History of the Sanctuary

In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s woolly monkeys were considered by many to be an exotic and desirable pet. Thousands were taken from their home in the forests of Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador, and brought to this country either for the pet trade or to be exhibits in zoos.

The method of capture was to shoot a mother monkey, and when she fell to the ground take the baby, if still alive, from her back. This meant that most monkeys arriving in the UK were only a few months old – far too young to be taken from their mothers, and with no chance of developing normally without the stimulation of colony life. The baby monkeys were packed into crates and forced to endure a long journey by boat to Europe. If they survived the crossing, they either ended up in zoos or as pets, and in both situations suffered tragically short and unhappy lives.

In the rainforest, woolly monkeys live in large colonies. They are intelligent and sensitive, with a complex language and society, and a lifespan of about 20 years. In stark contrast, pet and zoo monkeys were kept in anything from a small concrete cell to a box in somebody’s living room, often on their own or in pairs – a completely unnatural social situation. Denied a normal colony life, they soon became neurotic, aggressive and depressed, and rarely lived beyond the age of two years. They died from vitamin deficiencies due to a lack of sunlight, an inadequate diet, or simply from boredom and frustration, amongst other things. Monkeys that did live to breeding age had insufficient knowledge of group living to enable them to relate normally to their own kind or to breed successfully.

Thankfully, due to their classification as “vulnerable” in the CITES listing, the international trade in woolly monkeys is now illegal and, as they will rarely breed in captivity, they are seldom found as pets in the UK. There are, however, many other species of primates, such as capuchins, who are still suffering as pets in this country.

In the 1950s Leonard Williams, who had for some time been a keen visitor to zoos, had his first meeting with a woolly monkey, which left a deep and lasting impression on him. Some years later, in the midst of a busy life as a musician and head of the Spanish Guitar School in London, Len and his wife, June, began to keep woolly monkeys as pets in their home in Chislehurst, after being bequeathed one in a will. As a musician his approach to understanding the monkeys was instinctive and artistic and he immediately realised that the key to the monkeys’ welfare was to allow them the space and freedom to develop their natural social behaviour. He watched and related to them with sensitivity and respect, learned their language and gestures, and treated each one as an individual. The original five monkeys (Liz, Samba, Lulu, Jimmy and Pepi) lived in large outdoor enclosures connected to an indoor monkey room. They had human stimulation and care but most importantly, they had the social life of a group.

The Move to Murrayton

By 1964 the needs of the colony had grown and the Williams family and keeper, Sue Rickard, abandoned London for the Cornish countryside. At Murrayton, large indoor rooms were converted for monkeys and an outdoor enclosure built, connected to two magnificent beech trees by a tower and ropes. The monkeys still enjoyed sharing the human areas, but socially they were becoming less reliant on humans. Len began to appeal to pet owners and zoos to give their monkeys to the Sanctuary in order to let them have a chance of a more fulfilled life, and thus a number of ex-pet and zoo monkeys joined the group in the early years.

Lulu, one of the original moneys, was unusual in that she had been taken from the wild at about three or four years old. No longer an infant, she knew something of living in a wild group. She was able to pass on vital social skills to the other monkeys and through her determined character she soon became the matriarch of the group. In 1966 she have birth to the first baby, Charlie, and knew how to look after him properly – something she would have learnt in the rainforest. Charlie’s birth and those of successive babies brought a focus to the group. The protective instincts, particularly those of the new leader, Jojo, were aroused and served to consolidate the group. As Jojo matured, it became clear that he was not a human playmate, but was becoming a responsible leader.

Over the years the Sanctuary expanded. The monkeys’ territory was increased to meet the need for space, privacy and variety; the team of keepers increased and Lulu went on to become a grandmother. It was found that the monkeys respond very well to homeopathic remedies and so, where possible, these replaced some conventional remedies and the monkeys enjoyed excellent health and fitness due to an increased knowledge of dietary needs. After a long illness, Len Williams died in 1987 and Lulu, by now a great-grandmother died at the ripe old age of 32.

Understanding Colony Life

Len realised once and for all that the monkeys at the Sanctuary were far from domesticated pets when he was attacked by Pepi, an adult male. Len made the error of entering the monkey territory when Lulu was on heat, and the males were feeling very protective towards her.

Pepi leapt on Len from behind: “no warning, no sound, just a heavy weight fell on my shoulders, a great tail that went round my neck, two long legs pinning my sides, two powerful arms wrapped round my head and face, and a strange pressure on my skull”. For some reason Pepi released his grip on Len – perhaps inhibited by the close relationship with him or (as Len thought) to pounce again – allowing Len to run for the door and escape. It was not until then that he realised his scalp had been bitten and his hand badly lacerated.

It is in order not to repeat such scenes or place males in the dilemma of having to choose between loyalty to humans and duty to their colony, that we never enter territory containing adult males and only go in with females if it cannot be avoided.

A Co-operative Lifestyle

The Monkey Sanctuary has always been run by a team of keepers, many of whom live a community in Murrayton House alongside the monkeys. The are many benefits to this lifestyle: being on site constantly, we are available 24 hours a day to deal with emergencies; there is a high level of commitment to the monkeys; economically, communal living is more efficient because is uses less resources. Over the years, the Sanctuary was run as a co-operative. Daily management decisions are still taken by the staff at weekly meetings. This promotes shared responsibility, according to experience, skill and aptitude. The people who work with the monkeys, also build the enclosures, design the leaflets and guide books and clean the toilets!

A New Direction

Rehabilitation is central to the care of the primates at the Sanctuary. Starting from Len Williams’ initial realisation that monkeys were not suitable to be kept as pets, The Monkey Sanctuary has long believed that any captive situation is unsuitable for primates, and indeed any wild animal and so, by the 1990s we were devoting much of our time and resources to the possibility of returning our colony to their natural habitat in South America. In 1991 two monkeys, Ivan and Ricky became the first woolly monkeys to return to the rainforest in northern Brazil.

As time went on, the prospects of future releases became more and more remote. The project which Ivan and Ricky had joined ended after a year due to personal pressures on the project’s director, and the monkeys were taken to another site where they were, once again, dependent on humans. The monkeys’ natural habitat is still being reduced daily due to logging for wood and clearing for plantations, and land ownership in rainforest areas can be tenuous due to rapid changes in governmental power and so securing a site for release which can be guaranteed for the monkeys’ lifetime is extremely difficult. As well as this, one of our monkeys was found to be a carrier of a woolly monkey specific virus. Although he had never suffered himself from the illness and the virus is thought to be found in most, if not all, captive groups, (and potentially wild populations) this factor confirmed our resolve that our colony would be unlikely to ever be released successfully.

Facing the prospect of keeping our monkeys here in Cornwall for the rest of their lives has led to some changes in our focus and it was at this point we implemented our non-breeding policy. As the monkeys will not be released, we did not want to breed them perpetually for a life in captivity and coupled with this, we now have a colony of woolly monkeys that are closely related meaning the chance of inbreeding is increased. Finally, we have a growing gender imbalance caused by an excess of male births which can lead to disputes as those males mature and so, in 2000, we administered contraceptive implants to the females (a method which has now been replaced by the pill). This will, of course, have an impact on the colony as babies and youngsters are a major interest and focus of the monkeys’ lives. For this reason we will need to put a greater effort into ensuring that the monkeys are stimulated and happy.

Although none of the Sanctuary monkeys will be able to be live in their natural habitat, our rehabilitation work continues, albeit in a different form. Rehabilitation for them involves the daily improvement of their lives, whether they be rescued or born at the Sanctuary. We are continually modifying their territory and diet to reflect their natural environment and provide them with social stimulation so that they can demonstrate their instinctive behaviour and learn skills from one another.

Having made the difficult decision to stop the monkeys from breeding, we realised the potential for continuing our rescue work. Sadly, thousands of monkeys are still kept as pets in the UK and the trade in monkeys is legal in Britain. As the population oof Woolly monkeys at The Sanctuary decreases, we have increasing space to offer homes to rescued ex-pet monkeys of other species. Our first non-woolly resident, Frosty, arrived here in August 2001, having lived in a small, bleak cage in Norfolk for a number of years. Frosty is a black-capped capuchin monkey. His species is not endangered and many like him are bred and sold in the UK to suffer in the cruel pet trade. He has since been joined by several other ex-pet capuchins, providing a socially stimulating environment for their rehabilitation.