Who Fancies a Christmas Time Visit to Monkey World?

[JayJay]

Not a bad day. Cold (as we suspected  ) but mainly sunny. My boys and I got caught in one brief shower but that was because we were in the big play area without cover. Didn't seem to bother them though.

I hope everyone is safely home.

It was nice to meet you Markju and your family. I hope Ruby enjoyed meeting some other little ones. More furry but not as pretty. I don't know how we didn't bump into you again. I am sure it wasn't because you were avoiding us.  

Nice to see you again Craig (Twisted). I hope you all enjoyed yourselves.  Eleanor seemed to be. Now don't forget to tell us all you learnt today, especially about the golf cart.  You really timed it well with all the keeper talks.

Hope you noticed we cleaned the Manky tile while we were there Andy. You seemed to be enjoying yourself reading the tiles on that new walkway. I see there were a lot of trees (and benches) dedicated to people. Well it is a good place to visit and see your tree growing.

I met a couple today who visit weekly. They sponsor six monkeys between them and are thinking of adding two more. I expected them to live nearby but they said Surrey. That's commitment.

I didn't get many good photos so I will leave it to you lot to post them.

JJ  

[markju]

Yes we had a great time too thanks. Thought we might have seen you around somewhere but suppose the parks big and depends which way you go round. Did meet twisted and family. We were stood there watching some chimps and I heard someone mention the chimp Micky so figured who it was from that.

[Manky Monkey]

Micky's the oldest, greyest Chimpanzee in his group, so probably the mankiest. 
Yup, nice to see everyone today. 11 of us in all. 7 adults & 4 kids, which ain't bad for the middle of December. I had to slip away after a couple of hours to go & visit my Mum, who lives a few miles along the coast, but had a pleasant little stroll around in the sunshine, (I chose to go the opposite way to the rest of you so only briefly saw everyone). Nice to see the park in the "off" season, rather than when it's heaving with people in the Summer.
Had a close encounter of the hairy kind-
I was wandering past what looked like an empty enclosure when a big black gibbon came loping through the trees towards me. He swung straight over to me & thudded against the glass, level with my face. I looked at him. He looked at me. I said Hello -he stuck his tongue out at me. I put my hand on the glass -he put his foot against it. I moved my hand further away -he moved his foot to match me. I put my other hand up -he matched it with the other foot. I crossed my hands over -he nearly fell off the window sill. Ha! I win! I waved my opposable thumbs at him in triumph & walked away.
Then I heard a tap on the glass. There are signs on all the enclosures saying Don't knock on the glass cos it upsets the apes. I turned round & he was tapping at the glass for me to go back -is he allowed to do that? They're a lot cleverer than most people I know.

[Manky Monkey]

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[Manky Monkey]

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[JayJay]

Your monkey with the yellow face cracked me up.  He must have sat like that all day. There was just something about him: cute and funny at the same time.

The gibbons were really in full swing. That couple I said about, well the lady was playing hide and seek with one of them and she said as soon as he sees her coming he hides ready. He really was. It is worth visiting just for the gibbons: they are so entertaining.

P.S. What a nice clean Manky tile!  

P.P.S. I hope Christian Sears said yes or that tile will be a sad reminder of love lost. 

[twisted]

Yeah nice to see you JJ and andy again.

Nice meeting you mark and your family too. Your granddaughter is a cutie.

Weather was good with only a little bit of rain towards the end. Nice to have the place nearly all to ourselves, almost like a private day. Made it easy to listen and talk to the keepers about all the apes they are looking after.

Learnt that there is one orang-utan that they have, Oshine,  that was given over to them after the owners could not look after her any more. They had had her for thirteen years.  At six years old she became to difficult to keep in the house so they built her an enclosure. She had they free run of the house. It was a working farm and family. She helped herself to the fridge and cupboards. She ate pizza, crisps and drank only pepsi, she had never eaten fresh fruit or veg or drank water.

When monkey world took her on she was over 100kg (a female orang-utan should weigh about 45kg) had trouble supporting her own weight and did not recognise the fresh food they were giving her. The younger orangs used to poke her and run away because although she was strong she could not chase them.

The keepers also had a problem with her. Orang-utans are very much like humans, they learn what they need to know by watching their parents. They stay close with their mothers for around eight years. Due to growing up on a farm living closely with people she was very clever and had learned to use tools and could drive a golf buggy. When she was first put in the enclosure the other orangs kept giving nuts, bolts and washers to keepers who could not figure out where they were coming from. They then learnt that Oshine was using the skills she had learnt to slowly take apart her enclosure. They had to weld all nuts, bolts and fixings to stop her doing this but they did not give up on her.

She has now lost a lot of her weight, can move freely (which means she can chase the young ones so they have stopped poking her) and has learnt to be an orang-utan again. She is now one of the best foster mothers they have and if any baby orangs are born in Europe that can’t be looked after by their natural mothers for whatever reason they can be shipped to the nursery at monkey world.

Bored you enough now but there are so many various species of ape there that monkey world have helped rescue. Its great work that they do.

will check the camera and see about putting up some pics later.

[saex69]

Will have to take a rain check on that i'm still under construction it would have been nice to meet some of my family behind bar's

[Manky Monkey]

I was amazed how many apes are kept as pets in this country -one as close to the park as Southampton. I know they're still behind fences at MonkeyWorld, but they're probably safer there than in their own countries & at least they have the company of others of their own species.

[markju]

And many of the stories behind the rescue of these monkeys and the conditions they were found in were frankly bl**dy horrific. If you are sponsoring a monkey next year you can count me in.

[Manky Monkey]

I'm sure we will. We started this as a bit of a joke 5 or 6 years ago, but we've raised something like 2 grand so far. Something to be proud of I think.