A new monkey, bought in by the forestry department. This is a young Langur, of about 8-10 months, a little older than Ella, but wild of course. His circumstances are a bit of a mystery. He was reported as on his own and crying, presumably his mother had been killed, or he had been driven out of the troop by a new lead male taking over, they kill or chase off all dependant babies. He was then left for 24 hours to see if his mother would return for him, but ended up going into someone’s house, looking for mum or comfort presumably. Luckily at the time of his arrival we had a Finnish volunteer couple staying who have helped out with orphan babies in past years. They were able to sit with him for most of the first 24hrs, still in a cage of course, but giving him reassurance and getting him to accept food and water. After the first few days he had stopped panicking and was eating well.
Ella, Evie and Dennis were fascinated to meet him and held hands through the bars. Now he is in an outside pen, where he has made friends with Shaylee, and gets sessions with the other babies too. He appears to be doing well, despite his drastic change of circumstances.
We have called him ‘Major’ in honour of Dr. R.M. Kharb, Major General (Retd.) AVSM, the chairman of the Animal Welfare Board of India who was visiting us at the time of his arrival.
We have yet to find out if Puck and Phooka, last years orphaned male Langur babies will accept him, hopefully Shaylee will convince them that he’s O.K. Also we still have to teach him to accept a collar and lead so he can come out for garden walks .For a wild baby of this age its also quite a big step.
Another arrival, a big gold fish which came into to IAR Goa’s centre because callous owners had moved house, leaving him in the left behind rubbish pile in his tiny tank. When finally discovered by a neighbour, there was just an inch or two of very green water remaining.
He has now joined the natural wild life in our pond, and seems to be doing well.
