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VOLUNTEER INFORMATION
PRIMATE VOLUNTEER PROJECT.
Our Accommodation: 2 rooms in a rustic farmhouse (shared with us) with one bathroom, kitchen, workshops etc. Situated on 17 hectares of indigenous forest - and a gorge leading to the Salt River - in The Crags near Plett.
- At the moment this means room for 4 volunteers.
- Bedding can be provided but would prefer volunteers to bring a sleeping bag if possible
- Laundry will be done:
- Meals provided. Meals around the fireplace in the forest at night on request and when weather permits.
- Free internet access 6 pm - 7 pm every night, no landline but do have Skype etc.
- Will fetch volunteers from George airport which is a 2 hour drive from us. Will take them there on their departure too. Petrol expenses will be considered as extra costs.
- Main issue is transport but am happy to do odd trips as long as petrol is paid to any surrounding attractions.
- We will take volunteers into Plett to shop once a week.
- Car hire available in Plett and George at R150 - R200 per day. This includes 100km - 200km free per day.
- At the moment this programme is flexible with volunteers choosing what they may want to be involved in. This depends on the demands of primate orphans or the injured who are first priority. Busiest season for injured and orphaned primates is October to February so the best time for concentrating on the monitoring, behaviour programme is during the other months when there is more likely to be more time available.
- While 2 volunteers are able to attend to the needs of the primates on any given day, it leaves Karin open to take volunteers out to monitor wild troops, do anti-poaching, monkey rescue and environmental hikes. Or to give lifts to and from surrounding attractions if preferred. Lifts are at your own cost.
- Drivers licence is an advantage but not a necessity.
This project will suit real animal lovers/environmentalists/naturalists, who don't mind hard work, getting dirty and living with non humans primates close up. Easy going environmentalists who understand that this lifestyle can be pretty rough and unpredictable at times. Volunteers are encouraged to bring old clothing or towels if they want to participate hands on with monkeys or baboons. It makes no sense to toilet train these simians when to them faeces = seed dispersal = necessary to the environment.
The gorge - on site - leading to the Salt River. |
Arriving - our driveway. |
THE DARWIN PRIMATE GROUP; D.P.G.
A warm welcome from Project Primates, Karin Saks and John Page who will be acting as your hosts during your stay!
The truth about our primates in South Africa remains largely hidden due to misconceptions that are perpetuated by legislation and common outdated notions. As a result of our troops not being monitored while being severely persecuted, the damage caused has yet to be fully revealed. And that is what this project is about - to monitor wild troops, and counteract the various destructive processes presently in place that separate us from our primate relations and our interconnectedness (symbiotic relationship) with the wilderness in South Africa. An important aspect of this is the rescue and rehabilitation of orphaned and injured monkeys.
I hope the following will sufficiently inspire you to become a part of the solution.
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As a volunteer you will have the choice of being involved in various activities:
- Nurturing, nursing, observing baby orphans or injured adults that may be here.
- Cleaning, building enclosures, washing bottles, blankets etc:
- Monitoring wild vervet monkey and baboon troops in this area to ascertain the extent of damage done to troop structures/ male female sex ratios / numbers / etc. Record food sources they eat and identify them.
- Learn about primate behaviour and language and their complexed and fragile relationship with the humans they share a territory with. |
- Go on environmental hikes around the area to look for tracks and other indications of the wild animals here - specifically those that are persecuted like Caracal, Bushpig, Porcupine etc.
- Identifying local tourist establishments who harm wildlife in the area (shoot primates, trap Caracal etc) In the future we hope to offer tourists information on sincere environmentally friendly tourist establishments by promoting those who do not shoot or participate in harming - in any manner - wildlife on their properties. |
We are situated in The Crags - an area which is 15 minutes drive from Plettenberg Bay and 10 minutes drive from Nature's Valley.
Further information on this project. Please contact us through A.P.E.S. e/mail apes1@gom.co.za
 BACKGROUND by Karin Saks:
As a naturalist focussing on the plight of the Chacma Baboon and Vervet Monkey in the Western Cape, South Africa, I have strong reason to believe that there is an urgent need to halt the ongoing damage done to our primate populations. I have been observing the troops in this area for the last six years.
Development continues to encroach onto wild habitats; people choosing to live in semi-natural environments – farms, smallholdings, seaside villages etc. increasingly need to find environmentally friendly ways of co-existing with wild animals and flora in order to preserve and rehabilitate the natural bio-diversity.
It is common to assume that primate numbers are not threatened. Age-old myths serve to justify the persecution of these animals by certain sectors of society (the farming and hunting communities for example), and sightings of baboons and monkeys are generally not considered rare.
As a result, it is widely assumed that primates are not threatened. This is an important misconception.
In spite of many primates living in low predator areas, they get shot, poisoned, electrocuted, killed by dogs, caught in snares and trapped for research laboratories and muthi
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BLINDED |
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KILLED BY ROTTWEILER |
ESCOM: Genet and Vervet electrocuted in Nature's Valley July 2007.
After checking out the pylons around here and the vervet injuries, it is clear that PYLONS pose quite a big threat to vervets in the area. Volunteers are needed to check the areas pylons and research methods to prevent further deaths of this nature. Reports and suggestions will then be passed on to ESCOM.
CRUEL METHODS USED
- GIN TRAPS, POISONING, BOW AND ARROW, HUNTING DOGS. PELLET GUNS, GUNS ETC:
Extremely cruel methods to kill are often used by certain sectors of society who believe so called "problem animals" pose a threat to their livelihood. Over the years, troops have declined in numbers and troop structures are damaged.
To put it simply, humans are creating dysfunctional primate societies when primate territory is encroached on.
DWINDLING NUMBERS:
Reports of troops with 200-300 individuals (eg. Eugene Marais – “My Friends The Baboons” or Vincent Carruther’s book; The Magaliesberg) no longer exist; there is proof that both the baboon and monkey have suffered dwindling numbers. Old reference books state the vervet monkey was common, and could be found in most parts of South Africa. It is recorded, that they lived in large troops, of between a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty members strong. Older generations claim that, years ago, you could find vervets everywhere. Today they are no longer ‘commonly’ found here.
"PROTECTED" STATUS OF PRIMATES IN S.A.
The Vervet Monkey and Chacma Baboon fall under appendix two of CITES (Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species) as species considered to be at risk of extinction if populations are not monitored. However, in spite of this "protected" status, a piece of legislation called The Hunting Proclamation allows them to be hunted, trapped, caught in traps etc. all year round in unlimited numbers in rural areas in the Western Cape. and in other provinces of South Africa.
This piece of legislation allows the killing of these animals using extremely cruel methods. Traps, poison, shooting at night (when primates are sleeping in trees), dog packs etc.
Residents with primate “problems” regularly call to find information about non-violent co-existence methods but the amount of people who continue to shoot without challenge continues to pose a real threat to our primate populations.
If this trend continues, it will certainly - slowly but progressively - eradicate these species.
The programme proposal has been created to confront the human and monkey/baboon conflict and through awareness hopes to halt this environmentally destructive process.
The monkey and baboon being two species who most often come into close contact with human habitats will provide an example about all so called “problem” animals.
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| Orphaned baby baboons - Kamu and Rhiannon: |
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Myself with Darwin, an orphan who was crippled when his mother's body landed on him after she was shot in a tree.
This book can be found in our libraries and gives a little bit of insight into my life spent with baboons. Any volunteer wanting to gain more understanding of the lifestyle they may expect to live here, the trials and the joys and the frustration - is encouraged to read the book first. |
' Life with Darwin and Other Baboons' is an evocative, deeply moving account of Karin Saks's continued battle to protect southern Africa's baboons, whose existence is threatened by continued persecution. The brave and indomitable Saks soldiers on in the face of burglaries, break-ups, belligerent farmers and the occasional deaths of her beloved baboons, triumphing over adversities that would have broken lesser women. Life with Darwin is a highly entertaining, well-researched read that should go a long way towards redressing man's inhuman attitude towards this intelligent, highly evolved species.
- Caroline Hurry, The Sunday Independent Newspaper
"Through fostering orphaned baboons and attempting to rehabilitate them back into the wild, Karin Saks brings fresh and moving perspectives to our knowledge of animal society . It's impossible after reading it to view a community of animals in the same way again. '" Shape magazine
The extraordinary story of Karin's experiences with baboons is told in a delightful book ... an extraordinary insight into baboon society and psychology - and a little human psychology too. A delightful book… a powerful plea for primate conservation. Vincent Carruthers, The Citizen Newspaper.
HOME IN LOREDO SOUTH - PROJECT LOCATION:
view from our kitchen:
When we arrived here, we discovered primate skulls in the tens thrown over the gorge cliff. A worker who worked for the previous owner told us that the previous owner had shot all the primates, trapped all the bushpigs, poisoned all the raptors by putting down rat poison.
| Nature's Valley Beach: |
The Crags |
Bloukrans Pass |
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There is now a vaccuum here for certain species to be released. However, the risks regarding farmer neighbors (dairy) remains. It is however a risk that exists in all rural areas in the Western Cape because legislation - The Hunting Proclamation- allows primates to be persecuted in all rural areas of South Africa as mentioned previously.
The Salt River troop that visit this property, have clearly been severely persecuted which is easy to see (once you become used to observing baboon behaviour) and they do come past here a few times a week. But there are no wild monkeys here.
This is the garden area where we live. To the left leads into forest and down to the bottom of the Salt River where the property ends - see photo of the gorge at beginning of email. The property is 17 hectares and rented. Trees surrounding the house are indigenous and generally 20 metres high.
Picnic area and fireplace for night time suppers and camping.
SOUTH AFRICA’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE “POTENTIAL DAMAGE CAUSING” ANIMAL:
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In the South African post-apartheid context, the government is prioritising employment, housing, education above conservation and animal welfare, as many South Africans remain preoccupied with matters of daily survival. Economic interests tend to be protected above environmental interests. Little cognisance is taken of the fact that economic development, by its very nature, increases the environmental impact.
With most activists relying on little or no pay, urgent environmental issues are buried further. Lack of resources plays an important part in preventing activists from adequately addressing problems. The area of “problem animals” where these species are particularly vulnerable to age-old unwarranted negative reputations that serve to justify their extermination is in need of support. These species, branded by humans - for economic reasons above environmental ones, are particularly in need of help and funding as most environmental funding goes to more popular causes (which may not necessarily be more urgent). In the South African context, the human rights issue dominates, short-term problems are addressed and the human relationship to the environment is largely ignored. This further diminishes the necessity to confront environmental damage. |
On the one hand there are thousands of vervet monkeys and hundreds of baboons in our rehabilitation centres awaiting release back into the wild. Release and transporting these primates is limited and mostly banned by the authorities who believe that genetic differentiation amongst vervets and baboons makes it risky to transport them into different areas. In stark contrast to this view, breaking research by leading scientists has so far proved that there is no genetic differentiation amongst vervets and therefore Nature Conservation's concerns are not based on scientific criteria. This information about vervet taxonomy can be found at: http://www.uga.edu/eea/02_2006/article07_02_2006.htm
The extent of damage caused to ‘potential problem animals” is not common public knowledge and those who place the interests of the economy above and at the expense of the environment seek to keep this information hidden - certain communities (supported by legislation) have persecuted these animals throughout South African history.
Figures given in the South African Journal of Science, August 1996, reveal that hundreds of thousands of animals, mostly harmless non-target animals, have been slain in terrible hunts. The hunt club known as the Oranjejag exterminated 87,570 animals during a short time period, in the Free State alone. About seventy percent (60,340) were harmless Cape Foxes. It is common in South Africa for officials to leave the defining of what constitutes a “problem animal” up to the complainant without investigating the truth of the matter. In the case of the Cape Fox, this title made a target out of a non-target species. By condemning this species to the “problem animal” category as many others had been, the hunt clubs hid the fact that they were killing innocent animals - often using barbaric, cruel methods – while claiming success at eradicating a ‘potential problem animal’.
Canned Lion campaigner and ex- farmer Chris Mercer researched this subject and found: “Near Bloemhof about 200 kms west of Johannesburg lies a small reserve, the SA Lombard Nature Reserve, a 3,800 hectare stretch of open grassland. This was where taxpayers funds were wasted on experiments on 'problem' animals. Here is where captured predators, including Cheetah, were fed on meat laced with poisons, while nice conservation officials callously recorded the time taken by the animals to die. Here is where dogs were bred (at taxpayers' expense) to supply the dog-packs which scourged the land, killing our wildlife. This facility has fallen into disuse now owing to diversion of funds into more useful activities, but the legacy lives on in the minds of officials and NGOs in South Africa. The dreadful experiments conducted over the years at SA Lombard show what happens when poisons are ingested. Cape Foxes took about 15 hours to die, jackals up to 36 hours. Horrifying video footage shows the excruciating suffering of the animals in that time; tetanic spasms, convulsions, howling and shrieking. If taxpayers saw this, they would refuse to pay their taxes.
I discovered that the treatment of problem animals by farmers, which is facilitated and approved by conservation officials, involves the lifting of all controls on inhumane methods of hunting. Gin-traps, snares, poison, you name it and it is legitimate in Wonderland. One favourite device for getting animals out of burrows involves the use of barbed wire. A length of barbed wire is fed into the hole and then twisted until the barbs catch in the coat of the trapped animal. Twisting continues until the animal's coat has been rolled around the barbs. Once impaled in this manner, the grotesquely disfigured animal - whether a target animal or a family of bat-eared foxes - is hauled out of the burrow, into the jaws of the waiting dogs. Behind the euphemism of 'problem animal control' lies barbaric cruelty on a scale that the South African public cannot even imagine.” Chris Mercer (Canned Lion campaigner)
Primate skulls found here in 2005 - previous tenant shot all primates that came on to the property.
Some pics taken on the property on which we live in The Crags.
More and more snares - which trap a variety of animals in a cruel manner, are being reported. Poverty stricken villages situated adjacent to wilderness areas are showing an alarming increase in snaring activity. Much needed awareness in these areas is imperative for the future health of our environment and its impact on future generations.
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