The baby Langur that came in so badly injured at the beginning of the month, has been causing us a lot of worry, although she has improved considerably in the last few days and is even beginning to play in her pen. Elfin as we called her, has suffered fits, and has been up and down with her health. When we finally managed to arrange an appointment for her to go for a head scan to the local hospital, she was too ill to take the full anaesthetic needed for it.
Her bites were deeper and more extensive than appeared on first examination and we now think it may have been from a monkey rather than a dog. This can happen when a new male takes over a troop, all the babies are killed, as happens with lions, to bring the females back into season.
Pixie, our only other Langur, still has not shown more than a passing interest in her and is anyway far too rough and boisterous to be with her for long. She is surprisingly calm with humans, but a lone baby needs to cling to someone when separated from its mother and troop, and she will often just hold your hand for comfort. Another Langur mother with a baby was brought in last week they had received a bad electric shock. Both made full recoveries and will be taken to rejoin their troop in the next few days when they are located.
Kirsty a young rhesus macaque, who came to us last year, had been badly treated by humans and until recently still bit as her first response to being handled. She lives with Pani, our only other rhesus monkey, which we had reared from a tiny baby .This week for the first time John managed to convince her to come out with him for a walk and swim in the pool. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience once she was out, and behaved remarkably well, although only John can handle her safely as yet as she is wary of anyone else, hopefully now she has taken the first step she will continue to improve.
