EDITOR – I was driving down Main Road, Northdene when three monkeys ran across the road ahead of me and there was a car approaching from the other side, at quite a speed. The two adult monkeys made it across and I started praying… the oncoming car didn’t even attempt to slow down, it hit the baby monkey and just kept going. I found a safe place to pull over and I ran back to where this little body was lying in the road and I started waving my arms frantically for the traffic to slow down. One car slowed and went around the monkey, and as I stood there, this huge ‘honeysucker’ was coming straight at me (imagine being run over and killed by a sewerage truck?!).
The truck stopped for me and I quickly picked up the little baby and ran to the verge. In those few moments it was not a monkey that I held in my hands, it was a tiny baby, an infant. Her little body was warm and limp in my hands, her eyes closed and her little lips just slightly parted, she felt just like my newborn babies had felt in my hands when I had held them – tiny and vulnerable.
Immediately the troop started coming towards me, posturing aggressively. I realised I would never make it back to my car with the baby in my hands without being attacked. I laid her down gently on the grass verge, turned tail and ran for my car.
I just made it into my car in time with three large adults only just inches away from me. They stood around the car, still posturing aggressively, baring teeth at me, and I looked back and saw the distraught-looking mom pick up her limp baby.
This troop were angry and protective, some trying to rescue the baby and others warding off the threat (me), just like a group of people would do in such a situation. I pulled away and started dialling Monkey Helpline. I spoke to Steve Smit from Monkey Helpline and told him where the little baby was and what had happened. Later on I called Steve to find out if he had found the little one and he told me that he had, she had been dragged further away from the side of the road, but sadly she hadn’t made it.
This experience will stay with me forever. I will never understand why that car didn’t even try to slow down or why it didn’t stop when it had hit the baby. I will never forget how the troop gathered to try to protect one of their own and I will never, ever forget what it felt like to hold that tiny little dying baby in my hands.
Thank you to Monkey Helpline, to Steve Smit and Carol Booth for their tireless dedication to protecting and trying to save these beautiful little beings from the likes of our species.
Theresa Hills
Northdene
