Jungle Friends need 250 thousand dollars to expand in order to take in more monkeys

Too much monkey business has left one sanctuary overcrowded. Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary in Gainesville is home to more than 120 monkeys that come from all over the U.S. They needed a home, and found one here in North Central Florida. Recently, they've had to turn away new climbers because of limited space.

Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary was established in 1999 by Kari Bagnall. Four interns, six dogs, four birds, and 120 monkeys make up their far from ordinary bunch. But this monkey hotel is booked, leaving nowhere to go for those who need a home. Bagnall lives in the sanctuary in her mobile home, along with interns, who are from all over the world. Vicki Weston is a student from Bath, England and she is on her second go-around. She says "i liked it so much that now i'm back for six months." Another intern, Mimi Sanada, is known around the sanctuary as "Mama Mimi." She has become the sanctuary apprentice. Bagnall wishes she could take in all the monkeys that need a home, but they need space, and some have to be separated from others for safety's sake.

The sanctuary needs 250 thousand dollars to buy the property next door. If they can purchase the lot, they will be able to have twice as many monkeys.

Here's how you can help: Jungle Friends is competing in the Pepsi challenge, which awards great ideas with exactly 250 thousand dollars. To vote for helping the monkeys you can click on the "vote now" link at their website at junglefriends.org. Voting ends January 31st.
Story Credit Here
To find out more about Jungle Friends Here

Vote to end the Bushmeat Trade for Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Orangutans and Monkeys

I received a comment in regards to the Bushmeat Industry and thought that it is important and should also be posted. This is one of the ways we can help. Just as Americans have had to be educated on the many plights of our Great Apes and Monkeys, people that participate in the Bushmeat trade also need to be educated. We have to remember that this has been their practices for many years, so they need to know and understand why and what the Bushmeat Trade is doing.

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Vote to help end the Bush meat trade! http://disney.go.com/projectgreen/explorevote.html Ecolife foundation is in a grant competition which if we will  give us $100,000 USD to help bring sustainable protein through aquaponics directly to bush meat hunters and their communities. Meeting their needs to reduce pressure on wildlife. ECOLIFE Foundation will build a Village Aquaponics System at the Limbe Wildlife Center in Cameroon. The Limbe Center is an oasis for orphans of the bush meat trade and also work to reduce poaching by holding classes to educated and provide other opportunities to bush meat hunters. This is a great opportunity to open new doors for micro-economic development and an alternative source of animal protein. $100,000 can ensure that at least three villages impacting endangered wildlife resources also have systems, training and the team to operate them. The competition ends on January 10th. for more info http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184472448231652& See  http://www.ecolifefoundation.org/

EVERY DAY GORILLAS AND OTHER PRIMATES ARE ORPHANED BY THE BUSHMEAT TRADE


Help us stop this tragic and unnecessary practice by helping us win $100,000.

ECOLIFE has been nominated to be a part of Disney's "Friends for Change." Please visit their site and vote for ECOLIFE's project, "Aquaponics Economics: Going Ape in Cameroon." You can help ECOLIFE win $100,000 to apply towards practical solutions such as an aquaponics systems for raising fish and vegetables.

Please go Here  and click on Explore & Vote to register and support our program
Eco life Foundation Website Here

Villagers of Kurki in Davangere taluk take special care of their monkey friends

Jan. 1: While drunken revelries mark New Year celebrations across the globe, the people of the little hamlet Kurki in Davangere taluk, celebrate the occasion every year in a unique way, by paying homage to the monkey on its death anniversary.

The villagers also sing bhajans and devotional songs all through the night at its grave, in memory of the animal. They also perform mass marriages of the poor. Hordes of monkeys normally visit the village, and people take special care of them.

However, one of the monkeys died on December 30 2002, after it was bitten by a dog in the village. Later, the villagers performed the last rites of the monkey, and buried it adjacent to the Hanuman temple. They also took out a grand procession of the body on a bullock cart, and thousands of villagers took part in the programme.

The villagers decided to observe New Year as a mark of respect to the deceased monkey, and stopped consumption of alcohol on that day. “We consider the monkeys as God incarnate, and we believe that the death of the animal would cause harm to the village. Therefore, we began to observe the New Year by performing pooja at the grave of the monkey. We also provide free meals to the villagers, who take part in the celebration,” a villager K.S. Shanmukappa said.

The people clean the idols of all the temples in the nearby lake. They paint the temples and decorate all the streets of the village.

They also contribute food grains, vegetables, and money, for the programme. The food grains left over after the ceremony are auctioned for hefty sums, and the villagers believe that the purchase of these items is auspicious for them. The money accrued from the sale is utilised for next year’s celebration. The village has a population of more than 3,000, and a majority of them are agriculturists.

Many of them have stopped drinking. People of all castes take part in the ceremony, and this has created harmonious relations among them.

Story Credit Here

Yeah No More Monkeys in Illinois Beginning Jan 1, 2011

I'm so glad to see that IL has decided to do the right thing and ban monkeys in their state on Jan 1, 2011. I just want to rejoice!!! What a way to start a new year. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of other states to follow. Florida and Missouri really need to follow their lead. Missouri is where Connie Casey-Braun that breeds chimps and monkeys lives and Florida, well, they just sell anything.
I hope they keep their word with the ones that aren't registered and take them away to be in sanctauries.

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Monkey Owning Prohibited


(Springfield) -- If you're thinking about getting a pet monkey, you can forget about it in Illinois.

New laws start January 1st that bans residents from owning primates.

The law keeps you from owning chimps, gorillas, monkeys and orangutans.

If you already have a primate, you're fine as long as it is registered with local animal control officials.

Therapy monkeys are also exempted from the new law and the new laws also allow zoos, circuses and science labs to get new primates.

Another new law for pets also starts in the new year.

Pet stores will now need to give buyers a detailed history of animals, including their health.

Story credit here

Great Videos of Gorillas and Monkeys

Here is a good website for visual information in regards to Gorillas and Monkeys, done by Ape Alliance.
Click Here

Minnie the Capuchin Monkey (Helping Hands) has a companion

The Helping Hands Monkeys are a wonderful addition to a home where they are needed. Remember readers, these are highly trained monkeys by professional people that work with them all of the time. Please do not be disillusioned that if you bought a baby monkey you also could do this training. It won't happen. It's takes full dedication, knowledge and years and years of training.

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Specially-trained Capuchin monkeys in the US are helping physically disabled people with the housework by performing tasks such as removing garbage, fetching the telephone or switching on the microwave. The furry companions are also helping paraplegics cope with loneliness.
It's her small hands that make Minnie especially useful. Hairy and slender, with slim fingers and black nails, the Capuchin monkey's hands are just right for twisting open a bottle of juice or fetching the telephone. And when Craig Cook's head itches, Minnie comes and scratches it until he feels better.

"She is more human than you would think," Cook says. The 44-year-old American, who has been paraplegic for more than 14 years, runs his stiff fingers lovingly through Minnie's fur as she cuddles on his lap, observing his guest curiously with her large, brown eyes. Then the monkey jumps up and crosses the kitchen of Cook's bungalow at a wild run, screeching and leaping, a bundle of energy wrapped up in dark brown fur.

"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" Cook says, his eyes shining. He has shared his bungalow here in La Habra, near Los Angeles, with the 30-year-old Capuchin monkey for the past six years. They watch Los Angeles Angels baseball games on TV together, or enjoy the California sun from the patio. And when Cook has "one of those bad days," it's Minnie who manages to make him laugh.

"It's wonderful to have an animal like that at home," Cook says. A former engineer and American football quarterback, he broke his spine in a car accident. He's very lucky to have Minnie -- there are only 45 Capuchin monkeys like her in the entire US, and Minnie is one of the best.

Monkey School
Minnie spent several years in training at the Monkey College, a facility run by a Boston-based aid organization called Helping Hands. This unusual school trains monkeys as household assistants and life partners for paralyzed people -- with great success. "The Capuchin monkeys provide independence and the gift of joy and companionship to the recipients, says Helping Hands employee Andrea Rothfelder. "These animals are very affectionate and loving; a lot of recipients call it a little miracle when their monkey moves in with them."
Director of training Alison Payne describes the Monkey College as a "mixture of pre-school and zoo." Helping Hands has a total of 180 monkeys, 50 of them currently being trained in Boston. Here in the three-story center, the monkeys practice using light switches, drawers, bottles and CD players. They learn the actions first in a room with only Spartan furnishings; later they practice in a "teaching apartment" outfitted with a wheelchair, bed, bookshelf and kitchenette.

Trainers drill the monkeys on around 30 commands, including "fetch," for retrieving an object, and "trash," for taking something to the garbage can. "Push" might mean the monkey should shut the refrigerator door, while "open" would achieve the opposite. Motivation for learning tasks is provided with peanut butter and spray can whipped cream.

"The monkeys are naturally curious," Payne says. "We try to expand their attention space." Still, the monkeys are also allowed some time off. Today Chichi and Jessica are romping around the playroom, chasing bubbles. For their classmate Tricia, it's bath day. Trainer Jennifer Evans has filled the kitchen sink with a lukewarm bubble bath, where Tricia is splashing about, poking her soaking wet head over the edge. A few minutes later, the trainer comes over to rub her dry.

"They're very much like two-year-olds," Payne says. Actually, the monkeys are between eight and 10, the ideal age range for drilling and training, when they start at the Monkey College. First, they get used to people by living in foster families. Next come two to four years of training. Once they're housetrained, they can move in with a disabled person.

Inseparable Companions

When Cook began his life together with Minnie, the evening that ruined his life was already several years behind him. On January 12, 1996, the engineer met a colleague for dinner in Los Angeles. The two left the restaurant shortly before midnight. "It was a mild evening, and Tyler wanted to take a drive in my convertible," Cook recalls. As they sped down the highway, Cook's colleague lost control of the 300-horsepower car. The vehicle flipped over and slid down an embankment. Cook's spine snapped instantly; his colleague was barely hurt.

Cook lost everything that day -- his job; his girlfriend, who soon moved out; but above all control over his own body. Unable to adjust to his new life, he found himself sliding into depression. But when a friend heard of Helping Hands, Cook contacted the organization and sent an application video. A couple of months later, Minnie entered his life.
"When the trainers came out here, they stayed for about a week," he recalls. "It was only then that she accepted me as the new king." That's the way of Capuchin monkeys -- they live in groups and choose their leaders with care.

Today, Cook and Minnie are inseparable. "Spoon," Cook says and the monkey fetches one from the silverware drawer. "Sun" -- Minnie turns on the light. "Can you do hand?" -- Minnie hoists her master's arm, which has slipped down from the armrest. He uses that hand to operate his wheelchair.
"Minnie can be lifesaving for me," Cook says. One time, his wheelchair got stuck on the patio as the sun was going down. Cook knew he was facing an entire night sitting in the dark, freezing and getting wet, until his caregiver arrived in the morning. He called Minnie, who brought his telephone. An hour later, help was there. "I had tears in my eyes," Cook says.
"The monkeys can be a lifeline; however, the most important thing of all is the companionship that they bring and this unconditional love," says director of training Payne. "Suddenly you have this little monkey person at home who just thinks that you are the coolest thing ever."

'They Alleviate the Pain and the Loneliness'

Helping Hands employees tell the story of a veteran who lost both his legs in Iraq. "He says that the monkey is the only one who takes him the way he is and who doesn't notice that he hasn't any legs," Rothfelder says. The monkeys could never take the place of a full-time caregiver, "but they allieviate both the pain and the loneliness of being home alone and also provide some tasks in the house."

It's hardly surprising that the clever Capuchin monkeys are in hot demand, but Helping Hands is only able to provide between six and eight of the monkeys to paralyzed individuals each year. It costs the organization around $40,000 (€30,500) to train a single monkey, all of which must come from donations. The service is free for the patients.

Craig Cook can count himself lucky -- his Minnie has granted him a new life. He remembers clearly the moment when the monkey jumped onto his shoulder for the first time, after five months together. "Suddenly she rubbed her fingers through the back of my hair," he says. "That's the ultimate sign of affection."

Cook estimates Minnie could live another 15 years, but he's loath to think beyond that point. The monkey won a place in his heart long ago.
"Minnie, are you OK?" -- these are the words he'll use to call the monkey tonight, after the caregiver has helped him into bed. And Minnie will answer him, from her cage in the living room, where she rolls herself up beneath a small, light blue blanket.

"And she will go toot toot toot," Cook says. Then he gives a small smile and explains: "That means, 'Everything is all right.'"

Story Credit Here and Photos
Helping Hands Website here

Kasey the Helping Hands Monkey

We all know about service dogs - animals trained to help the visually-impaired, and the physically-challenged. But, those aren't the only service animals out there.

Meet Kasey, one smart monkey.

She was specially trained by the organization, "Helping hands: monkey helpers for the disabled." Kasey puts her skills to work, helping Ned Rogers in everyday living.

Ned is a Concord, Mass. resident who was paralyzed in a car accident when he was 22. He was a senior at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He and Kasey have forged a special bond.

Ned, Kasey, and Kasey's mother's story is told in a new book called, "Kasey to the rescue," written by Ned's mother, Ellen Rogers.

"It's been four years and she just brings light to his day," said his mother.

Kasey was trained to perform simple tasks that help mobility impaired, like putting a CD in a player, and turning on light.

But above all, Ellen Rogers says, "the real thing that she does for him is fill a void of loneliness and isolation that has come from his accident."
Story Credit here

Helping Hands Monkey makes a big difference in a mans life

Video here

PETA Wants NASA To Stop Radiation Tests On Monkeys

Gosh didn't NASA learn ANYTHING from using Chimpanzees in research? Look where and how their lives ended up. 

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PETA Calls On Space Agency to Ground Cruel and Wasteful Tests and Use 21st Century Research Methods Instead
For Immediate Release:
January 20, 2010
Contact:
Holly Beal 757-622-7382
Huntsville, Ala. -- Wearing monkey masks while locked inside small cages and holding signs that read, "No Tax $ for Animal Abuse" and "Stop Radiation Tests on Monkeys," four PETA members will lead a protest outside Marshall Space Flight Center over the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) plan to subject as many as 28 squirrel monkeys to a massive dose of gamma radiation. After exposing the monkeys to the radiation, NASA plans to subject the animals to years of additional laboratory experiments in order to observe how the radiation affects their brains and bodies. Monkeys used in earlier radiation experiments conducted by the government have suffered from fatal types of cancer, including brain tumors. They have also suffered from cataracts, cognitive decline, and other conditions.
When:   Thursday, January 21, 12 noon
Where:  Marshall Space Flight Center, 1 Tranquility Base, Huntsville
"NASA prides itself on looking to the future, but when it comes to crude and cruel animal experiments, the agency is stuck in the Dark Ages," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "Monkeys are highly social, sensitive, and intelligent animals. Harming them in experiments so that NASA can check off another item on its seemingly endless list of questions about outer space is unjustifiable, especially when modern, humane research methods exist."
Because of the biological differences between species, results of radiation experiments on monkeys cannot be reliably applied to humans. In a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., PETA pointed out that NASA could study humans who have been to space and also could rely on modern research methods, including the use of human tissue cultures that would yield results relevant to humans--something that animal experiments cannot do.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.

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Do YOU Know The Difference Between a Monkey And An Ape?

 For one, most monkeys have tails; chimps, gorillas, orangutans and gibbons — all members of the category of apes — do not. Apes swing from branch to branch, something most monkeys are unable to do because of the structure of their shoulder bones. Monkeys run along the tops of the branches, instead. Apes more closely resemble humans than do monkeys. One of the world's experts on chimpanzees, primatologist and ethologist Jane Goodall, whose research showed that the behavior of chimps is startlingly close to that of humans. 

 

"I would like to also add that Apes are MUCH larger then monkeys. "

 

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Testing Hair From Asian Monkeys Living Close To People May Provide Early Warnings of Toxic Threats to Humans and Wildlife

Macaques living close to people share the same ecological niche and exposures

Testing hair from Asian monkeys living close to people may provide early warnings of toxic threats to humans and wildlife, according to a study published online this week in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

In parts of South and Southeast Asia, macaques and people are synanthropic, which means they share the same ecological niche. They drink from identical water sources, breathe the same air, share food sources, and play on the same ground.

"Macaques are similar to humans anatomically, physiologically and behaviorally," said the senior author on the study, Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel, a senior research scientist at the National Primate Research Center at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"They are also similar in their response to toxic exposures," said lead author Dr. Gregory Engel, a physician at Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine in Seattle and a research scientist at the UW National Primate Research Center. When macaques live in environments polluted by motor vehicles, openly disposed garbage, and industrial waste, they can come into contact with toxic substances such as lead, just as their human neighbors might.

Lead toxicity, the authors noted, remains a significant public health problem around the world. Intense exposure to lead can damage the nervous, circulatory, and reproductive systems, as well as the kidneys and liver. Exposure during childhood, according to other studies, may cause more subtle effects, such as decreased intelligence.

According to Jones-Engel, the researchers hypothesized that young macaques, in particular, would be good sentinels for human exposure to lead exposure.

"Young macaques share a propensity for curiosity and have a penchant for picking up objects and inserting them into their mouths, just as young children do," Jones-Engel noted. "A juvenile macaque has all the curiosity and energy of a toddler, and then some! Plus their parents aren't well informed about environmental hazards."

She and her team of primatologists, physicians, epidemiologists, veterinarians and toxicologists decided to test urban macaques as a potential early indicator that their human neighbors, especially the children, are being exposed to lead and other toxic metals. They took hair samples from three groups of free-ranging macaques at the Swoyambhu temple overlooking Kathmandu, Nepal. The macaques patrolling the site have abundant contact with people and with human-made environments. This World Heritage Site temple is located in a densely populated urban area with poor infrastructure that leaves point sources like discarded lead batteries, flaking leaded paint, and lead contaminated soil, a by-product of decades of leaded fuel, in the environment.

Hair lead levels differed among the three groups of macaques, and were much higher in younger macaques. The researchers' data did not support the idea that these lead levels were from basic differences in the animals' diet, and instead suggested that, in this population of macaques, behavioral or physiological factors among young macaques might play a significant role in determining exposure to lead and subsequent tissue concentration.

Animal sentinels of poisonous conditions for people have been used for a long time. From the 19th century and well into the 20th century coal miners sent canaries into mining shafts to check if the air was safe to breathe.

"While using animal sentinels is not a new phenomenon, we argue that not all animal species are relevant models for human toxicant exposures, but young macaques that share the same ecological niche with humans may be one of the best animal sentinels we have," Engel said.

Scientists testing for environmental exposures also don't want to hurt the animals they are monitoring. Collecting a few hairs is a gentle, non-invasive approach.

The researchers noted, "All of these factors contribute to making synanthropic macaques -- those that share the environment with humans -- potentially valuable as sentinels for toxic exposures and predictors of physiologic responses in humans."

The research team concluded, "Chemical analysis of hair is a promising, non-invasive technique for determining exposure to toxic elements in free-ranging, non-human primates, and further multidisciplinary research is needed to establish whether it can be used to predict lead levels in humans who live in the same areas."

In addition to Engel and Jones-Engel, other researchers on this study were Todd M. O'Hara and Tamara Cardona-Marek of the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks; John Heidrich of Quatros, LLC; Mukesh K. Chalise of the Central Department of Biology, Tribhuvan University; and Randall Kyes of the UW Department of Psychology and the UW National Primate Research Center.

The study was funded by grants from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Institutes of Health.

Source and more photographs and information

Judge Barrs Construction Of Monkey Breeding Facility In Puerto Rico, Thanks To PETA And Residents

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: December 30, 2009

Filed at 4:44 p.m. ET

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A judge has barred construction of a monkey-breeding facility in southern Puerto Rico that has pitted people seeking an economic lifeline for their poor mountain town against other residents and animal activists.

The decision came in a lawsuit filed by nine residents of Guayama and the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. They argued Bioculture Ltd., the company planning the facility, failed to hold public hearings or submit a full environmental impact statement. Bioculture denied the allegations.

''We're not resting on our laurels,'' PETA spokesman Justin Goodman said Wednesday. ''If Bioculture attempts to pursue this project any further, we are poised for action.''

Bioculture will appeal the ruling by next week, lawyer Jorge Martinez Luciano said. He represents the Mauritius-based company seeking to build a facility that would hold at least 3,000 macaque monkeys and supply them to pharmaceutical companies for research.

Superior Court Judge Juan Frau Escudero ruled that construction permits should not have been awarded because the facility would be built on land reserved for agricultural purposes.

''The monkeys are not being bred for consumption of their meat,'' the judge wrote in the 16-page ruling, which was issued last week but not made public until Wednesday.

Martinez dismissed the judge's definition of what qualifies as agricultural use, and he dismissed complaints by the townspeople involved in the lawsuit.

''None of them showed ... they would suffer real and palpable damage,'' he said.

A judge previously suspended construction of the 13,000-square-foot (1,208-sqquare-meter) facility because Bioculture lacked appropriate environmental permits, but it received clearance in June.

The company has said it would employ at least 50 people and buy fruit from local farmers, an appealing promise for an island battling a nearly 16 percent unemployment rate.

Bioculture also has pledged to buy supplies for a local school whose principal collected 300 signatures in favor of the facility earlier this year.

''I support it 100 percent,'' principal Olga Colon said. ''This is going to bring progress to the community, and jobs.''

In recent years, Colon said she has seen dozens of unemployed families move from Guayama to the United States for work.

Local people who oppose the project fear the monkeys will escape just as others did from labs near the island's southwest region in the 1960s and '70s. Authorities are trying to get rid of the estimated 1,000 monkeys now living in that area by shooting them and even sent a group of them to a zoo in Iraq earlier this year.

Bioculture has said it hopes to open the breeding facility next summer, but Martinez said the company has not secured permits to import monkeys to Puerto Rico.

Source

Nicole Cook Speaks To School Children About The Plight Of Primates

Nicole Cook, clutching globe, rides to school with researcher Sylvain Lemoine and driver Manson.

When Nicole Cook, a postmaster from Conyngham, entered a school in the Nigerian village of Iko Ekperem, she wrote her name on the board, pointed at a globe to show where she came from and led the children in a pledge.

"I had them raise their hand and put a hand on their heart and swear they would never hurt a monkey," Cook said.

For two weeks in Nigeria, she worked as a volunteer caring for orphaned monkeys at a refuge run by the Centre for Education, Research, Conservation of Primates and Nature.

Her trip to the school, arranged by a village chief, allowed her to explain how people help monkeys at the center's Rhoko Research and Education Center on the river of the same name.

In Nigeria and much of Africa, it is illegal to kill or sell a monkey, or raise one as a pet.

Yet monkeys become orphans as zoos close in war zones or, more commonly, as hunters kill their parents for bushmeat, which is part of the Nigerian diet.

Bushmeat, however, is no longer a sustainable food, as Cook told the students, because logging and plantations chopped Nigeria's rainforest to 10 percent of its original size.

The killing of monkeys, gorillas and other great apes changed from subsistence hunting to a billion-dollar industry. Organized bands now hunt to feed logging camps or export the meat on logging trucks to markets where it fetches high prices as a delicacy in Africa and wherever Africans have immigrated in Asia, Europe and North America.

"The bushmeat trade over the last decade or so has become an emerging threat to wildlife population across Africa," said Lisa Pharoah, program manager for West and Central Africa at the Jane Goodall Institute in Arlington, Va.

Hunters leave behind orphans too tiny to sell for meat. Some of the young monkeys are brought to sanctuaries after being confiscated by authorities or turned in by owners who eventually realize that monkeys are too strong and active to make safe pets.

Hence, Cook asked the students to take the pledge. If the killing of monkeys continues, none will remain, Cook said.

She explained to the school children that in a portion of their rainforest, the center created a preserve where no one has permission to hunt or cut trees.

Cook told the children about Dr. Jane Goodall, a researcher who started her career studying chimpanzees and now devotes her life to protecting them and the places where they live. Goodall teaches that everyone could leave lighter footprints - that is, have a gentler impact on the earth's resources.

"Only take things out of the rainforest that are renewable," Cook said to the students.

Villagers traditionally derive their income from the forest. They enter on Mondays - gathering yams, cocoa beans, palm nuts, plantains, pineapples, papayas - and leave on Thursdays to sell at the market on Fridays.

Cook told the children that logging devalues the forest without enriching them.

"The money doesn't stay in the village," she said.

The center seeks to help the villagers by buying food from them, a recognition that people who live near the forest must have ways of sustaining themselves if they are to sustain the forest and its creatures.

Cook and two women from the United Kingdom who volunteered with her bought local fabric. Sold in fathoms, or 6-foot lengths, the fabric cost 900 Naira, or about $6.13. Her colleagues took the fabric to a tailor who made dresses for them. Cook took her fathoms of fabric home to make curtains.

For three days, she, the other volunteers and guides walked 8 kilometers through the wilderness, marking - and sometimes hacking - a trail with machetes. The trail leads to the top of a volcano called Bagamogon that will be a destination for researchers, other volunteers and, hopefully, tourists, who will enrich the villagers, Cook said.

When Cook arrived at Rhoko, she didn't think she could endure two weeks of sleeping in the huts; eating the local diet, which included dried fish that her guides packed and incorporated into each meal during the trek up Bagamogon, and dealing with the wildlife.

Although watchful for gorillas and snakes, Cook learned to walk with her head down to watch for the most feared creature in the forest - ants.

The first night when she stepped out of a vehicle upon arrival at Rhoko, Cook felt a pinch.

"Ow, Ow," she screamed.

Just run, someone yelled back.

She had stepped on an ant mound in the dark.

"Before you know it, they'll be crawling up your chest. They bite so bad," she said.

During her stay, Cook took malaria drugs daily as a precaution against disease-carrying mosquitoes, was bitten by bedbugs, broke out from poison ivy and fled her hut when a cobra rose up between the floorboards and spit on her companion. A self-described weak swimmer, she nearly drowned in a river after the current carried her over her head. A woman on shore waded in and extended a hand to lead Cook back to shore.

Even out of the water, Cook never felt dry. "Once you sweat, you're just wet all day." A towel that she hung to dry remained wet four days later when she packed to leave.

The humid forest, however, felt like an air-conditioned room compared with the village, where the sun baked everyone. All the drinks were tepid too, including the river water served warm and smoky after being boiled to kill bacteria.

Despite the hardships, Cook cried by the time she had to leave. She bonded with her companions and village leaders while drinking kai kai, a strong alcohol distilled from palm sap. She marveled at the greenery of the forest, the dozens of brightly spangled butterflies and birds, and, of course, the monkeys.

At the center, the monkeys live in fenced enclosures. Many of them are from the genus gunon, including a single Preuss's monkey, the only member of that endangered species in captivity. The mona monkeys resembled old men with their white beards. Cook saw other monkeys that look like their names: the red-capped mangabey and the putty-nose guenon.

She watched them as they groomed one another by picking parasites from their fur.

Monkeys practice good nutrition as well as hygiene.

"If you give a monkey something that's not good for them, they will just throw it," Cook said.

Cook tossed food wrapped in bamboo skins into the monkeys' enclosures. Opening the skins to find food stimulates their minds and simulates foraging to help prepare the monkeys for a return to the forest.

The next day when a monkey saw Cook, it held one of the skins as if to implore her to fill it up again.

"They are so smart," Cook said.

Sylvain Lemoine, a French researcher staying at the center, found 220 forest foods that monkeys eat while cataloging what different species of monkeys accept and reject.

Lemoine was animatedly telling Cook about the plan to return the monkeys to the forest when the cobra interrupted them and spit on his leg as he dashed out the door.

"I don't think his feet touched the floor," Cook said.

She rushed outside behind him.

While the snake intruded on their talk, eagles or other birds of prey interrupted the first attempt to return monkeys to the forest. They were scared of the birds and returned to the center, but researchers will try again, Cook said.

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Colobus Monkeys Are At Risk Of Extinction From Climate Change

Colobus monkeys are one of the primate species most at risk from climate change.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Monkey species will become 'increasingly at risk of extinction' because of global warming, according to new research published this week.

The research reveals that populations of monkeys and apes in Africa that depend largely on a diet of leaves may be wiped out by a rise in annual temperatures of 2°C. The study by researchers from Bournemouth, Roehampton and Oxford Universities suggests that the species most at risk are the already endangered gorillas and colobine monkeys.

The paper, published online in Animal Behaviour, pinpoints which species are most threatened by climate change in a series of new global maps. The maps show current and predicted distributions of primates, comparing the populations according to their diet and the amount of enforced rest they are predicted to need.

The researchers warn that Old World monkey populations in Africa will be hardest hit even by a very modest 2°C increase in global mean temperature, especially those whose diets are mainly leaf-based such as the beautiful colobine monkeys.

In contrast, New World monkeys in South America will be virtually unaffected by a rise of 2°C in mean temperatures.

However, even the South American species will begin to suffer if temperatures rise as much as 4°C because suitable habitats will then become increasingly fragmented, and small fragmented populations are more liable to risks of extinction.

These predictions are based on analyses of ecological constraints that determine how much time animals are forced to rest. The researchers found that animals that have forced rest have less time to forage for food or engage in other biologically essential activities, such as forming friendships.

Although most primates have adaptations that help them cope with the heat, they head for shelter and rest when the sun gets too hot. The researchers show that resting time is influenced by three main factors: the percentage of leaves in the animals’ diet, temperature variation and mean annual temperature. When these three effects come together, susceptible species will be unable to cope and populations will go extinct.

The researchers used climate

models coupled with an analysis of quantitative data on the behaviour, diet and group size of different primate species across the world.

African monkeys and apes that have a high percentage of leaves in their diet are geographically more restricted even now, being confined to a relatively narrow region around the equator. However, fruit-eating species like the baboons and guenon monkeys of Africa typically have a much wider latitudinal range and can cope with a wider range of climatic conditions.

This ecological separation between fruit- and leaf-eating species is much less obvious in the Americas, and so these species will be much less badly affected by climate warming.

The contrast between the continents may be due to the fact that African fruit-eating species may have developed a particular ecological adaptation to more challenging habitats than those encountered by species in South America.

Lead author Dr Amanda Korstjens, from Bournemouth University, said: ‘The possibility that enforced resting time might have so strong an effect on where on the map a major mammal group is likely to survive has not previously been appreciated. This study suggests that the amount of time available for monkeys and apes to gather food and socialise may be a key factor when looking at possible effects of climate change on animal distribution patterns in the past and in the future.’

Professor Robin Dunbar, from the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford, said: ‘We often worry about deforestation and hunting as the two main factors threatening the extinction of primate populations, but these results suggest that even if we find ways to solve these problems, it may not save some species of monkeys and apes from extinction. Instead, we perhaps should worry about ensuring that we provide these species with habitats that are more in tune with their capacities to cope with climate change.’

Dr Julia Lehmann, from Roehampton University, said: ‘At overall temperature increases of 2°C and 4°C, the distribution of habitat suitable for species that eat a lot of leaves will be greatly reduced. The distribution of suitable habitat would become progressively restricted and increasingly fragmented. The scale of the effect is sufficiently large that the implications for the survival of the dietetically more specialised primates are worrying.’

Provided by Oxford University (news : web)

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Mamie Manneh Tried To Sneak In 720Lbs of Monkey Meat And Has 11 Prior Arrests

Where has our legal system gone? So many wrong things about this. This woman sounds as though she is very sick and shouldn't be a member of society. Her poor children.

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A federal judge sentenced a Staten Island mother of eight to probation for smuggling monkey meat into the country.

Citing her large family — and three other children she is currently raising in her home — Federal Judge Raymond Dearie ruled that Mamie Manneh shouldn't be put behind bars for illegally trying to sneak 720 pounds of bushmeat including limbs, skulls and torsos from baboons and green monkeys in boxes labeled "African dresses and smoked fish" through customs three years ago. "If you do it again, whether you have 11 children or 32, you will not be spared a federal prison sentence," the judge warned.

Manneh, who has 11 prior arrests including one for running over her husband's suspected mistress with an SUV, argued it was her Constitutional right to bring monkey meat into the United States. Her lawyers claimed she needed to eat monkey during certain religious ceremonies for her syncretic faith, which merges Christian and African traditions. A judge shot down those arguments, stating that Manneh should have applied for the necessary permits to import exotic foods. Prosecutors — and even renowned monkey expert Jane Goodall — said Manneh should be put behind bars for as long as 27 months.

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Mamie Manneh That Smuggled Dead Monkey Parts Only Gets Probation

Well, I guess because she is mentally ill she can get away with only being on probation for something like this? Well then that would mean that every convict in jail or in mental hospitals that are mentally ill have been sentenced wrong? Should they have just gotten probation also? I'll bet if it were children or human babies that were in those packages, the sentence would be different. When are we going to start caring about the animals as much as we care for ourselves? Probably never, we are such a selfish race.

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Last updated December 12, 2009 8:32 a.m. PT

NYC woman gets probation for smuggling monkey meat

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK -- A New York City woman who was caught smuggling monkey meat through Customs has been sentenced to probation.

Mamie Manneh was arrested in 2006 after agents seized a shipment of dozens of primate parts hidden in a batch of smoked fish.

The boxes included the skulls, limbs and torsos of monkeys and baboons. She was charged with smuggling endangered species.

Manneh's lawyers argued that she and other African immigrants on Staten Island needed the meat for religious reasons.

The judge ultimately rejected that defense but gave Manneh a lenient sentence because she has 11 children and is mentally ill.

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Information from: New York Post, http://www.nypost.com

Dead Monkeys and Monkey Parts Found in Customs

Oh I just can't believe this story! I thought this was the United States and people here were "suppose" to be civilized!?

Monkeys and monkey parts used as bush meat to be eaten here in the US!? Gosh don't we have enough animals that we eat right here in the US? Cows, pigs chickens, etc. This is totally unacceptable, in my opinion. I hope there will be punishment for this.

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A parcel containing two dead monkeys and monkey body parts has been uncovered by Customs officers in a Drogheda this evening.

It is believed the bodies of two monkeys as well as 14 monkey legs were discovered when officials examined a parcel in the Drogheda post office.

Officials from the Customs service are investigating the find.

It is believed the parcel was posted from Nigeria to a local address and that the monkeys were to be eaten.

The Department of Agriculture have taken possession of the monkeys. The Department had seized the parcel and its contents as they are illegally imported bush meat.

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Another Monkey Sighting In CA

The Marin Humane Society has received two reports of simian sightings over the past week, and spokeswoman Carrie Harrington said something may really be out there.

It all began at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, when a school bus driver reported seeing a monkey darting across the road on Captain Nurse Circle near Bolling Drive, Harrington said.

The school bus driver said he was absolutely sure it was monkey, with a foot-and-a-half-long tail, she said.

The Humane Society was inclined to laugh it off as a squirrel, or perhaps a cat or small dog. But then a woman called about 5 p.m. Tuesday to report that her 11-year-old daughter had seen a monkey in the same area Thursday, Harrington said.

The girl said, "Mom, look, there's a monkey over there," but the woman didn't see it, Harrington said.

The girl said the monkey was dark brown and the size of a bottle of soda.

Marin County animal control officers have been patrolling the area but haven't seen the animal, Harrington said.

She noted that is illegal in California to own a monkey as a pet. "If it's a lost pet, perhaps the owner doesn't feel comfortable coming forward," she said.

Harrington said it probably isn't a wild monkey, as Marin County hardly counts as a natural habitat for the animals.

"And it's so cold right now," she added. "Of utmost concern to us would be the welfare of the animal."

She said anyone who sees a monkey should call the Humane Society at (415) 883-4621.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Vanesse From Lola Ya Bonobo Gets A Nasty E-mail From Monkey Breeder, As I have been a victim of Jeanne Rizzotto

Vanessa;

Once again, the Chimpanzee Information Blog would like to thank you for your awareness of the awful trade of Apes and Monkeys in our country. I'm so glad you decided to post this e-mail, it only shows the great lengths that these abusers will go to in order for the public not to know what they are doing. I look at it this way.... If your ashamed of what your doing, perhaps you shouldn't be doing it! These people are monsters, they dart the monkey mums and steal their babes for high dollars to people that have no idea what they are doing! Later on in life the monkey is no longer welcome and discarded, scarred from the emotional distress of never having a mum and forced to live like a human child in clothing, their teeth are pulled, eating human food, ending up as diabetics and sometimes death.

I also have been a victim of many nasty e-mails., by a Jeanne Rizzotto from Montana, who owns 2 Pet Chimpanzees, by the name of Connor and Kramer.

Even with all of this, I continue and will always continue to tell the truth, show the proof and will not be stopped by making awareness. I'm so glad to see that there is someone like yourself who also believes in the same cause and is willing to withstand the verbal and written abuse from the very people we tell the Truth about. Thank you and GREAT work, keep up the awareness. Don't let their lies and threats stop you!

_________________________________________________________

E-mail-

This was in my inbox this morning:

Vanesse,

While you most certainly have the right to express your opinion against primate ownership, you do however not have the rights to steal the content from our site to publish on your blog. Unless you have explicit permission from the owners of the pictures, you do not have the right to repost them on your site as you should know as a blogger. I’m sure you would not appreciate it if we would start publishing your pictures on our site. Please remove any stolen content from our site at once. I’ve already alerted some of the people involved to file a DMCA violation against you.

Thank you for your time!
Johan
www.primatestore.com

Between my three blogs I have thousands of readers, many of you are faithful followers. So I’m asking you one thing that will really be of help to endangered primates all over the world:

From now on I’ll be posting links to these monkey breeding websites. Please go, visit them, and when you’re done, send your congress member the standard format letter I’ll have on the post.

How can we protect endangered animals in their indigenous countries if we in the US can buy and sell them as we please? How can we implore an African not to buy and sell chimpanzees and bonobos if we do exactly that?

I’ll soon have a whole new website, where all this information will be in one place. Every time an add using a monkey, chimp, or other primate appears in the media I’ll have the name and contact of the person in the company who hired them for you to write to. Every time a new primate is for sale on one of these websites, I’ll have the link, so you can see these infant primates who will grow up to bite, dressed in clothes. Spread the word, write to your representatives and together we can keep primates in the wild where they belong.

By the way, this might interest you all:

http://jezebel.com/5021076/primetime-exposes-the-dangers-of-satisfying-baby-lust-with-monkeys

Thank you for your support, everyone.

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Runaway Monkey Seen in Different Area Of Florida

By Drew Harwell, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Nov 22, 2009 04:41 PM

OLDSMAR – The runaway monkey's on the move again, this time at an Oldsmar apartment complex, officials said this afternoon.

The 30-pound runaway monkey, likely a macaque, was seen swinging from treetops to rooftops at the Sabal Palm at Boot Ranch Apartments near 1355 Bay Harbor Drive, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Deputies said it can be aggressive and asked that residents report any new sightings.

Deputies can't confirm yet that it's the same monkey-on-the-lam last seen Friday in northwest Hillsborough County. But a map of four separate monkey sightings across Tampa Bay in the last two weeks shows a similar path headed diagonally to the Gulf of Mexico.

"It wouldn't surprise me if it was the same one, and in fact I suspect it would be. Those animals can get around pretty fast," said Gary Morse, spokesman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "How many monkeys have you seen in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties?"

Drew Harwell can be reached at dharwell@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4170.

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