Volunteer shares her experience at Vervet Monkey Foundation

Morningside resident, Alexis Kriel shared her volunteering experience at the Vervet Monkey Foundation based in Tzaneen, earlier this year.

“I have taken advantage of the volunteer opportunities that come along. It is a way to qualify myself through intensive work with a species. Primates are fascinating in how much they are like us, and the babies are adorable and affectionate,” Kriel said.

Kriel, who is also a Friends of Free Wildlife (FFW) volunteer, explained that vervet monkey baby season is in full swing during the summer season and it is unfortunate that the vervet babies end up as orphans. According to her, some of the reasons babies are orphaned is that their mothers are killed in road accidents by farmers, who consider them pests, or because they are occasionally left behind when a troop is on the move.

“The worst scenario is the baby who is stolen from its mother for the pet trade or as a substitute for a human baby. The ones that are handed over for rehabilitation early, stand the best chance of being brought back to its wild side,” Kriel expressed.

She added that Dave du Toit, a director of the Vervet Monkey Foundation, asked her if she would like to cook for the volunteers and learn about baby-care. “Du Toit and his wife, Josie run a monkey sanctuary just outside of Tzaneen. They are currently fundraising for a vervet monkey forest which will be a 500-hectare site for the release of their rehabilitated troops. Until then, the foundation operates as a sanctuary with a high level of care and a system of working with the wild troops at the sanctuary and integrating orphaned babies back into a troop,” the FFW volunteer said.

Kriel further added that the system, which is based on many years of observing vervet monkeys, has been designed and developed by Josie. She expressed that it is a successful collaboration with wild animals and one that has been responsible for the re-integration of orphaned babies back into the wild.

“This is a very carefully monitored, extremely interesting process. Female monkeys in a troop will foster and share, but only within the hierarchy of the order of the alpha. Here, at the foundation, animals are known and their behaviour can be anticipated,” Kriel expressed.

“Now at the end of my volunteer term, I feel satiated with monkey love. I have become invested in the outcomes of many of the animal characters here and have helped to sustain the volunteers with delicious vegan meals. I am now trained in the stabilisation and maintenance of a baby vervet monkey that comes into my care and I will continue to support the efforts of this well-run establishment. They are making a difference to vervet monkeys at the foundation and in outreach, by way of educating people how to live with wild monkeys in a shared human-animal territory.”

Details: www.vervet.za.org