Unfortunately, there have been more Langur monkey rescues since our return from England, and several past help. These are mainly youngsters either knocked down on the roads, or knocked down by power cable shocks. It’s not just the cutting down of the few remaining mature trees in much of Goa that is affecting their survival, but the arrival of man into the newly cleared areas and all his activities.
Two survivors of the recent victims, both females, are making good recoveries. Christelle, about 2yrs old was attacked and savaged by a dog and needed many stitches for her wounds. A mystery here in her story, as she was obviously not a completely wild monkey as she was, from the beginning clearly used to being around humans. Our thoughts are that she must have been a chained ‘pet’, probably attacked by the owners dog, and then brought to the centre for treatment, they said they had just ‘found’ her.
Lilly the latest female Langur watching the world pass by
The second, bought in by the forestry department, about 1year old. ‘Lily’ was thought to be a traffic case as she was found stunned and injured on the road side. She remained virtually comatose for several days but as we nursed her, we found the telltale marks of power cable burns on both her hands and feet, along with her more obvious injuries. Possibly she fell from the power lines only to be knocked by passing cars. Despite her extensive problems she is now eating well, and even playing with Christelle, although she still has some coordination problems, we are hopeful of a full recovery in time.
RAJ, the old monkey who came to us after 25 yrs in a tiny cage , has learnt to walk, and jump and even does sometimes the 4 footed bounce, common to displaying monkeys towards our other males. When we got him, he was unable to climb the 6 inch ledge into his sleeping box, so this is great progress. Obviously there are still some mental problems resulting from his isolation, but he has good days when he seems pleased to come to the wire for a treat or groom from us.
Nissa, the baby monkey, which Celine and Alexander bottle reared while we were in the U.K. is growing fast, but still needs and gets 24 hour human care.
Snatch and Grasshopper when they were young buddies her best monkey friend is Dixie, our youngest rescue macaque and they now have play sessions daily in one of the pens, but she will only do this if I or a baby sitter she knows, sits in there with them. Any sign of mummy leaving, and all play stops and getting mum back is the only thought! This is of course natural as these baby monkeys never leave mothers sight for about a year, but it is at least the first step to some independence.
One of our small troops of rescues macaques, who have been together since being rescued as babies, had a big fall out. This resulted in the two, now rival males, getting nasty bite wounds, and one female who tried to support her ‘man’, also getting bitten. At this time they are all still recovering and are separated. Once healed the 2 males will need to be housed separately, as once a power struggle begins, as in the wild, it goes on till one male is either killed, or forced right out of the territory The fact that they were all rescued around the same time as babies, and have lived happily as a troop since then doesn’t count. The lead male ‘Snatch’ is now about 8 yrs old, and his new rival, Grasshopper is a little younger and now feeling it’s his turn to be the boss.
