Glenwood pet lover has “feeding station” for monkeys

A GLENWOOD resident who has been managing a safe feeding station for vervet monkeys said she started the venture as a response to reports of brutality against the animals.

Mandy Wilson has a feeding station on top of her roof where she leaves food for monkeys every day. Wilson said she developed an affinity for animals as a teenager when she was working with wildlife.

“Here in Glenwood we have a strong urban monkey population. Which started moving into my garden 16 years ago,” she said. “We would get the odd monkey coming through maybe twice a month and it would get me excited, so I would take a bit of apple out (for them) but then I realised that more started coming when I did this so I had to do it properly and I sought advice.”

One of the people Wilson sought advice from was Carol Booth from the animal rescue organisation Monkey Helpline. Booth wrote a definitive advice guide on how to develop a safe feeding station for urban monkeys that is in line with the country’s animal regulations on feeding of wild animals.

Industrial and agricultural development has destroyed monkeys’ natural habitat making interactions between monkeys and humans in residential areas inevitable, explains Booth.

ALSO READ: 5-month-old monkey euthanised after being shot in Glenwood

One of Booth’s main tips is to avoid feeding monkeys by hand or throwing it to them as that would teach them to take food from people. Booth said for people with a desire to feed monkeys, a feeding station was the way to go. The feeding station must be far from one’s house as possible but not where it becomes the neighbour’s problem.

“Place the food before you are expecting the monkeys to arrive, but not at the same time every day. This will ensure that the monkeys do not associate the food with you and do not come to expect the food to be there at any given time and so do not hang around waiting for it,” she said.

Booth said feeding stations at the monkeys foraging route would decrease their desire to enter homes in search of food, something that has caused great antagonism between them and people.

Berea Mail has reported on a number of incidents of people shooting down monkeys, sometimes fatally, with pellet guns. Last month, Shirley Winkler started a Facebook group called Monkey Sky Bridges to collect rope to install sky bridges at some of Durban’s hotspots were monkeys are likely to get run over by cars while crossing the road.

ALSO READ: Sky bridges to help curb vervet monkey deaths in Durban

Wilson has a feeding station at the roof of her cottage, a wall leading to the cottage, a storeroom roof and her tree in the garden.

Wilson, who also keeps a lot of rescue cats as pets, dogs and rabbits said her animals get on surprisingly well with the monkeys. “There is no interaction with trying to domesticate monkeys in my house. They are wild animals and that needs to be respected,” said Wilson.

Wilson said she understands that not everyone is able to have a feeding station but hopes interactions between people and monkeys get better.

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