Rehabilitation Programme

The history of rehabilitation at The Monkey Sanctuary

An adaptation of a commonly used definition for wildlife rehabilitation is to: “care for injured, ill and orphaned wild animals with the goal of socialising them with their kind, to stimulate their natural behaviours and to release them into their natural habitats – alternatively to release them into as naturalistic habitats and situations as possible.  Each animal goes through a veterinary examination and will be physically, and subsequently psychologically, diagnosed and treated throughout an individually tailored program of care, feeding, medication, socialisation and exercise.”

The Monkey Sanctuary was established in 1964 with the aim to rehabilitate a group of pet woolly monkeys and to encourage them to form social bonds with each other and learn to live as a colony. The breeding woolly monkey colony at The Monkey Sanctuary was a pioneering place for, and a world centre of knowledge about, woolly monkeys in captivity. For many decades the Sanctuary crew dreamed about returning the monkeys to the wild and in 1991 two monkeys were in fact taken over to their natural habitat in Brazil. However, to return captive-bred primates to the wild has become very controversial since the early 90’s because scientists have made new discoveries about:

1) diseases occurring in captive populations which might not occur in the wild,
2) genetic variations within a species in the wild (which means that although similar in appearance many primates are in the process of speciation in the wild and are, in fact, distinguishable as separate subspecies - introducing captive-born hybrids into such a population might decrease the resistance to for example, hereditary diseases or natural hazards that the wild population have),
3) the increasing destruction of potential habitats for primate reintroductions in the tropics does not secure their future after release,  
4) the accelerating commercial trade in bush meat does not secure their future in the release areas,
5) the potential adaptations the primates have undergone by living for generations in captivity in a different climate,
6) the low survival rate of primates in reintroduction projects around the world.

Today, as well as more than 40 years ago, the Monkey Sanctuary is working to rehabilitate pet primates that have been victims of the UK pet trade. Educated guesses say that are still around 3000 primates with private owners in this country. The rehabilitation work at the Monkey Sanctuary is focused on giving the monkeys as natural a life as possible in social groups and in a stimulating environment, for as long as they live.

Rehabilitation of ex-pet monkeys at The Monkey Sanctuary

The Rescue Centre at The Monkey Sanctuary was opened in 2001. We believe that it is wrong to keep wild animals in captivity and The Monkey Sanctuary has never regarded its monkey residents as exhibits, but as individuals with individual needs. Monkeys that have been kept as pets may not have seen other monkeys before arriving here. They may never have had access to trees, ropes and branches to move around, or they might never have been fed an appropriate diet. There is no set schedule for rehabilitation. It is a long slow process.

When rescued monkeys arrive at The Monkey Sanctuary their needs are assessed and they go through a full veterinary examination. Many of our capuchins have arrived with serious calcium deficiencies from a lack of sunlight, which they need to produce vitamin D3. In its primary stage, calcium deficiency usually takes the form of teeth problems, which in turn can give the monkey eating problems.  In its more serious form, calcium deficiency, in combination with other factors, has caused osteoporosis and bone deformities in some of our rescued monkeys.

What we can offer the ex pet capuchins that arrive here is the chance to learn how to be monkeys and how to express as many natural behaviours as possible. Led by the individual monkey’s needs, the keepers encourage new arrivals to settle into their new home and to explore the environment, which is constantly being enriched with new interesting objects. New arrivals may curiously watch the other monkeys in neighbouring enclosures and perhaps begin to communicate over a distance. When the keepers consider the individual to be “ready” they are offered ‘supervised’ visits during which they will be sharing space with others of their own kind for the first time. The keepers are always keeping a watchful eye on the developments during these initial introductions. If everything goes well the new monkey will slowly establish bonds and relationships with the other resident monkeys and eventually he/she will become integrated into a stable social group.

Most pet monkeys exhibit stereotypical behaviour due to the many years in socially and mentally deprived situations in captivity and these behaviours have usually become very ingrained in the monkey’s behavioural repertoire. Often these behaviours will reduce when the monkey starts to take part in all the interesting activities that goes on in a monkey group, but meeting other monkeys and starting a new life at The Sanctuary will also initially cause a lot of stress. Each monkey is carefully monitored to make sure that it does not get too much or too little stimulation.

Rainforest Rehabilitation project in 1991

In 1991 we attempted the rehabilitation of two young males, Ricky and Ivan, from Cornwall to the Amazon rainforest. They were flown to a reserve called Noah's Park, outside Manaus in the centre of the Amazon region where they joined a group of orphaned infant and juvenile monkeys confiscated from the pet trade. Being adolescent males brought up in a stable colony, Ricky and Ivan were ideal foster parents, and it was hoped they would bring social cohesion to the group. As the months went by the two males began to lead the group, learning for themselves the real art of tree climbing and the delights of Amazonian fruits, seeds and insects while bringing security to the group by passing on their social skills to the orphaned monkeys. Ricky and Ivan ranged further and further from the feeding area and adapted reasonably well to their forest home.

Sadly the project folded after 11 months due to financial and personal pressures. The monkeys were taken to a different site where once again they were dependent on humans. We were unable to discover what exactly had happened to Ricky and Ivan. We did however manage to visit the site at Taruma a few years later, after it had been taken over by a new director, Mauricio de Almeida Noronha, and saw a few of the Noah's Park orphans, some of them now fully grown carrying their own children.

The remaining woolly monkeys at The Monkey Sanctuary will never return to the rainforest and we operate a non-breeding policy since 1999.

Primate Conservation Overseas

The Monkey Sanctuary Trust supports various conservation projects and Primate Rescue Centres in South America. By supporting established projects overseas, which offers primate rehabilitation, conservation and environmental education, the Monkey Sanctuary hopes to help protect the tropical habitats that primates depend on and to help monkeys to continue to exist in the wild, where they belong.

The supported projects are:

Entropika (Colombia) Community Conservation and Education Project

Ikamaperu (Peru) Primate Rescue Centre

Inti Warra Yassi (Bolivia) Primate Rescue Centre

Proyecto Churuco (Colombia) Habitat and Monkey Conservation Project

Neotropical Primate Conservation (Peru) Conservation intiative for yellow-tailed woolly monkey

Centre for Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates in Penaflor (Chile) Primate Rescue Centre