The Proboscis Monkey regurgitates and rechews its food.

The proboscis monkey, nicknamed the “long-nosed monkey” due to its huge, protruding nose, now has another claim to fame: it regularly regurgitates and rechews its food.

Ikki Matsuda

The proboscis monkey demonstrates the first naturally occurring, ongoing instances of this behavior in a primate, conclude the authors of the paper, published in the latest Royal Society Biology Letters.

Gorillas and humans will also sometimes upchuck, rechew, and swallow, but if done on even a semi-regular basis, the actions are considered to be pathological.

“The digestive tract of the proboscis monkey is drastically different from that of humans and great apes,” lead author Ikki Matsuda told Discovery News. “The proboscis monkey has a distinct sacculated (chambered) forestomach where bacterial digestion occurs prior to the glandular stomach.”

Matsuda, a scientist at Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute, and his colleagues recorded the behaviors of proboscis monkeys living along a tributary of Kinabatangan River, Malaysia. The researchers collected their data from a boat on the river during early mornings and late afternoons from January 2000 to March 2001.

At least 23 different monkeys were videotaped regurgitating and rechewing. When this happened, the monkey’s abdomen would contract and the primate would stick its tongue outside its pursed mouth.

The regurgitated material stayed in the mouth, but could be seen at times on camera. The monkey then puffed out its cheeks as it rechewed and swallowed the food for the second time.

Matsuda said he and his colleagues “speculate that the behavior served to allow for an increased food intake under yet-to-be-specified conditions.”

He explained the behavior likely allows the monkey to digest larger particles of food faster. This, he theorized, “means the monkey can eat more sooner, because the bacteria do not need as long to digest the material.”

The proboscis monkey’s diet consists of various proportions of leaves and fruits. Some can be quite fibrous. The researchers, however, were not able to associate any particular type of food to the regurgitation/rechewing behavior.

Ruminants, such as cows, digest in a similar way all the time. They tear off plant materials and swallow them. After some processing, a contraction sends the cud material back up to the mouth where it is chewed for a long time before being swallowed again.

Peter Langer, a professor in the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Justus-Liebig University, is one of the world’s leading experts on ruminants and their feeding processes. He is the author of the book “Mammalian Herbivore Stomach: Comparative Anatomy, Function and Evolution.”

Langer told Discovery news that it’s important to make it “clear that rumination in the Artiodactyla (cows and other hoofed animals) and regurgitation and remastication in other mammalian orders, including primates, are different physiological processes.”

Koalas, for example, are not ruminants, but like the proboscis monkey, they too have been observed regurgitating and rechewing their food. They are only believed to do this under certain circumstances, such as when their teeth wear out due to old age, or when lactating females need to consume more food.

Matsuda said that if he and his team had observed the behavior in the monkeys more regularly, “say 10 minutes after waking in the morning, we might have called it rumination.” He added that this study only focused on one population of the monkeys, so the behavior might even be a learned tradition.

He explained, “Traditions, especially related to feeding, have been reported in primates -- like the macaques that wash food and even season it with salt water. We simply cannot exclude such a tradition.”
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People, once again are taking the land from the monkeys

IN the name of progress, the greenery near rural areas is fast disappearing.

Wild trees and bushes are being cut down. One such area is Taman Tanjong, Port Dickson.

So much forest has been cleared that two different species of monkeys are forced to congregate on the trees close to the newly developed housing areas.

In the same meagre gelam trees one can see the common greay brown kera or macaques and a colony of leaf eating long-tailed grey monkeys, looking very much like Indian langurs.

Can Perhilitan catch them and send them to a forest reserve?
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Instead of catching the monkeys, catch the people and move them!

Rare Blonde Capuchin Monkeys slap and then insert sticks to get termites

Blond capuchin monkeys of the Brazilian forests use a special technique — smack, swirl, eat — as they fished termites out of trees, a new study of the critically endangered primates shows.

Blond Capuchins live in the forests of Brazil, but only about 180 are left in the wild. Antonio Souto's group discovered that they use a special technique-and-tool combo to fish termites from their nests in the trees.
CREDIT: Camila Bione.

"In some observations we have seen them do this fantastic behavior, fishing for termites," said Antonio Souto of the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Brazil. Similar insect-fishing behavior has been seen before, but the technique used by the blond capuchins is unique, he said.
There are only 180 of the capuchins left in the wild. The research team monitored a group of six of them as it moved through the trees and noticed that three of the four adult males in the group would climb up to a termite nest and start hitting it with their hands.

Each monkey grabbed a branch off the tree and poked it into the nest, using a rotational insertion technique to gain entry. They pulled out their sticks and inspected them, then ate the termites on them. Still holding the sticks, the monkeys tapped the nest again with their left hands and repeated the procedure.

To see how effective this technique was, the researchers gave it a try themselves. They climbed up ladders to the termite nest and copied the monkeys' movements.

"It really worked. The way they do it really enhanced their catch," Souto told LiveScience. "I think they can do better than we did; they have more experience."

While the whacking and the use of the stick seemed to increase their take-home, the rotational movement didn't. Instead, the researchers discovered, that twisting prevented the stick from breaking, allowing the monkeys to reuse it. "In the beginning we saw how difficult it was to perforate the nest wall without rotating the sticks," said Souto. "This has an effect on the life span of the stick."

The researchers are currently sifting through other data they collected while monitoring the monkeys, including on the animals' foraging behaviors. They plan to follow a separate, larger group of capuchins to determine if it fishes for termites the same way.

Souto said, "It's possible that the technique is unique to this small group of animals."
The study is published in today's (March 8) issue of the journal Biology Letters.
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Snow Macaques find sanctuary in the hot springs

Nagano, Japan (CNN) -- In an outdoor natural hot spring, or onsen, in snow-covered Nagano, Japan, people get a rare up-close view of snow monkeys in their natural habitat.

The monkeys mostly ignore the tourists armed with their cameras and the scientists who've traveled hours to be within centimeters of the crimson-faced creatures.

For 46 years, the Jigokudani Monkey Park has been a sanctuary for these snow monkeys. The monkeys lounge, appearing to almost nod off in the steaming hot bath, almost all of them with hot water up to their shoulders.

"It's pretty incredible," says Kate Bokan-Smith, an American from California teaching English in Japan for a year. "At first, it's a little frightening. But it's special that the monkeys can eat their food, be here without being pestered by humans. And yet we can be this close. I think it's special."

Vince Manna, a nature photographer who has taken pictures of 200 species of monkeys in the Amazon, Africa and Southeast Asia, agreed. He's never seen anything like this sanctuary, he says, as he points his high powered camera lens towards the steaming onsen teeming with monkeys. "This is unique."

Jigokudani Monkey Park's beginnings were borne out of man's frustrations with the snow monkeys, whom Nagano residents considered pests. As Nagano grew deeper into the hills, the monkeys grew less wary of the human invaders. Monkeys regularly broke into shops and homes to steal food, even as people sat nearby, the park said.

Residents had considered culling the animals, who grew emboldened by the year. But the park owners noticed an unusual habit forming among the monkeys: They appeared to enjoy Nagano's main tourist attraction, the outdoor onsens.

The park decided to build a giant outdoor hot spring away from the town and deep in the mountains. Jigokudani Monkey Park also began regular feedings. These incentives drew many monkeys away from Nagano, although to this day, they still wander the town.

Nagano residents have since shifted their feelings toward the monkeys, as tourists started going to the monkey onsen.

French, English and Chinese are just a few of the languages being uttered around the onsen. "It's magical, fabulous!" said Christine Cocks, from Australia. "They're just so cute. You could stand and watch them all day."

Her family member, Jessiah, echoed the sentiments, calling the relationship between the town and the monkeys "symbiotic."

In the freezing snow with little human shelter, the tourists can only really stay for minutes. They'll head back to Nagano and spend money in the restaurants and hotels and talk about the magical monkeys in the hills.
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Man dies after being attacked by a group of monkeys

JAIPUR: After two elephants injured a Korean couple at Amber, it was the turn of monkeys on Monday to create a ruckus. A 42-year-old businessman fell from the third floor of his house after being attacked by a group of monkeys in Galta Gate area in the morning. He died on the spot.

According to the police, the deceased, Giriraj Prasad Gupta, was a resident of Raghunath Colony in Galta Gate and owned a shop in Surajpole. He used to take a stroll on the rooftop of his third floor along with his wife every morning, said his father Brij Bihari Gupta.

At around 6 am, Giriraj asked his wife to go down and get tea for him.
"She had taken a few steps down the stairs when a group of moneys jumped to the rooftop from another house and attacked Giriraj," said a police officer.
His wife told police that while trying to scare away the monkeys, Giriraj asked her to run for safety.

"As his wife climbed down the stairs, she saw the monkeys attacking Giriraj," said the officer adding that the he fell head-on to the ground. "Giriraj's brother, who was in his room on the second floor, heard a loud thud and peeped out of the window. He saw Giriraj and rushed outside. But he had died on the spot," said the officer.

Nevertheless, the victim was rushed to SMS Hospital by family members, but declared brought dead. The hospital informed the police following which a post-mortem was conducted.

"We have handed over the body to the family members. A physical verification of the spot will be conducted on Tuesday," said the officer.
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Monkey pushes stone, 1 dies, 2 injured

VARANASI: A vegetable vendor was killed, while two others suffered serious injuries, when a monkey pushed a big stone from the third floor of a house in Chetganj area under the same police station on Monday.

According to reports, Bhanna, a native of Piplani area was running his makeshift vegetable shop outside the house of Mahadeo Sao in Chetganj area. On Monday morning, Bhanna was busy in his works, when a monkey climbed up the terrace of the house and pushed a stone. The stone fell from the third floor of the house. Bhanna suffered serious head injuries in the incident and died on the spot, while two other persons standing at his shop sustained injuries.
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In Ghana The Red Colobus Monkey is going extinct

Takoradi, Jan. 25, GNA - The Red Colobus monkey is almost extinct in th= e country due to destruction of their natural habitat and hunting. Mrs Exorm Ametorelo Erskine, an Assistant Wildlife Officer at the Western Regional Office of the WildLife Division, told the Ghana News Agenc= y on Tuesday that these monkeys used to be in rainforests at Bia and other protected areas in the country but there had been no sign of them for years= ..

Mrs Erskine said the Red Colobus monkey dwelt on tall and big trees which had not been cut down some people hunt the monkeys and illegally export them. She said majority of monkeys help in the dispersal of forest trees. For instance, the Red Colobus eat the fruits of tall trees and drop the seeds somewhere to germinate.

Mrs Erskine said some animals like the elephant also help in the germination of some forest trees.

"If the seeds of such trees do not pass through the digestive system of the elephant, germination is not possible", Mrs Erskine said. She said other endangered animals which are completely protected are Diana Monkey, chimpanzee, Bossman's Potto, Long Tail Pangolin, Bush Baby and lion.
Mrs Erskine said pythons eat animals such as rat, mice, grass cutter, birds and others which destroy crops and therefore help to keep the population of these animals in check. She said, 93All wild animals, be it big or small, has a task to perfor m in the environment and not being aware of their specific function does not mean they are useless," she said.
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Villagers have built a house for injured monkeys

HAVERI: It is not known whether Lord Ram really did exist and whether monkeys led by Lord Hanuman really did help in the construction of a bridge. All people know is that man descended from the monkey. But Bankapur villagers in Haveri district might have been influenced by the Ramayana when they built a house for an ailing monkey.

The story goes thus: A monkey was injured while fighting with others in tis group. Its legs were hurt and it had lost its eyesight.

Later, it began to move from door to door seeking food and water. But stray dogs in the area spelled trouble for the animal.

The villagers, feeling sorry, decided to build a house for it. They brought bamboo strips and poles to build a house at a height of five feet from the ground. A door was fixed which would be opened to feed it and kept closed at other times to prevent the entry of predators. A plastic sheet served as a roof to protect it from the rain and scorching sun.

Ninganagouda Patil, a tea stall owner near Kottageri bus stop takes care of the monkey. The villagers perform pooja to it, considering it to be an avatar of Hanuman. People come with offerings of fruit for the monkey. Now out of danger's way, the monkey is doing well. "Whoever visits the tea stall provides a banana to the monkey," said Ninganagouda.
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Spider Monkeys and Woolly Monkeys Frolic with each other

Anthony Di Fiore, a primate biologist at New York University, writes from Ecuador, where he is using GPS technology and camera traps to study the behavior of male spider monkeys.

Monday, Jan. 10
Here at the station they are saying that we brought the rain with us. After two virtually bone-dry weeks in late December and early January, it has been alternating between drizzle and full-on downpour since we arrived, punctuated by just a few hours of sun here and there. At night, lying in the cabins, we can hear rain rattling for hours on the corrugated aluminum roofs, drowning out the typical nighttime chorus of frogs and insects.
Despite the rain, it’s been a great three days of monkey follows. We’ve checked in on radio-collared groups of woolly monkeys, sakis and titis. But most of our time has been spent making sure that all of the spider monkeys in our main study group (called MQ-1) are all still around. MQ is our abbreviation for maquisapa, the word in the Indian language Quichua for spider monkey that translates (appropriately!) as “big hand.”
Although spider monkeys live in large social groups, you only rarely see more than a handful of animals at a time traveling or hanging out together. Instead, you run into subgroups consisting of one or few females and their offspring, a set of patrolling males or a male-female consorting pair. Subgroups join together and split apart frequently, leading researchers to describe the pattern as “fission-fusion” sociality. This kind of social system is rare among primates — indeed, it’s rare among mammals generally. A short list of mammals that live in fission-fusion groups would include chimpanzees, muriquis, elephants, some social carnivores and a few cetaceans.

A Long Journey Into the Ecuadorean Forest

.In three days, we’ve already found about half of the individuals in our group, including three of the six adult males and six of 11 adult females. MQ-1 contains about 32 individuals, counting the kids, and occupies a home range of about 600 hectares. Each hectare is 100 meters square, or roughly the equivalent of two American football fields laid next to each other, so this is a huge area to explore. But we’ve become pretty good at thinking like the monkeys over the past few years, so we can narrow our search by focusing on the routes that the monkeys commonly use to travel their range and by checking out the feeding trees that we know they like and that are currently fruiting.

Today, we checked out a huge Clarisia racemosa tree in the heart of the group’s range. Clarisia, from the same family as figs, produces fleshy, scarlet-colored fruits with a single large seed. It’s a favorite of the spider monkeys, which will pick and swallow dozens in a single feeding session. Sure enough, 30 meters up in its spreading crown we found the female Sofia (named after my older daughter), who was the first spider we learned to recognize. Sofia was with her latest two kids, Silvi (a female, born in late 2005 and now an impish adolescent) and Summer (a tiny male, born in the summer of 2009). Also nearby was a large group of woolly monkeys that soon began feeding on the Clarisia, too. With the woollies in the tree, we had to move back to avoid the fusillade of half-eaten strawberry-size fruits raining down from 30-plus meters.

The high point of the morning’s observations came a few minutes later when the feeding frenzy ended and both species of monkeys retired to the surrounding trees to rest and digest. With her mother and brother resting in the crook of a tree above her, Silvi approached and began bouncing around a couple of smaller woolly monkey juveniles. They responded by getting up and following Silvi as she scrambled up some lianas (woody vines), threw herself into the thin crown of a subcanopy tree, and then clambered back to repeat the whole process. It turned into a rare, long bout of interspecies play, with Silvi and the woollies chasing one another back and forth for 15 minutes or so until the woolly group moved off.
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Minister Erdan has stopped all commercial import of Monkeys from the wild

Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan announced on January 11, 2011 that in the wake of an in-depth review of monkey trade policy, he has decided to institute more stringent policy on this issue. The minister instructed the Nature and Parks Authority to ban the import of monkeys into Israel after a transitional period of half a year, except for purposes of rehabilitation and rescue. Import of monkeys will be permitted by research institutions for the purpose of life-saving medical research only. Monkey research will be permitted only for second generation monkeys raised in a breeding farm once it is proved that they will be used for medical research and not for cosmetic and similar research.

Minister Erdan: "Medical research is the only reason that justifies animal experimentation. Animal research for medical purposes is absolutely vital, but there is no reason for Israel to serve as a transfer station for monkey trade. Commercial and economic considerations cannot dictate the policy needed to protect wildlife and monkeys in particular."

Following dozens of years in which hundreds of monkeys were imported into Israel from African countries every year and their offspring were traded without adequate control of the purpose of the trade, Minister Erdan decided to stop all commercial import of monkeys from the wild. Monkey export will only be possible under stringent conditions, and only after it is proved that the monkeys will be used for medical research only and not for cosmetic and similar research. Only second generation (F2) in captivity monkeys will be exported.
As per the minister's request, the Nature and Parks Authority will allow bodies which may be impacted by the decision to voice their claims. During the half year transition period, limited import permits will be given to allow the farm to make the necessary preparations for its transformation into a breeding nucleus farm.
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Monkeys are being used to get coconuts

I really hate it when Monkeys are pets and especially when they put things around their necks!!!!! Though it does sound as though the new generation knows better.
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The use of monkeys are considered the safest method to assist in the quoting of coconut from trees and dangerous if people climb.
Today the service of this animal is endangered due to reduction in area planted with coconut and agricultural technology have produced varieties of low coconut trees.
Lack of interest among the young generation to continue the maintenance activities of coconut climbing monkey. Actually the other owner is composed of senior citizens.
For now the owner of monkey help to climb a coconut, animal husbandry is more to the hobby of leisure because of difficulties to teach mammals to pick coconut well. The use of monkeys climbing coconut tere just to fill the vacant jobs.
Wages coconut picking monkey now is RM10 for 100 coconut is considered inappropriate because the monkeys trained to pick coconut skilled needs a long tearm and difficult.

Meanwhile, the Legislative Assembly (Assembly) Jelawat, Datuk Dr Ilias Hussin, said the monkey owners should be rewarded accordingly this job.
"Not all coconut picking monkey is clever, if not by training in a long time. The owner is usually the people who keep monkeys to pick coconuts and wages to support families.

"If wages are not commensurate, perhaps in the future of coconut picking technique using these animals will become extinct if nothing is keen to keep it," he said.

He said, the monkey training center should be established in this country to enable pet owners that train their animals and ensure that traditional coconut picking monkey do not forget the next generation.

He said the use of monkeys to climb coconut and monkey training center real potential as a tourist attraction visited outside the country because it is something interesting to watch.
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Man injured in Monkey attack

Shimla, Jan 10 (IANS) A man was seriously injured Monday in a brutal attack by a monkey on the premises of the historical Hanuman Temple on the picturesque Jakhu hills of Shimla, an official said.

'Sanjeev Kumar, 20, got serious injuries when a fully-grown monkey attacked him without any provocation,' a wildlife official said.

Saved by the passers-by, who scared away the monkey, Sanjeev Kumar was admitted to Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital with multiple injuries, mainly on the face.

The town has a long problem with the monkeys snatching food and scaring people.

Instances of monkeys taking away spectacles and virtually forcing people into giving them foodstuff are not uncommon in the Jakhu temple.

Even in villages across the state, the monkey menace is quite acute as they mainly target the cereal and fruit crops, causing extensive damage.

The government in November last year allowed the farmers to shoot marauding monkeys. This angered animal right activists and they moved the Himachal Pradesh High Court which Jan 6 put on hold the government's decision.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice V.K. Ahuja directed the authorities to stop issuing monkey-killing permits, and asked the government to look for other options like use of crackers, use of rubber bullets and air-guns and sterilisation to deal with the monkeys.
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A Monkey has attacked more than 25 people

DAVANAGERE: A monkey attacked more than 25 people in two villages of Harapanahalli taluk of Davanagere district in the last two days. Around 10 days ago, a monkey which was spotted in Hiremegalagere, moved to the adjacent village, Pothalakatte and began attacking the people.

It looked very ferocious and did not allow any other monkeys near it. The victims are being treated in the nearby PHCs. The people are afraid to go to their fields fearing attack from the monkey. "It is difficult to predict the movement of the monkey as it moves erratically," said Anjinappa, a villager.

Though forest officials were summoned to the spot, they failed to capture the monkey. Even the local school had declared a two-day holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday, fearing for the safety of the students of the school school, said sources.
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Himachal Pradesh High Court put hold on shooting monkeys

Shimla, Jan 6


The Himachal Pradesh High Court Thursday put on hold the state government's decision to allow farmers to shoot monkeys that have been destroying their crops and fruits.

Coming down heavily on the state government, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice V.K. Ahuja directed authorities to stop issuing monkey killing permits.

"The state should have to protect all the beings... by giving permission to kill the problematic monkeys, the state has not understood and applied its mind to understand the basic intent of the Wildlife Protection Act and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act," the bench observed.

The judges directed the government to look for other options to protect crops like use of crackers to scare away the simians, use of rubber bullets and air-guns and sterilisation.

"Such options have not been experimented so far," the bench said.

The court has fixed March 5 as the next date of hearing.

A large number of farmers have procured permits from the state wildlife authority to kill the monkeys which have been damaging their crops, a move that has angered wildlife activists.

Himachal Pradesh chapter of non-governmental organisation People for Animals (PFA) and central agency Animal Welfare Board of India have knocked the doors of the high court against the animal killings.
The state government has asserted in the court that the permits to shoot monkeys have been given within the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which allows grant of such permits to kill wild animals causing damage to agriculture and humans.

Chief Wildlife Warden A.K. Gulati informed the court that 15 monkeys have been killed in the state under six out of the total 259 permits issued from Nov 1 to Dec 5, 2010. The permits have validity ranging from two to four weeks.

He added that there would be selective killing and no mass culling of the monkeys.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal informed the state assembly Thursday that the monkey menace had reached alarming proportions and that the government had authorised the chief wildlife warden to allow their hunting along with wild boars and blue bulls.

"To check their rising numbers, the government has sterilised 23,428 monkeys so far. The sterilised monkeys were later released in their natural habitats," he said.

The wildlife wing estimates that monkeys, numbering over 300,000, mainly target cereal and fruit crops, causing extensive damage mainly in Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Una, Mandi and Kangra districts.
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Capuchin Monkeys are selective in how they crack a nut

Wild capuchin monkeys are very selective about the best way to crack a nut, according to scientists.
Researchers from the University of Georgia, US, filmed the wild monkeys selecting the correct anvil and hammer for the job.
The footage reveals that the animals are "selective about the materials they use in tool use", say the scientists.
The research team have reported their findings in the journal Animal Behaviour.
The monkeys use pits in logs as anvils, to lodge the nuts in place while they use large stones as hammers to bash through the shells.

In the footage, the monkey can be seen "weighing up" the most appropriately sized pit.

Qing Liu, who led the study, said it was the first demonstration of the animals' ability to "measure" how appropriate a tool was for a specific job.

"They are good at [working out] the most effective anvil surface to crack nuts, even when [this] is not something visible," said Ms Liu.

"The effectiveness is equivalent to the number of strikes needed to crack a nut in that pit - the lower the better."

"The detection of such a complex property has not been demonstrated in animal tool use before, as far as I know."in monkeys are social animals, they are also likely to watch and learn from other monkeys attempting the same task.

But if the pit they start with is ineffective, the animals usually "self-correct", evaluating their success and making an independent choice.
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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.

Comment-
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.

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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

Monkey Problems in Shimla

If you cry out the word ‘monkey’ in front of any kid from Shimla, you would definitely get a scared and nervy retort. Such has been the annoyance and fright of the intimidating primates that people would rather tend to change the path from where they are walking, in case they see a herd nearby, than try to scare them away.
What makes them so different from the other stray animals that you find on the

Photo: Mohit Behl

Indian streets (dogs, cattle, rodents), is their aggressiveness and intelligence. Quite similar to us in many ways, their adaptability and ability to live off human refuse has made them a cause of concern for the human population living in the urban or rural areas alike.
Getting rid of these pesky simians has been a long drawn political agenda in the capital city. Solutions such as mass extradition to uninhabited areas or sterilization have been carried out. But how much these solutions have actually solved the problem, is a debatable topic. It is obvious that deporting them to secluded areas helps, but this species is known to travel long distances in search of food, a result of their intelligent and highly developed brain. Sterilization also helps, but finding the males and sterilizing them individually is a massive task in itself, plus also the infrastructure of our country makes it a burden on the economy. As per the Wildlife Institution of India, until 70 per cent of any species is sterilized, the population of the species cannot be controlled. Plus there is also the debate, which many wildlife conservationists put up, that this is ‘unethical’, and we are going against the law of nature.

Then is mass eradication of the species the solution? Again the answer is debatable. Isn’t that what we do to mosquitoes or other pests that trouble us. Even mosquitoes have a contribution to the overall life cycle of the planet. Why would killing the excess monkeys be a problem then?

Yes, in the wild the monkeys serve a amazing purpose, i.e. they eat the seeds of some plant, then, afterwards, through their faeces the seeds get a new and different germinating ground. But in the urban areas, where these “Rhesus Macaques” have found a safe breeding ground, even that purpose is not served.

Time and time again, due to pestilence of monkeys in the rural areas, the government has allowed controlled killing of the primates, but that has led to contradictory reactions from wildlife lovers and the wildlife protecting agencies namely Mrs Maneka Gandhi-founded PETA. And being a wildlife lover and also having an agricultural background, I myself, am caught in the dilemma, of killing the monkey, or protecting my crop.

Initially, my father, Mr Chander Chauhan, who has his agricultural land in Kotkhai, Shimla, used fireworks to scare the monkeys away, but as these primates are equally intelligent, over a period of time they got used to the drill, and would hardly react to the explosions. Then he tried his trained canines to scare the monkeys away. But the inability of the dogs to climb trees was a hindrance. And also the aggression of the monkeys is as such than rather than eating the fruit from the trees, they tend to climb on the trees and shake the branches, which leads to dropping of the fruit. So overall they cause much more harm than any other fruit-eating animals. Same would be the case for other farmers as well. So what does the farmer do, apart from killing the monkeys? Yes, some scientists do suggest the use of infrasonic sound waves to keep the monkeys away, but the practicality of the idea is yet to be proved, plus it requires a hefty investment.

The Himachal Pradesh government has spent nearly 20 crore rupees, in order to stop the ‘monkey menace’. But we all know the problem is far from being solved. I personally don’t see any improvement in the situation. So what steps can be taken in this context.

There are two very practical and efficient ways to reduce the simian population. One is to develop enclosed captivity areas for monkeys; that way they are not subjected to any cruelty, and for once the nuisance and menace of the simians can also be ended.

Second is to restart exporting of monkeys to places like Puerto Rico, which was in practice before 1978, for the purpose of lab testing. It was again stopped due to complain by Mrs Gandhi.

And last but definitely not the least, we the citizens of the state need to stop feeding the simians and also need to make sure that they do not get access to any dump or refuse. Once the monkeys will get less food, hence their chances of survival in the urban areas will be less and that will lead to a direct reduction in the population.
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Rare Stub-Nosed Monkeys are in danger

Human activity is destroying the habitat of the wild grey snub-nosed monkey, a critically-endangered species in southwest China's Guizhou Province, conservationists said Tuesday.
"Their habitat is now restricted to a 260-square-kilometer area in the Fanjingshan Nature Reserve," said Yang Yeqin, the reserve's chief. "Few monkeys are found outside the area these days."

Even in the quietness of the mountain area, human activity and its attendant pollution threatens the monkeys, Yang said.

"Many tourists travel to the nature reserve these days. Environmental pollution -- water pollution in particular -- poses a threat to the monkeys," he said.

When the reserve area becomes crowded, contagious diseases are more easily spread, another threat to the monkeys' health, said Yang. "Snub-nosed monkeys live in groups, and so contagious diseases spread quickly and can even endanger the species."

Last year, the reserve's management demolished an 80-bed mountain-top hotel because the garbage it produced polluted the monkeys' habitat.

The grey snub-nosed monkeys of Guizhou Province are the rarest of the three species of golden monkeys that inhabit China's Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Hubei provinces.

Chinese scientists found groups of snub-nosed monkeys in the early 1980s. At the time, the species's population was estimated to be around 200. After years of protection, the population has expanded to around 850. But even that number is less than the wild population of giant pandas, which is estimated at around 1,600.

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