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A very big apology for taking so long to put pen to paper so to speak .I’m sure you will be wondering if we have decided not to continue with our Chatter, or perhaps we are no more, Quite honestly what with the happenings both with our inmates and ourselves time has raced by We moved from Bazley at the end of 2002, mainly due to the threat that the Sanctuary monkeys faced especially from a neighbour from ‘hell. After much searching for a suitable area for all of us, especially for the monkeys of course, we were delighted to find a “Little piece of Heaven” or so we thought, a farm in Ixopo, isolated and plenty of scope to continue the work we were doing, of course the monkeys had to adjust from a coastal belt to an inland setting, as did all the Sanctuary inmates, us included. Unfortunately due to far too many circumstances we again had to move a year later to our present and far superior location especially for the primates. The have coped fantastically well with the new vegetation etc and they have also started to integrate with the local troop in this area, Unfortunately during this time we also lost our beloved Alpha female Minky who escaped from her transit cage during the traumatic move from the farm at Ixopo and was shot by the owner of the farm, even though he promised not to harm her, I had arranged for a third party to capture her and bring her to us, as we were unable to go 200kms back to capture her ourselves, As there was no one to care for the primates here at that time, and of course financial restraints played a very big part,. DeeDee one of the “Lame & Lazy’ inmates died here in Muden due to a twisted bowel, unfortunately the vet was unable to save her.. Shelly had an infant far too big to deliver on her own, he was still born, she thank God was ok, and Nunu our beloved piggy also passed away from a heart attack. Nine of the Sanctuary monkeys were released at Mphlopeni the nature reserve also in Muden (where we stayed for 3 months prior to moving to our current location) they were not interested in moving, I think they decided enough is enough…. We are monitoring them on a regular basis and they are well. It is with delight that we report that Bobby who everyone said could never be released or survive in the wild has settled well and is FREE he had had his teeth filed and we were told that he would not be able to fend for himself with out his canines, but they grew again, and once he decided he wanted out of the L&L enclosure permanently we allowed him to run totally free with the others in our training troop. (These are previously released primates who have formed their own troop) The Lame & Lazy enclosure has 3 inmates, Eyeless an old lady who is blind but copes fantastically well, she has two companions, May-May and Scar both have very poor eye sight but nothing can be done for them even though we had them checked by professional vets, they now have the best we can offer them and are happy and safe These primates are excellent subjects for hands on study purposes for the volunteers who visited us, we are hoping now that we are settled once again that volunteers will again started coming to APES. Our current troop consists of the following, Mandy (her mother was shot by a farmer up the north coast because his wife wanted a monkey as a pet! She was a few weeks old when she came to us 5 years ago and is now the current Alpha female, having taken over from Minky. She has a daughter called Christine, who is also showing signs of being a leading female one day, Karen who is 2nd in command {Beta female) also the same age as Mandy has her 2nd son called Frank who is a holy terror he is spoilt by the others and is convinced he is a giant among the primates…. (Karen lost her first infant, Sipho, also a male at Ixopo) one of the monkeys released at Mphlopeni was also called Sipho; he was Minky’s son. N2 the Alpha male, a real lover boy, also predicted by experts to be non releasable, he proved otherwise Sherry is a juvenile female, her mom was one of the released monkeys at Mphlopeni, Tombie our Zulu understanding female, has her daughter Tomisina Paddy a young male who came to us at Ixopo from Eastern Cape, his mum was eaten. He is a real card, walks like Charlie Chaplin, his big friend was Sizwe, who passed away at 8 months he was Paddy’s constant companion, but Paddy has a new charge so to speak called Star, he was found on Christmas eve 2003 on the south coast by one of our Trustees, Paddy Gregory, Star is a very independent little chap, he bosses Paddy too. Our “training troop has been joined by a lone male from this area, we have named him Herman, (after the farm Hermansburg where the sanctuary is situated). He is accepted by the troop but has to wait his turn when he wants to feed.
NOW the great news, we have been donated some land adjoining a 8500 acre nature reserve by a wonderful local resident, he has also given us permission to use his nature reserve for the primates and any other wild animals we rescue and release. BUT now the fund raising has to really get into top gear, we have to build from scratch, so HELP PLEASE. One blessing is that the local people in this area don’t want us to move, so we are also working on a project for them to turn this place into a mini nature reserve, incorporating the farming, a unique aspect, this will be owned by the local community, A mammoth task but it will be wonderful for all This will create much needed work for the local community too. It might also be of interest that we not only work with the animals in our care but teach the local community environmental education, recycling hold English classes weekly for both adults and children, Rod also helps them with their domestic animal problems be it Rabies injections, goat foot rot etc Many times both of us agree we don’t seem to have a enough hours in the day. We are delighted to report that an overseas company approached us to have their volunteers come to APES, they will not only be working with the animals but will also get involved working with the people in this area, a dream come true for all. We also are thrilled to report that Thombi, gave birth to a healthy male infant called Jim during November Mandy gave birth to a healthy male infant in mid-December named Gemma after our first Volunteer from overseas for ages, and the shock of all was Old Eyeless and Scar (Lame & Lazy inmates) both gave birth to male infants within hours of each other, mid-November, East the card was the guilty party me thinks, this of course was totally unplanned to say the least but has seemed to given both of them a new lease of life so to speak. May-May has her work cut out being nursemaid to both of these two. We have named the infants, EFFA and LES Their mums will now be put onto a birth control programme and of course in a few months these two will join the other youngsters on the outside Of course to add to our workload we have an injured Duiker, a young male He was injured when he ran into a fence, and has had to learn to balance and walk again, we are pleased to report that he is making fantastic progress, I might add Oliver Reed (the name Rod decided) is an amazing animal he has taught me a great deal about finding the correct food, and his likes and dislikes when it comes to feeding him, I spend a great deal of time foraging for the correct leaves and shrubs, it is quite comical to see him turn up his nose if the food presented is not to his liking….. We also have 6 Guinea fowl chicks, the last three born on Christmas Eve, Lizzy, our Zulu hen who was sitting hatched them The eggs were found in the potato field by some workers here, they were brought to me thank goodness. The other three chicks were already hatched, they were also found in the potato field, there were originally 6 but three have since gone to’ guinea fowl heaven’ The remaining 3 chicks will now join Lizzy and her new babies. Last but not least is our new pup LANDY we bought him from a farmer in Muden, we like to think that we saved him, this man keeps his dogs in a fenced area, uses them as hunting dogs, disgusting to say the least, we will be getting the authorities to look into this very soon in the new year. We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best for the festive season and may 2006 be everything you wish. Please remember if any of you would like to visit APES we would be delighted to see you. On closing we would like to thank those who have stood by us through all our ups and downs, also for the encouragement, donations of food and gifts received throughout the last year, we could not have managed without you, Bless you all and thanks for caring. Hope this belated Chatter has been of interest please feel free to contact us if you require any more info and thanks again for all your support, For more information please visit our website www.apes.org.za Bless you all and thanks again for caring
. Rod,Dawn & all at APES.
OUR CONTACT NUMBER IS CELL 072 306 5664
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