult to even find troops of fifty or sixty strong. In my native province of Limpopo, I could not find a single troop consisting of one hundred and twenty monkeys. The biggest troops I have found was fifty-eight in number and one of fifty-three, the remainder averaged from twelve to thirty. This is quite disturbing as the Limpopo Province [“Africa’s Eden”] has the biggest percentage of land still in a natural state, and thus is a good barometer. When there is a problem here in Eden, then you can bet your bottom dollar it will be far worse in other provinces. At one stage, I had come to the conclusion that there were none left, then, I recalled of a site in Kwazulu Natal on army property which by virtue of being a restricted area, allowed the monkeys to exist naturally isolated and undisturbed. I found two healthy troops there.

WHAT IS THEIR OFFICIAL STATUS?

In our attempts to get this monkey re-classified as a protected species, I began to uncover certain irregularities surrounding the vervet monkey species. The first blatant one is their CITES listing. Most people are unaware the International Convention for Endangered Species, list the vervet monkey as a threatened species. [This convention is better known as CITES and they list the vervet monkey under schedule II, the second highest category of endangerment. Both our elephant and rhino are risk animals, and also schedule II animals. When an animal is placed on schedule II it is a warning that they are threatened with extinction.]

After, I became aware of this listing, I immediately requested the National Department of Environmental affairs to give me the ‘status’ of this monkey in our country, in other words, how many of them are left and are they in fact, endangered? After a long wait, I received a reply from one of the Directors of this Department informing me, that they did not know. Isn’t it incredible that the Department of Environment and Conservation is not aware of the vervet’s status, but it is cognisant of its International CITES listing!

After reading this, you may begin to wonder what has happened and why this monkey is threatened. Together, we are going to examine the ‘evidence’ and then you will clearly see what has caused the decimation of their populations and what is threatening them with extinction.

THE VERMIN LAW

When I began to look into the ‘vermin law’, I discovered that the Department of Conservation was in full agreement that this monkey had to be controlled and they had passed special laws for the vervet monkey species in their ordinances. These laws were based around their eradication. The law was specific, and made it legal to kill a vervet monkey and illegal to protect it, this law clearly protected the person killing the monkey and even made it legal for hunting groups to use dogs to help kill them. It also gave the people who formed these groups, the right to invade your property, and you could do nothing to stop them. [It was so written that it was a punishable crime to stop or interfere with a person killing a vervet monkey!]

If a landowner complains to the Authorities about a vervet monkey or requests a permit to kill monkeys, they are told, that no permit is required and they can be ‘dispose’ of in any manner! The Authorities also stated that the vervet monkey were carriers of diseases such as rabies, yellow fever, meningitis, tetanus, and Aids. Even though, there is no scientific proof of these ‘assertions’, it was still so widely broadcast, that to this day, landowners still think they have the right to indiscriminately kill monkeys as vermin. Most consider they can act with impunity, and moreover they think they are doing us a favour by eradicating these diseased and horrible animals.

It is tragic that the official conservation policy for wildlife in South Africa is based around nothing less than the removal [killing] of any problem animal. This philosophy is counter-productive especially when an uninformed tourist complains that vervets took fruit out of their tent or luxury cottage, because, they in fact sign the monkey’s death warrant.

Because of this ‘vermin’ concept/classification, and over many years this poor monkey was hunted down, and huge numbers were shot and poisoned, or trapped. Many hundreds of thousands were slaughtered so that their kidneys could be used to grow cultures for polio vaccines. Countless thousands were captured and shipped off to foreign laboratories. [In nineteen seventy-nine [1979], two scientists who were involved with laboratory animals, were sending out alarm signals because of the drastic decline in this monkey’s populations.]

This poor monkey had no protection anywhere, and even in the Kruger Park, they were shot, killed, and trapped. Today, if you go to the Kruger you won’t easily find monkeys there, yet in old 8mm film footage taken in the park, they were always plentiful, but because the park Authorities never stopped the thousands of visitors from feeding them, they become so used to people that they became a problem and were killed.

MISCONCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES

It is a misconception to think that the Department of Conservation will help you when you come across an injured or orphaned baby monkey. When I contacted them for help with Regis, I was told to kill him.

This Department is not what most South Africans think it to be, Ironically, their ‘Conservation” policy as previously indicated, seems to be based on ‘elimination’. Thus, the Department of ‘Conservation’ issues permits to legally kill animals rather than promote strategies for their protection. In fact we citizens; pay these civil servants their wages to kill our wildlife.

Their attitude towards this monkey can be very negative and brutal. For example, their policy when dealing with an orphaned vervet was confiscation, and death! [The ‘official’ prescribed method of disposing of this orphan is to place the live monkey in a bag then take a spade and beat the bag until the monkey is dead.]

It goes even deeper, in some provinces, professional trappers were employed, and they purposefully went out to trap and eradicate monkeys. In the Limpopo Province, the Department of Conservation authorised a person who lives in the Vaalwater district of the Waterburg to eradicate monkeys. This opened up a business opportunity for him and he was further permitted to supply the wild monkeys he trapped, to laboratories. So, if there is a complaint made to the Department about a monkey, it can be referred to him. In one of many articles written about his ‘controversial’ activities, it was revealed that he had been trapping monkeys for more than 25 years. It was also reported that he operated a bone factory and it was assumed that this bone meal plant was for processing the monkeys and baboons that he captured and could not sell, for dog food.

[He is so successful that by his own admission he eradicated every monkey in a hundred mile radius from where he lived, and this he did in one of the most beautiful and natural parts of our country. He also stated that vervet monkeys couldn’t be eradicated because they breed too fast. To day vast parts of the Waterburg is still in a natural state and ideal habitat for the vervet monkey, except there are no vervets there, because this ‘appointed’ trapper eradicated them.]

With these attitudes and policies, it is no wonder that since this department has been ‘conserving’ our wild heritage they have allowed and caused such destruction of our wild life, that today, only a mere five percent of our country is in a reasonably natural state, and the legacy they left us, is a long, long, list of endangered species, some highly endangered and on the brink of extinction.

FARMING AND THE VERVET MONKEY

The agricultural sector has waged wars against this monkey since the ‘civilised’ white man first farmed our country. How many millions were killed is unknown, and since permits were never issued, we have no records of their deaths. What we do know, is the killing has never stopped.

Most of the conservation laws of our country are designed around farming and farmers are given ‘cart blanche’ to kill and eradicate anything that interfered with crop production. Some people termed it agro-mania, because in the name of farming this sector was the biggest cause of the destruction of our wildlife.

CROP DAMAGES

This brings me to controversial subject of crop damages, what is the truth? So far, you have read how many misconceptions have been exposed. Here is another big one.

As we became involved in helping orphaned babies, I discovered that seventy eight percent of orphans coming into our centre were as a result of a farmer, who had shot a mother. [Unfortunately, the first seasonal appearance of fruit coincides with the birth of vervet babies and this is the time farmers shoot them. It was during such a period that Regis was orphaned.]

I was sceptical of farmer’s claims that monkeys were causing massive crop damage. At that time, I was working as an apiculturist, and lived on a banana and avocado farm and although it was in a green belt area, I saw no damage or destruction.

I requested the Department of Conservation to refer farmers with ‘monkey problems’ to me so I could investigate these complaints and endeavour to propose an alternative and less drastic solution. They agreed, and farmers began to contact me. This gave me a golden opportunity to see for myself and propose a ‘conservation’ solution.

As previously mentioned I was a qualified apiculturist and this knowledge was valuable in assessing ‘assumed’ damage to the avocado, litchi, mango, macadamia, banana, papaw, mielies, tomatoes, peanuts, baby marrows, pumpkin, nuts, papaws, sweet potato, and other field and orchard crops.

WHAT DID I LEARN?

After doing fifty-five investigations, not one farmer has been able to show me the damage! Now how can this be, you may well ask? If you had been with me while I did my investigations, you would have seen that it is a big misconception that vervets cause damage to the farmer. We are led to believe that vervet monkeys cause massive damage to crops. The public is given the impression that monkeys will come in to a farmer’s field or orchard like locusts, raiding their crops and leaving behind huge amounts of damage! If this is indeed the case, why then, can nobody show me even a photograph of the damage caused? If the damages are as serious as farmers proclaim, then why can they not prove it!! [You can be assured that if there was some footage or photographic evidence of this damage it would have been shown in wildlife documentaries. With ammunition like this, farmers who organise monkey hunts could have used it in their defence to show us the damage that is caused and, that they were not killing the monkeys for profit by charging hunters to participate.]

To every investigation, I took my camera and video to record this damage, and after ten years, and fifty-five investigations, I don’t have one photograph or any video footage or any proof that vervet monkeys destroy crops!

In reality, the vervet in fact does not cause damage, and this is due to a number of factors. Firstly, orchard crops are crops that must be picked grass green and then later ripened so that it is in a good condition for the consumer. Secondly, vervets do not eat unripe fruit, as they are skilled in picking out ripe fruit. All the orchard crops that I investigated had to be picked before they ripened, so no ripe fruit is ever available, for the monkey to eat.

Professor Peter Henzie of the Natal University, an expert on the vervet monkey confirmed in an article that vervets have full colour vision similar to ours and they can easily recognise when a fruit is ripe, he also agreed that vervets do not eat grass green fruit.

It is also the nature of trees to produce fruit for their seed and in this way, it is distributed for replanting, trees therefore have the ability to protect its unripe fruit. They do this by producing harsh and unpleasant tasting fruit and this prevents animals from eating it before it is ripe and ready to be dispersed.

I would like to relate to you what I found about the alleged crop damage to the avocado. This good example clearly illustrates how vervets get blamed and killed for crop damage, that doesn’t exist. The avocado has a unique feature; it simply does not ripen while it hangs on a tree. It will only start to ripen when the farmer picks it for market, or when the tree drops it off and then it ripens on the ground. In my investigations I found that avocado farmers were shooting and poisoning vervets, blaming them for damage or losses when there can be none. Even if the avocado falls off the tree, ripens, and is eaten by a monkey, is of no loss to the grower. Here farmers kill vervets for assumed damage or loss. Sounds complicated, but it simply means the farmer killed the monkeys thinking they would cause him damage. So, avocado farmers kill vervets on an assumption.

Another good example is peanuts. One would think that vervets love peanuts, but in fact, they do not know a peanut. It is an exotic plant and in addition, it grows underground. Vervets are unable to dig down to eat a peanut [or any type of root or tuber that grows underground]; they are simply not equipped to dig. Their small fingers are designed for scratching and all they can do is to scratch the surface. Therefore, a vervet can only eat underground plants after some other animal like a warthog or a bush pig has dug it up.

One would think that vervet monkeys would also know a banana but the banana is unknown to them, because it is an exotic fruit and they are also picked when they are grass green.

Places like orchards and plantations are sterile to the vervet monkey, as all weeds, insects, and undergrowth are controlled so there is never anything there for them to eat. There is also another factor that you have to know about how vervets eat. Vervets like humans enjoy eating a variety of foods. Like us, they too, get tired of eating the same kind of food. If the entire orchard ripened, it would only provide a very small amount of food for a short period for the monkey, as they would soon tire of the monotony of eating the same fruit and look for something different.

WHAT SIGNS TO LOOK FOR

The signs left behind by vervets after they have been eating can be identified because firstly they do not eat the pips of exotic commercial crops. [All of the orchards and plantations I investigated were exotic plants and not indigenous to South Africa.] Secondly, they also meticulously peel their fruit and vegetables. Therefore, it is relatively easy to identify damage that they cause because you will find the peels and the pips on the ground. In every investigation I did, I could never find any of these tell-tail signs.

It was important for me to know what signs to look for, so that I could prove to myself [and the farmer] that it was the vervets that caused the damage. I mention this because where you find vervets you will also find a host of other animals. These animals are mostly awake at night [nocturnal] and we don’t often notice them, but they also visit farmed land. In instances where I did see some slight damage, a vervet did not cause it. Other animals I saw were fruit bats, the greater and lesser bush baby, porcupines, bush pig, warthogs, and a variety of duikers and buck. [In defence of all these animals, the damage made by them was so slight and minimal that I estimate the overall damage caused by wildlife to the agricultural industry to be less than one [1%] percent.] Vervets, like the farmer are diurnal [sleep at night]. A farmer, who sees damage caused by a night creature, automatically blames the vervets, only because they are both awake at the same time.

MANGO FARMERS

One more observation before I move on. There is another misconception that I believe came from Mango farmers. They proclaimed that vervets cannot identify if a mango is ripe or not and they will forage through the orchard testing the fruit to see if it is ripe by taking bites out of it and then finding it unripe discard it and try another.

Farmers showed me this observable fact and it really baffled me. The ‘evidence’ supported their claims as I could clearly identify that a vervet monkey had taken bites out of a grass green mango and then discarded it. The ‘evidence’ was there and I could proffer no immediate answer to the farmer. After seeing this damage for myself, I still could not accept that vervets ate grass green fruit; it also puzzled me why these vervets were going from tree to tree, as this is not ‘normal’ behaviour for them.

When vervets come across a food source, they do not go from tree to tree they settle down to one area and feed. It would be too time consuming and simply a waste of energy to move from tree to tree, and for what purpose? As you previously read monkeys can see when a fruit is ripe, so why, were they eating unripe fruit now?

Only after extensive surveillance of this behaviour was I able to unravel the mystery. Where this kind of alleged damage was taking place, also meant that the farmers were shooting the monkeys, so whenever I came across a monkey in an orchard they would scurry off and I could not observe what they were doing, until one day I was able to observe them on a farm where they were not shot. This is what I discovered. The mango is a very delicate fruit and bruises easily. When it is bruised, it begins to ripen in that area. A certain insect also favours the mango and lays its eggs in grass green fruit. It does it by stinging the mango, and laying the egg just below the skin. This action bruises the fruit and that portion begins to ripen, so that by the time the egg hatches the worm/larva has ripe mango to feed off. The monkeys were searching for this bruised fruit and ate out the portion that ripened, and also ate the larva. The rest of the fruit was discarded, as it was grass green.

Here too, this action is not a loss to the farmer as the fruit was already damaged. In fact, the monkey does the farmer a great service as they prune off this unmarketable fruit for him, and this is a recommend orchard practice as it enhances fruit size. Secondly, by the vervet eating the larva, they control future generations of this insect and thus they play a valuable role for the mango farmer by controlling this insect for him.

As you can see the answer is not always obvious and when I saw that this was not normal behaviour for this monkey I did not accept what I saw until I had satisfied myself. [I went back and spoke to farmers that had complained and they were satisfied by these discoveries and promised to stop shooting monkeys.]

In defence of the farming community, I must add that not all farmers kill the wildlife that come on to their farms, I know many successful farmers who work in harmony with nature, and they distance themselves from farmers who kill our wildlife.

HOW DO VERVETS BREED.

So far, you have read that the vervet is a fast breeding animal, farmers also think, and believe vervets to be a fast breeder. The Department of Conservation also believed it, and in a letter to me, they wrote that they were concerned about the population explosion in this species and the subsequent damage to farmers. It also mentions their concern for stock farmers who were suffering losses of their livestock because vervets were catching and eating their calves and lambs. [The Conservation Department for our country was not aware that the vervet monkey is vegetarian, and far too small to kill a baby calf let alone eat it.]

The misconception that this monkey is a ‘fast breeder’ is often used as an excuse for ‘justified’ culling or eradication. In many investigations to find out why people say they are fast breeders, I discovered that the people eradicating these monkeys created this misconception. They will tell you that generations, of their family have been trying to kill off vervet monkeys and still, after all of this killing, they have never been able to eradicate them. Even when entire troops were poisoned a few years later they were back again, strong as ever.

The above misconception has taken a slow breeding animal and made it out to be a fast breeder, in fact ‘vermin’ can multiply very fast and have multiple births of up to ten offspring at a go. Fast breeding animals also wean their young very quickly, usually in months they are weaned. Females of fast breeders, have multiple mammary glands so they can feed ten babies at a time, vervets only have two. Fast breeders also mature quickly, and can become reproductive in a year or two. A female vervet only becomes an adult when she is five years old, then she sexually mature enough to bear offspring.

The above profile of a fast breeding animal does not fit in with the nature of the vervet monkey simply because vervets are a slow breeding animal. Vervet monkeys are seasonal breeders, and babies are born only during the early part of summer, so that the mother will have a good source of food to provide her baby with proper nourishment. Vervets also nurture their babies for a long period and some mother’s nurse their babies for up to eighteen months. It is in the nature of a female vervet not to have a baby every year, even though some do. Some mothers still weaning last years baby, won’t mate. In years where there is an oncoming drought, only a small number of babies will be born. Some females in a troop may only have a baby every third or fourth year; these females are usually the low ranked or elderly ones. Vervets do not have multiple births and therefore have only one baby per mating. The survival rate of a baby must also be considered, and it has been suggested that only one baby in three survives to become an adult. [Some papers I have read say only one in every six babies reach maturity.]

The only way I can explain how this fast breeding myth crept in is as follows:

The vervet monkey is territorial, and over thousands of years, the troop gets to know virtually every inch of its territory. Their one goal is to territorialize an area that can provide them with an amply food source. For them the best habitat is one that forms the green belts of our country and is close to water. Troops living in ideal habitats will also have to defend it from other troops moving in. Farmers who farm lush green belt areas are going to get visits from wild animals that live there and the vervet monkey is one of them. When he kills off a troop, he also [unintentionally] opens up the territory for another troop to move in. This move does not occur overnight and each time a new troop moved in, they were seen as the same troop that had recovered from the last onslaught to control them. Unknowingly, and over generations, these farmers eradicated entire populations of vervets in the area.

Farmers eradicating and killing monkeys could not understand how these troops could recover so fast and in such a short period of time, so they wrongly interpreted this as fast breeding and the killing went on. Landowners that I have interviewed [who openly admitted to killing monkeys] say that they do not contribute to the decimations of this monkey because they breed so fast. Many of them especially the older farmers, have described to me what they and their forefathers did over the years to kill them off and they never succeeded, because every couple of years the monkeys were back again.

These farmers even thought that they were doing humanity a favour by eradicating ‘vermin’ monkeys from their area. Now, they know better.

HABITATION WITH VERVET MONKEYS

The plight of this monkey is by no means over yet, there is still their habituation [to live with] with people that is causing them to be culled and killed even though the monkeys were there first. We regularly get calls from people who are experiencing problems with monkeys that come onto their property. These are mainly from Hotels, camping and caravan sites, lodges and other tourist spots where there are still monkeys left. We also get calls from people who live in a natural part of our country.

The big problem here is that people think that monkeys easily interact with people. But this is not so. Vervet monkeys are wild animals and have an inbred fear of humans. Only after many years of watching us did they venture closer, inquisitive, and observant of the food that was to be obtained there. In every case I investigated where monkeys were interacting with people, came about because we cannot resist feeding them and we even welcome them when they come onto our property.

It was not the monkey who made the first move. Moreover, we left exposed food in rubbish bins without lids or just dumped it. Especially during drought times, this food became very attractive to them. In the initial contacts with us, they would cautiously take food from the bins, usually during these excursions we would see them either watching from the trees close by, or scampering off. Rather than chase them away we instead went and fetched nice ripe fruit to coax them to come closer, expecting them to take the offered fruit from our hands.

Because vervets have the ability to read body language, they quickly sensed that these humans were friendly towards them, and slowly they begin to trust us. At first they would run up, snatch, and run away. Sooner or later, they learn to take the offered fruit from your hand.

I wanted to see for myself what happening when monkeys become brave enough to interact with people. My quest to observe this behaviour led me to study a troop in a large caravan and camping site situated in one of our nature reserves in Kwazulu Natal [KZN] and run by the KZN Parks Board. This is a very good example of what happens when we feed monkeys. The camping sites in this park were specially designed so as not to disturb the natural coastal rain forest. Each site was designed to give campers the chance of living right in a costal rain forest. Within walking distance is a beautiful beach, and, some of the best underwater diving takes place at a nearby reef. It is also a paradise for deep-sea fishing. When they opened this park, they never considered that for centuries, large troops of vervets were living there undisturbed.

Suddenly there were so many people visiting this park and leaving edible food behind that it became a regular food source for the monkey and the monkeys became so used to people there, that they lost their fear of us. I want to relate to you an observation that I made just to illustrate what happens when we feed monkeys or leave food lying around.

Because of its uniqueness, this park attracts large numbers of holidaymakers and in this holiday spirit; they bring ample amounts of food with them. One day while I was observing a troop from a distance, so as not to disturb them, I saw first hand, what a mess they can make. A group of about twenty holidaymakers pulled into a camping area and set up their four caravans so that they had a common area in the centre. After the camp was suitably arranged, they began to set up two large oblong garden tables with a feast of food that they intended to have for dinner. For a long time they went about decorating these tables with all sorts of food and bowls of beautiful ripe fruits. Unnoticed by these humans, there were ninety-eight pairs of eyes watching them. The monkeys remained hidden in the thick forest canopy, and only because there were so many people around kept them from coming down. Then to my surprise, I see all the people pile into their 4×4s and leave, probably to go for a quick swim before dinner. Hardly had the dust settled when the troop moved in and very calmly, they began to help themselves. At first all was orderly as they ate, but then a low ranked monkey jumped onto a table and began to eat, another monkey nearby became furious and attacked the offending monkey, in only a few seconds of this squabble and until the offender was chased away, plates and bottles were smashed, decorations and food scattered around. After that, all was back to normal and the eating continued. Now, with some of the food spilled on the ground other lower ranked monkeys joined in. About a half hour later, the holidaymakers returned and they were furious. When I went to speak to them, they showed me what the pests had done, and lodged a complaint. I saw so many incidents like this. I also watched what happened when campers forgot to zip up their tent and they went away for the whole day. Most of the contents of the tent were strewn on the ground in front of the tent. Most of the items were ruined. Almost everybody that has experienced this kind of behaviour see the monkey as a pest.

This only happens because there are no signboards or booklets informing people, not to feed monkeys, and not to leave food lying around. At this kind of a resort over a festive season, a huge amount of food is left around and thrown away. No proper closing dustbins, no proper garbage disposal, no signage, and no education, all created this problem.

This kind of incident is happening all the time and what happens is that in the end the monkey gets killed. When a lodge or hotel contacts me to come and take the vervets away or threaten to kill them. I enquire if they have signage and do they inform their guests that they have a primate monkey in their area. And this is the big problem, they don’t inform their guests, and they don’t remind them by using simple signage.

Fortunately, this interaction with monkeys can be reversed with proper information, and good signage. Once the food supply is cut off, the numbers of interactions with a monkey will decrease, and where there is no food, you will not readily find monkeys, they simply go where they can get food.

We must remember, the monkey is not at fault here, so we can’t just kill them for something we created. We have to find other solutions.

URBANISATION

The advent of people interacting with vervets is not only at tourist spots it is also manifesting itself more and more in the urbanisation of our natural areas. People who move out of the cities or have holiday and week-end cottages in the wild, leave lots of food around in their yards and as previously mentioned when monkeys discover this and come into their gardens they don’t chase them away, instead they are welcomed and this contact/experience with a wild creature is what brought them to live in the wild in the first place. Monkeys are a great fascination to us humans and as you have read, the first thing we do is to feed them.

Moreover, in these green belt areas some residents have made friends with the monkeys. In fact, I know of a number of people in all parts of South Africa that have befriended the local troop. Some have even given them individual names and readily welcome and feed them. In some instances, they have been doing this for many years. Unfortunately, these monkeys now trust humans, and when they visit other yards, they don’t always get the same welcome.

What also happens, in some cases, the people who befriended the troop sell up, and leave, the new owners are now confronted with monkeys that have learnt to interact with humans. A sudden change like this confuses the monkeys and now when they come to visit they cannot comprehend why the people are not freely feeding them. Now, when food is put out, the monkeys think that it was put there for them and when they help themselves, they are accused of stealing and branded as pests. Once again, by feeding them, we have caused the problem.

ROAD KILLS

Unfortunately, this is not the end of their plight. As we humans moved into their territory, we also brought with us other lethal forms that kill monkeys every day. One of them is a road. Each year many monkeys are killed or seriously injured when a motorist knocks them down. Roadways that traversed through green belt areas are the main cause. Here too, no signboards warning motorists to drive slower and to be alert that monkeys could be crossing are ever erected. Motorists do not report these accidents so we can never get accurate statistics. We can only go by the number of babies that survive or when an injured monkey is picked up and handed in to us.

My observations into this occurrence is quite interesting because vervet monkeys actually learn not to cross the roads when a car is coming and to wait for cars to pass, before they cross. This is easy to understand, because to a vervet a motorcar is a huge fearsome thing that moves at great speed and makes a noise. So why is it that they get knocked over? What usually happens is a high ranked group or alpha male [after checking to see that it is clear] crossed the road. Other members of the troop still on the other side of the road soon see the troop or leader is moving off, and they run to catch up and get knocked over. In their haste to catch up, they assume the road is still safe for them to cross.

Here we are only looking at the very tip of the iceberg and I think a great number are run over annually in our country.

LETHAL ELECTRICITY AND MONKEYS

We also brought electricity into our green belt areas. ESKOM supplies electricity to people living there and it comes via high voltage cables to transformers that reduce the current so we can use it for household and farming purposes. These transformers are encased in metal and placed high up on poles and this makes it safe for us humans, but not safe for the vervet monkey. These transformers are fitted with unshielded live wires that carry the high voltage to the transformer. Each of these unshielded wires is usually instant death to an unsuspecting monkey who touches one of them while standing on the earthed metal casing. Every day monkeys climb these poles and many die, the unlucky ones end up with necrotic hands and arms where the high voltage destroyed the part of the body that came into contact with one of the unshielded wires. How many get killed this way is also not known as when an electrocuted monkey is found it is rarely reported.

WHAT OTHER ENVIRONMENT AND WELFARE ORGANIZATIONS THINK

After realising there was a problem with this species, we contacted some of the larger well-known environmental organizations for help.

When I spoke to the Wildlife Society, one of their executives told me there was nothing wrong with the populations of the vervet. According to him, they were in abundance! The Endangered Wildlife Trust [EWT] told us they couldn’t help, as the vervet monkey is not endangered! The World Wide Fund [WWF] won’t support in-situ rehabilitation and also don’t think the vervet is endangered. [These organizations gave me the feeling that rehabilitation of un-endangered wildlife is an unnecessary and wasteful undertaking.]

These organizations have taken the stance that the vervet is not endangered, so they won’t support us, yet they have no proof, nor do they know what the status of this monkey is. Unfortunately as they are respected organizations and because they think this way, greatly affects this monkey in many other ways. For example when we approached the Mazda Wildlife Trust and the Nedbank Green Trust, for funding to help, we are automatically turned down because these respected organizations also sit on the advisory boards of these Trusts and they decide where the money goes, it does not go to the vervet because they think it is not endangered.

The NSPCA’s (National Council of the Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to animals) policy for orphaned vervet monkeys is euthanasia. In other words, they must be put to sleep. This council also does not believe in rehabilitation. [The people who run the SPCA’s branches don’t agree with this policy and without the knowledge of their National Council, they pass orphaned vervets onto us. Sorry you guys but it is the truth!]

WHAT IS THEIR STATUS, ARE THEY REALLY ENDANGERED?

After looking at and examining all the facts I am convinced that the death rate of this species exceeds their birth rate, in other words, there are more of them dying each year than are born and it does not take a scientist, to work out that this formula can only lead to extinction.

As you have read, the Authorities do not know what the state of this monkey is in South Africa. Yet they still allow it to be indiscriminately killed and at this moment its fate lies in the hands of the land owner, it is left up to him to decide if they live or not.

As I see it, the vervet monkey is very much endangered. This is mainly due to the decimating of their populations and this is cutting off their interaction with other troops, and consequently the gene pool of this monkey is becoming stagnant.

The vervet species is dependant on males from other troops to cross over into their troop. When a male crosses over, he introduces a unique gene pole into the troop he joins up with. This function is vital to sustain their species and it was designed so by Mother Nature. When this interaction is cut off, it promotes inbreeding within the troop and we all know what happens when brothers and sisters or close cousins interbreed, it caused genetic defects in their offspring. These genetic deficiencies are disastrous, and that is why it is illegal for humans to breed with close family members and to bear offspring.

An article published in the millennium issue of the TIME magazine explains it plainly. It warns that we are loosing our natural and biological biodiversity and many of the wild animals that have become trapped in green belt areas [like the vervet monkey] are what they call the ‘living dead’. Why the living dead you may query? What they mean is that inbreeding is taking place, and these animals are now, unable to produce proper offspring. We don’t see this decimation taking place quickly in species like the vervet, because they are long lived and only in the next ten or twenty years will we see them begin to disappear as the last ones die off of old age.

When you analyse the above paragraph and then add to this, all of the other aspects that are killing vervet monkeys, you can only come to the conclusion that this monkey is indeed an endangered species.

DISCOVER THE VERVET MONKEY

I have delved into various aspects endangering this monkey, and I have as yet told you very little about this amazing monkey, so before I go on let me tell you a bit about them. With so much negativity and misconceptions about this monkey, it is no wonder that there is confusion about this primate species. There is even confusion amongst the Authorities, and academics, to its correct scientific name.

Having been declared vermin, no interest was shown towards this monkey and as a result very little until now, was known about this amazing primate creature. People mostly, don’t have a clue what this monkey does in nature, and the majority of what has been written about them, is all negative and inaccurate. Many people [even academics and others who work with wildlife] don’t know what role the vervet plays in the eco system.

URBANISATION

The advent of people interacting with vervets is not only at tourist spots it is also manifesting itself more and more in the urbanisation of our natural areas. People who move out of the cities or have holiday and week-end cottages in the wild, leave lots of food around in their yards and as previously mentioned when monkeys discover this and come into their gardens they don’t chase them away, instead they are welcomed and this contact/experience with a wild creature is what brought them to live in the wild in the first place. Monkeys are a great fascination to us humans and as you have read, the first thing we do is to feed them.

Moreover, in these green belt areas some residents have made friends with the monkeys. In fact, I know of a number of people in all parts of South Africa that have befriended the local troop. Some have even given them individual names and readily welcome and feed them. In some instances, they have been doing this for many years. Unfortunately, these monkeys now trust humans, and when they visit other yards, they don’t always get the same welcome.

What also happens, in some cases, the people who befriended the troop sell up, and leave, the new owners are now confronted with monkeys that have learnt to interact with humans. A sudden change like this confuses the monkeys and now when they come to visit they cannot comprehend why the people are not freely feeding them. Now, when food is put out, the monkeys think that it was put there for them and when they help themselves, they are accused of stealing and branded as pests. Once again, by feeding them, we have caused the problem. Is There any Hope?

There is always hope and this hope lies in getting the Authorities to change the laws and to develop a National Protection Policy for our primates.

In nineteen ninety-five, [1995] a meeting was held by the Department of Environmental affairs with the purpose of developing a policy for our primates. Many organizations attended this meeting. I thought at the time this was a positive step taken on behalf of this primate. However, the last I heard was the policy had been put on hold to be discussed at some future time.

To complicate matters, when our new South Africa was formed, instead of placing our valuable natural assets into the control of National Government, it was decreed that the control of our wildlife be delegated to each province. Now we have nine different attitudes towards this monkey. Most, if not all of the provinces still operate under the old nature conservation ordinances, and these will remain in place until new Provincial Legislation is promulgated.

Another aspect delaying this process is the Government’s policy to improve human conditions and because of this, the budgets for the departments responsible for protecting our environment and who have to change these laws have been severely cut. In many provinces, these departments simply do not have the finances to function effectively. In other provinces, this department has been restructured and relegated and now fall under departments which are so dissimilar, and have no experience in dealing with matters pertaining to the management of our wildlife.

While they struggle to turn the wheel of change, we have to rely on the support of the public and private sector to help this monkey species from becoming extinct. In essence, the hope lies with us.

WHAT IS BEEN DONE NOW, TO HELP THIS MONKEY?

In nineteen ninety-three, against a backdrop of negativity, and surrounded by misconceptions about this creature, the Vervet Monkey Foundation was formed. Three of us masterminded the plan to start up the Foundation and now for the first time this monkey had an organization to help protect them and to become their advocates.

We started up a campaign to get the Authorities to stop the indiscriminate killing of this monkey and to get their ‘vermin’ status scrapped. After realising it was not going to be an easy task to change the laws, we decided to involve the public. We reasoned that the wildlife in our country is our heritage, and thus, it gave us the legitimate rights to protect this monkey.

Going against the Authorities, we started up a sanctuary for orphaned vervet monkeys and now, for the first time, orphaned vervet monkeys had a safe place to go to. Quite an undertaking when you consider what we were up against.

To get people involved in protecting this monkey we set up a VERVET MONKEY WATCH, and this allowed people to participate in protecting vervet monkeys. Vervet Monkey Watch now has a national network, of concerned citizens who protect vervet monkeys. They do this by reporting any indiscriminate killing or poisonings and we advise them what action to take and the Foundation also becomes involved.

Monkey watchers are responsible for setting up the FRIENDS OF THE VERVET in their areas and they in turn educate people how to live with vervets. To assist them, each year the Foundation distributes hundred of booklets, which explains how to live with vervet monkeys and it is very encouraging to see that monkeys in certain places are now protected by the communities there.

This network is also very valuable as we are provided with information and data all the time. This network is so effective, that I get a constant steam of information and virtually nothing happens to a vervet that we don’t get know about. [NOTE: while I was writing this article I received a fax about the impending culling of Vervets in the Richards Bay area of KZN, very little escapes this network.]

The Foundation has a number of halfway houses where the public can hand in orphaned baby monkeys. These halfway houses stabilise the babies and then they are brought down to our rehabilitation centre in Tzaneen in the Limpopo Province. This system has been a great success as we now get these orphans when they are babies and within three to four weeks, they are back into a natural state with surrogate monkey mothers, who raise them naturally.

The Foundation also gives talks to conservancies all over the country and to schools and other organisations, like Rotary, Round Table, and Farmers Unions. We also actively participate in public meetings concerning this monkey. Because of these actions, there has been a huge amount of publicity and the public perceptions about this monkey are changing.

Public opinion is very important if this monkey is going to survive, as it will be the public, in the end who will have the final say. For a moment, let us examine what the public thinks about the eradication, and indiscriminate killing of vervet monkeys?

PUBLIC PERCEPTION – WHAT THE PUBLIC THINK?

A number of years ago I was asked to attend a meeting of the residents of the Kloof area in Kwazulu Natal. The ‘Kloof’ is a beautiful natural area of this province and recently became urbanised by people. A problem began to develop there when the vervets living in this area suddenly had to contend with humans taking over their habitat. Now a controversy was developing as certain residents were complaining, and the local law enforcement agency responded by trapping and shooting the monkeys that came onto the complainants’ property. This of course made these residents happy, but infuriated other residents. This love, hate conflict towards the monkeys there, began to escalate until a special meeting of the residents took place to address this problem. On the night the meeting took place, the town hall was packed to capacity; I estimated about three hundred and fifty of the residents were present. This was very encouraging.

It was the first meeting of this kind, I had attended, and I did not know what the public perception would be. I was very interested to see the outcome and what sort of complaints the residents were experiencing.

Before the residents were asked to air their views, two speakers defending the monkeys, gave good reasons why the monkeys should be allowed to live there as well. Then, it was time for the people there to have their say. The first came from a gentleman who was one of the complainants. He complained that vervets were coming into his garden and ate all the fruit from one of his ‘exotic’ fruit trees. He explained that he had nurtured this tree for many years and this was the first year that it produced fruit, all seven of them, and the monkeys ate them all. Similar complaints came from a few other residents. To my relief, the remaining residents were positive towards this monkey and they strongly spoke out against this senseless killing. After the meeting, during teatime, I had the chance to talk to many of the residents there. All were totally against the killing!

Another incident was the Priska Monkey Hunt, when this hunt was advertised the Foundation received many telephone calls from the public objecting to it. I contacted the organisers and I could not persuade them to call it off. [One of the organizers told me that they were going ahead and we could not stop them.] Then we went into action and the animal rights and animal welfare network [including monkey watch] were called in for support. We faxed protests to the organisers of the festival, and when no positive reaction was forthcoming, we began to tie up all the telephone lines to this town with still more faxes and telephone calls of protest. I was told later that for three days you could not get through to Priska, the mayor’s office, the local newspaper, the Authorities, and the organisers were all jammed with calls. This was news, and that night on SABC TV, national news channels carried the story of this hunt.

Even after this media exposé, the organisers remained adamant and refused to call off the hunt. The Foundation then couriered down large posters, these were put up around the town appealing for the protection of the monkeys there. The public concern grew and grew and it even got airtime on the local radio station and people were asked to vote for or against; seventy eight percent were against the hunt.

Stories abounded in local and national newspapers. Again, I phoned the organisers to call off the hunt and my pleas for the monkey were again rejected. I then contacted the ANC Youth League and they assured me that if the hunt was not called off, they would ride in, busloads of youths to disrupt the festival. A wealthy business man who was also disgusted with the hunt offered his helicopter and a fireworks manufacturer offered to donate big bang firecrackers so as a last resort we would fly over the hunting area and scare the monkeys away with big bangs.

The tension grew until the Premier of this province personally went down to Priska and told the organisers to call off the hunt. That night, on national TV two of the organisers with smiling faces confirmed that the hunt was off and both added that they were all lovers of nature. They had nothing against monkeys, and the hunt was only used as a publicity stunt to advertise their festival, so they said.

WHAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE?

As mentioned the fate of this monkey lies in the hands of the public, and as of writing this article there are only a handful of people in our country who actively stand up to protect vervet monkeys. Probably the reason for this is that the public is not aware there is a problem, or they have been under a misconception.

Every one in this small group helping monkeys, are dedicated people who took up the challenge to help vervet monkeys, and mostly they do it at their own expense. I have come to know people in most of the provinces who will go out of their way to help vervets and to rescue the babies that get orphaned.

These volunteers help us to run a network throughout South Africa, our one goal is to fight for the rights of these monkeys and to save the orphaned babies so that we can put them back into the wild.

Some people go to great lengths to save orphaned babies especially in provinces where the Authorities still kill them. Mpumalanga is one of the provinces where they still prefer to kill orphaned babies. The public knows this, and they smuggle the orphaned babies out of this province to us. In Kwazulu Natal, they have forbidden people to send monkeys to us, so again people there, smuggled them to us.

It is a great pity that I can’t reveal these wonderful people, and give them the praise, they deserve. They know who they are and they do it so successfully because they work behind the scenes, and for fear of retribution, remain anonymous. [Great work you guys.] So, you can see that there is sentiment for this monkey and people sacrifice themselves and even break the law to help a vervet monkey.

At this moment, the welfare of vervet monkeys lies in our hands and we need help to cope with the ever-rising incidents and orphans that we have to attend to. As you have read it is not easy for projects like this to get recognised and this makes it harder to get proper funding. Even as you read, monkeys are getting orphaned and injured and need help. The reader must know that there is an alternative to killing monkeys and that alternative lies in the hands of this network.

When a baby gets orphaned and you the reader make enquiries, you will be put in touch with this network. If, you the reader, had to hand an orphan monkey into a zoo, it will find its way into our care, if you hand it to the SPCA, we get them, the same applies to the Animal Anti Cruelty League and other welfare agencies. It is clearly evident that this monkey needs the Foundation and also this network of people, because we have taken it into our hands, to save this monkey and we can do it now, we don’t have to wait years and years for protection to be passed for them.

So, the bottom line is that we take care of these orphans and look after the welfare and preservation of this primate, and we need your help to help them.

HOW YOU CAN BECOME INVOLVED

Over the years I have spoken to a lot of people and many would like to help but don’t know how. Well, here are a few easy ways in which you can help us.

Help can be by means of a direct donation; here you donate an amount directly to us by depositing it into our banking account, or post a cheque or postal order to us.

Another good scheme is to adopt a monkey; here you adopt one of the monkeys in our program and by doing this you commit yourself to either a one time payment or a monthly payment you decide. To do this you go to our web site and select a monkey from our ‘adopt a monkey’ section, or contact the Foundation.

BOUNTY HUNTERS CHARITY SHOP has accepted to sponsor the Foundation and any items that they sell on behalf of the monkeys are given to us. Here is an excellent way in which you can help, all you do is clean out your garage, and donate the items you don’t require to us. Their shop is situated on the corner of 4^th avenue and Main road Melville, Johannesburg. If you do hand them anything to sell for us, please make sure you tell them it is for the monkeys. To make it even easier you can contact Isobel Hitz, who will arrange to collect at your convenience. [Remember what was once owned can be owned again.]

SANDOWN MOTORS, donate to us a percentage of their profits on any 4×4 accessories they sell. So, if you need any 4×4 accessories please buy them from Sandown Motors and speak to Chris Barnes there.

SUN AND SANDALS, donate to us a portion of all the bookings they make, so if you need to travel contact them and you will be helping us. [You can contact them at: 4 Banksia Avenue Bedford view or telephone: (011) 616 7705/4825.]

MEMBERSHIP, you can also join our organisation and pay an annual membership fee. We cater for juniors, single, family, groups, and corporate memberships. To join, send us your details and we will send you an application form or you can do it on line by visiting our web site.

VOLUNTEERING, you can also join our volunteers in Gauteng or in Tzaneen. If you want to volunteer then please contact Isobel Hitz.

If you want to help to protect monkeys in your area then join Vervet Monkey Watch. To get information and registration forms, send in your name and address, and include R25.00 to cover postage and printing. You can also register via e-mail, then, it costs nothing. Another activity you can do is to set up a “Friends of the Vervets” in your area. For more details, contact the Foundation.

If you can think of anything, or any other way you can help, or make any suggestions, then please do contact us. [CONTACT DETAILS ARE ON LAST PAGE.]

A great person once said, “Make sure that you don’t end up doing so little that you end up doing nothing.” Here is a worthy cause that needs your help, please support us.

BACKGROUND TO THE VERVET MONKEY FOUNDATION

As mentioned, the Foundation was formed in nineteen ninety-three to specifically help this primate, and to give orphaned monkeys a safe place to go. It also began addressing the many aspects relating to this monkey. Eleven years later, we can boast a few achievements, I say boast because if you think of the obstacles that we have had to overcome and the amount of negativity that we had to go up against to get this far, is a great achievement.

In the beginning, it was tough going. The Authorities were not at all happy that this Foundation was going against their policies. When we offered orphaned vervets a safe haven to go to, we made the Authorities furious. Using the law, they began to harass and bully us to stop. When we refused to hand over the monkeys to them [to be killed], they threatened to shoot the monkeys in front of us, but we stood up to their threats and on ‘humanitarian’ grounds we refused to hand them the monkeys and this led them to arresting us. Dave and I were charged with having ‘live’ monkeys in our possession.

With a heavy heart, I went to court. By this time, I knew that the fate of the monkeys was in the hands of the magistrate and I could only hope that once he heard our reasons, he would be merciful, and spare the monkeys. However, these hopes were dashed, the Authorities had brought in a special prosecutor, they meant business and we were going to be the examples, there was going to be, no mercy.

The court drama that unfolded was so unfair and biased even the magistrate was hostile, and when we tried to defend what we were doing, we were not allowed to. For days, the court case went on and all looked gloomy. Then, fate took charge when important evidence came to hand. When it was presented to the court, it caused the magistrate to accidentally subpoena the supreme head of nature conservation Dr, Piet Mulder, to appear and give evidence in this matter.

Two months later, a special court in the Tzaneen Magistrates Courts, reconvened, to hear Dr Mulder’s evidence. These two months gave us the time to get some support for our cause, so we leaked a press release through our local Letaba Herald newspaper, stating that the Head of Nature conservation himself had been summoned to give evidence in our controversial monkey trial. On the morning the trail started, for the first time I saw a glimmer of hope, at the least, the plight of the monkeys in our sanctuary would get media coverage.

Reporters from five newspapers were there to attend the trial, two from powerful National Newspapers. We had achieved our goal because when Dr Piet Mulder arrived [with his high ranking entourage], reporters literally, surrounded them. When the trial started, the court was packed to capacity with reporters, officials, and our supporters [Our supporters had stickers on them with the words ‘PLEASE SAVE US’.]

Dr Mulder saw that this incident had got out of hand, and in his testimony, he smoothed things out and even though we were found guilty, we were given only a warning. But this was not the verdict we wanted, because the court ordered that the monkeys in our sanctuary were to be placed in the hands of the Authorities.

Before, Dr Mulder could leave, I instructed my attorney to approach and invite him to meet with the Foundation, Dr Mulder agreed. After this meeting he ordered his officers to ‘leave us alone’, and the monkeys, remained in our care. This was an important turning point for this monkey and the Foundation. In a way, we can thank this incident for what we have achieved so far to help vervet monkeys. [Dr Mulder could have stopped us, but he saw/perceived we were serious and he was right!]

That is why I say, we can boast a few achievements, and one of them is our unique method of returning an orphaned baby monkey back into the wild. With our method, we have returned hundreds of babies back into a natural state and we do this in a matter of weeks. Our rehabilitation process is far removed from the old cage system, and with our open system, monkeys are rehabilitated naturally.

We are also accredited as one of the pioneers of monkey rehabilitation and the knowledge we have learned is being used internationally and is changing the way orphaned monkeys are handled. When I first started developing a rehabilitation programme, I had many sceptics and I was told it was impossible to rehabilitate a monkey.

[Note: A great honour was bestowed on the Foundation when we were chosen to be one of the four recipients to receive the converted Audi Terra Nona Conservation award for the year 2000. Audi South Africa held a function in Midrand to honour the achievement and Dr Ian Player himself, the Doyen and Patron of this Award, nominated the Foundation.]

Well, we achieved the impossible, so when you support us, you know you are supporting a project that has proved itself to be successful.

THANKS

You must not think that I have done this alone, because I haven’t, there are two other people who have made great sacrifices for this monkey, and they are Alma and Dave du Toit. We three are the founding members of the Foundation. Three years ago, Isobel and René Hitz joined our team and they are a prime example of what people behind the scenes can do to help this monkey.

Then there is a host of people whom we must thank, and they are our sponsors.

Remote Computer Services Tzaneen, Agora Internet Tzaneen, Value Truck Hire, Nestlé SA, Imperial Fleet Services, South African Dried Fruit (SADF), Macdonalds Road Stall Tzaneen, SASKO SAM Tzaneen, Wits Deep Sand, BB Motors Tzaneen, KN Nut and Bolt Tzaneen, Tenacity Brush Ware, Trailrite Johannesburg, Tiger Wheels Polokwane, Sandown Motors Sandton, Unitrad Gauteng, Long Ridge Farms Letsitele valley, Falcon Wood Estates Tzaneen, Alnet Cape Town, Jack and Alna de Beer Grootbrak-river, The Woodleys Letsitele, Albany Bakery Johannesburg, Gien Elsas Krugersdorp, 4×4 Club South Africa, Letaba Tyres Tzaneen.

THE LAST WORD – CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK AND PERCEIVE

It is my experience that the public is not aware to whom our wildlife belongs to and what is happening to it. According to my understanding, the wildlife in South Africa belongs to its citizens, in other words, it belongs to us, and we are the rightful owners of our wildlife as it is our natural heritage. Therefore, it is up to us to ensure that it is looked after and respected. It is our duty to ensure our children can also enjoy this heritage and we must educate them now so that they grow up respecting their natural environment and all the creatures in it. In South Africa, we have to change the way we think about our country. Why? Because we live in a natural paradise!

There is no other place on earth that you can go to, where you can experience the wonders of our ‘garden of Eden’ with so rich, and diverse natural ecosystems. Nowhere else, other than right here in our country, can you find so many species of fauna [wild animals] and flora [plants]. Nowhere else, do you find such diversity in nature.

We have to learn to live in this ‘Eden’ as one, with all of its natural inhabitants. We have a unique place on this planet to live in. Therefore, we have to develop an ethic changed from how we used to think. We have to come to the realisation that we are privileged to live in such a natural place of this world, and, it is up us to protect it. [One of the Foundations goals is to get people to realise that we live in a wonderful natural world and to show them how to live with our wild life.]

It is absolutely vital for us to protect our wild heritage because it is a valuable resource to us. Tourists bring huge sums of money into our country just to come and look and experience our natural beauty. So, our wildlife is very important to the growth of our country as it has a socio economic value to us as well. Our wildlife thus represents the most sustainable source of income for us. All we have to do is protect it, and it will thrive under this protection. Often our wildlife is referred to as the jewels in our country, and if so, then we must protect it in every way we can. If we lose it, we will become poor. [Just like so many countries today that have destroyed their wildlife.]

To develop an ethic of preservation of our wildlife is easy, all we have to do is ‘love’ our wild life. This may sound strange but every body I speak to tell me that they just love wildlife; so all we have to do is to practice that ethic and make this love proactive, because if you love something, you will not destroy it, you will protect and cherish it!

With so little of our country in a wild state we have to do something now and if we can get this monkey protected then we can really claim to have achieved something, and this very act, will pave the way for better protection of all our wildlife. Too often, we are engaged in protecting glamorous species when we should be looking at preserving all the life forms that make up our wildlife kingdoms.

In our country, the Bill of Rights in our Constitution, gives us the right to protect our wildlife. People who destroy natural habitats and kill our wildlife do not have any such rights written into our Constitution and they bend and break the law at the highest level.

Thank you for reading and I hope that it has given you an insight into the plight of this monkey in our country.

My best regards,

Arthur Hunt.

PS Please visit our web site and if you are in Tzaneen, visit our centre.

NOTE: Today Regis lives with a troop of thirty-five monkeys. He has become the alpha male of his troop. Because of his regal stature and ranking, he has helped me with scores of orphaned monkeys that arrive here bewildered and disorientated after they have been taken away from the public or handed in to us. In his calm and regal manner, he has taken many of them under his wing and helped them to become a monkey again. He has taught me so many things and at times, I felt I was in the company of great intelligence. Don’t for one moment think that I can understand him as well as he understands me. In my opinion, he taught me how to work with him it was not the other way around.

Parts of this article are extracts from my book that I am writing and hope to publish to help raise money so that I can go on with my work helping vervet monkeys, so if you ever do see my book then please buy it, it will give you an incredible insight into this primate species called the vervet monkey and what we went through and my personal experiences working with and helping monkeys

CONTACT DETAILS

ISOBEL HITZ

VERVET MONKEY FOUNDATION - GAUTENG

PO BOX 458 BANBURY CROSS, LANSERIA, GAUTENG 2166

TELEPHONE AND FAX: (012) 205 1206

CELL: 082 458 6265

EMAIL hitz@worldonline.co.za

HEAD OFFICE

 

VERVET MONKEY FOUNDATION

PO BOX 415 TZANEEN – LIMPOPO PROVINCE – 0850

TELEPHONE 082 952 3200

EMAIL vervets@enviro.co.za

WEB SITE: www.enviro.co.za

BANK DETAILS

VERVET MONKEY FOUNDATION

NEDBANK TZANEEN

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 1419 040 146

BRANCH CODE: 141-949

REHABILITATION CENTRE AND SANCTUARY

PLOT 35 CALIFORNIA LETSITELE

 

DARWIN PRIMATE GROUP

KARIN SAKS

EMAIL: imfene@xnets.co.za or

margaretroestorf@gmail.com

Telephone 082 495 6339

STANDARD BANK

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 86865414

REHABILITATION AND SANCTUARY

WEBSITE:  www.asendletrust.org

 

ADOPT AN ORPHAN VERVET MONKEY

To thank you for your help, you will receive:

• An adoption certificate
• Fortnightly emails of your adopted baby’s progress.
• A video of your baby’s progress with your name and how you have helped the vervet monkey’s cause.  You are welcome to add any personal photos of your own which we will incorporate into the video as well.
• An exclusive hand painted monkey T-shirt with your name on it.

Donation adoption:  

• To adopt one of the orphans for 1 year costs R4866
• To adopt one of the orphans for 6 months Costs R2433
• To sponsor their Baby Formula 12x 1kg Lactogen costs R1320
• To sponsor their Nestle Cereal x 12kg costs R336
• To sponsor their Vi-dalyn vitamins/2 bottles costs R110
• Fruit, seeds & Veggies costs R3100,

HOW ELSE CAN YOU HELP?

The following are always needed:

• Baby Formula: S-26 [No. 1 + 2] or Lactogen [No. 1 + 2]
• Baby bottles and teats
• Washing powder
• Old towels
• Baby Milk Bottle warmer, disinfector, sterilizer
• Electric pads or blankets (especially for injured monkeys being nursed) and hot water bottles
• Baby blankets
• Ropes, wire, fencing, poles for enclosures
• Fruit and Veggies, Dried Mielies (corn) and sunflower seeds
• Nestle cereal, Vi-dalyn Vitamin syrup, Pro Nutro, Honey
• Baby Born or premature Nappies in the first 6 weeks
• Medical: Syringes, Swabs, small bandages

To participate contact:

margaretroestorf@gmail.com; Kaz@imfene.co.za

In 2007, the ‘artist’ Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, took a dog from the street, tied him to a rope in an art gallery, and starved him to death.

For several days, the ‘artist’ and the visitors to the exhibition, watched emotionless, as the shameful ‘masterpiece’ played itself out, until finally the dog died.          

Take a look at the pictures (below), and ask yourself, does this look like art?

But this is not all … the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of the Central American  decided that the ‘installation’ was actually art, so that Guillermo Vargas Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action for the biennial of 2008.

To register your vote to stop him from repeating this, or other performances of a similar nature, click on the following link :
http://www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition-sign.html

Your vote is free of charge and it will only take 1 minute of your time. 
Please also send this e-mail to as many contact as you can.

If you want to double check the information you can google the name of the ‘artist’ to verify the facts.

Calf found beheaded, jumbo herd hits back
BERHAMPUR: Recovery of a decapitated elephant calf near Nimisola village in Palanga panchayat in Ganjam block has put the forest officials in a fix. The reason behind the death is still a mystery.

A herd of about 15 elephants migrated from Chandaka forest to the Barbara jungle of adjoining Khurda-Ganjam area in January and created a havoc in Khallikote, Purushottampur and Ganjam block. The herd laid waste to standing crops, cashew plantation, coconut trees besides attacking villagers.

After the herd was chased away jointly by district administration, forest department and local villagers, the elephants backtracked into the nearby forest.

But, it reappeared last week and began the destruction spree. According to the villagers, they chased the herd with ‘masals’ on Sunday after the elephants were seen destroying crops. Yesterday, the carcass of the elephant calf was found in the nearby field with the head intact. But, later it was found beheaded.

Some suspect it to be handiwork of poachers who chopped off the head for teeth and bone while others feel some wild animals might have eaten the head.

Meanwhile, after the death of the calf, the elephant herd has become more aggressive and is retaliating when chased. The locals have demanded intervention of forest staff.

The New Elephant Orphanage established at Kafue National Park in Zambia, run by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, was washed away in heavy flooding recently - with the lives of the four orphaned young elephant homed there, put at risk. They were safely moved, but the orphanage infrastructure and supplies were badly damaged. They have moved the orphanage to higher ground and need support to build the new location, stronger bomas (corrals) and milk supplies (23 litres per day per elephant) etc.

If you are in a position to assist or you can network this information please cut and paste this Elephant News text into a new email and attach the pdf appeal flyer. The html link for cross-posting is http://www.davidshepherd.org/appeals/appeals_emergency_appeal_feb_08.shtml and the pdf document can also be downloaded from that page.

The photograph (below) courtesy of Steve and Anna Tolan of CHAMILANDU  taken at the Chimembele Wildlife Education before re-location to David Shepherd Foundation Wildlife Foundation.

 

THE DREAM OF AN UNINTERRUPTED NATURAL CORRIDOR

Starting in Plett and radiating out until Eden Municipality is linked to Addo National Park - this is what we have in mind. A zig-zagged stretch of land that unites private landowners, conservation authorities and the state in a never-been-tried-before collaboration to protect the natural beauty of the Garden Route.

THE VISION
Our vision is simple: ” To assist landowners to identify and develop a living corridor from Eden to Addo by applying sound land-use practices, encouraging a diversity of livelihoods and linking ecologically important areas, for the benefit of wildlife and the extended community.”

THE DREAM
The Eden to Addo vision is based on the practical potential within the landscape connecting the Western and Eastern Cape, but this vision is guided by a deeper question and dream: What if we could re-establish ancient elephant migration paths across the Cape, what then? What other wildlife will benefit and how will that restore the ecological balance of the region by connecting the existing three mega reserves of the area; Garden Route Mega Reserve, Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve and Greater Addo Elephant National Park?

THE SCIENCE
The establishment of an effective pattern of habitats linking existing protected areas to ensure ecological connectivity for species, communities and ecological processes. But what does this actually mean?
At it’s simplest a conservation corridor is a strip of land connecting two protected areas. Why do we want to connect protected areas? In recent years conservationists have acknowledged that putting a fence around an area and proclaiming a park or reserve is insufficient to protect the patterns and processes that are required for proper ecological functioning at a regional level.
The best local example of this is the Knysna elephant. Research suggests that there are 4 or 5 elephants remaining in the Knysna forest. One of them is an old female or the Matriarch. But who are the other 4? Her brothers and sisters? Sons and daughters? Some in-breading must have occurred, which is never really a good thing. It can be detrimental to the herd leading to abnormalities or even the demise of the herd or perhaps even the species. Why does this happen? Movement is key and in this case, the lack thereof. Actual physical movement of the animal out of a restricted area to find a suitable mate or suitable grazing and the movement of genetic material that occurs when the mate is found.
Without fresh genetic material a community suffers from a lack of genetic diversity which can lead to genetic stasis and the weakening of the herd. So the freedom of physical movement and the freedom to exchange genetic material and build a diverse genetic base are imperative for the survival of a species. This theory can be applied to all the organisms that live in the Cape Floristic Region which sports some of the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet. They all need the freedom to move, even plants move - albeit slowly - in response to climate change and they need to exchange genetic material.

Funded by: . CEPF . .. Endorsed by: . Peace Parks Foundation · WWF-SA
Partnered by: . CAPE · Garden Route Initiative · CapeNature · South African National Parks

United Press International
KINSHUSHE, Kenya, Feb. 22

Baboons and elephants destroy crops in Kenya.

Elephants and baboons have been raiding fields in one district in Kenya, destroying crops and putting at least 3,000 people at risk of starvation.
One man was killed by an elephant while standing guard and another man was seriously injured by baboons that showed up while he was harvesting maize, The Nation, a Kenyan newspaper, reported.
“Residents guard their farms in shifts to protect crops from baboons during day time while others take over and guard against elephants at night,” Joseph Meso, the chief in Kishushe, said.  A wildlife control post was set up in the area last year but closed recently. The Kenya Wildlife Service said it didn’t have the money to keep the post open, The Nation said.
Two years ago, 5,000 baboons were transferred to Tsavo game reserve, creating a problem in the region. The wildlife service has begun moving baboons out of Tsavo to the Shimba Hills reserve.

For more information visit

http://www.savetheelephants.org

http://www.elephantconservation.org

by Dr Richard Leakey
Sadly my beloved country Kenya has been in the news a great deal in the past few weeks, and the news has not been good. We have problems and these were triggered by the outcome of the Presidential election where the result was close, and where there is plenty of evidence for rigging. The dispute led to violence which has deteriorated into inter-ethnic fighting in certain parts of the country. Tragic scenes and news fill the media and a sense of doom, gloom and fear is palpable. The violence is not directed against foreigners or tourists in any way and much of Kenya is untouched by it. The main airports are functioning normally and the National Parks, the Game Reserves and the wildlife sanctuaries are perfectly safe from this fighting. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors Comment:

I’ve had the privilege of visiting the baby elephants up in Kenya and I look at the picture (above) every single day of my life. Isn’t this what it’s about?

Read on about the David Sheldrick WildlifeTrust ….

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is a small flexible charity, established in memory of David Sheldrick, famous Naturalist and founder Warden of Kenya’s giant Tsavo East National Park in which he served from 1948 until 1976. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re following the lives of the growing band of orphan vervet monkeys being fashioned into a troop under the experienced hand of Karin Saks, you’ll find this latest bit of information fascinating.
Read on about Ozzie.. as reported by Karin Saks.

Never having had to wonder much about the differences between infant male and female baboons, my introduction to the gender mystery of vervet babies took me by surprise. Ozzie arrived on the 12th November; an infant that had been alone for at least two days and was close to death. The man who had found her told me Ozzie was a boy when I enquired on the phone. And yes, although I didn’t examine him closely, Ozzie looked like a boy. Read the rest of this entry »