Rescued Monkeys at The Tree House
Visiting The Primate Trust Centre in Goa
It was the evening before our final day at the WVS Hicks ITC veterinary centre in Goa, India. Vince, the American vet who was also volunteering there came rushing into the office to find me, as there were monkeys in the trees in the centre of the compound. We’d seen monkeys a long way off in the jungle behind our apartment and frequently heard their calls, but this was the first chance we’d had to see them close up.
I dashed out in bare feet, much to the amusement of Karlette, the head veterinarian at the centre; I guess it’s a bit like us rushing out to see a magpie or a seagull! She told us that the monkeys come down most nights to eat the tips of the shoots of the almond trees which grow in the centre. They make a dreadful mess and the staff try to shoo them away; but she warned us of the danger of throwing things at monkeys to try to scare them off. Monkeys pick things up and throw them back, and have better aim than you do, it seems!
Noticing how interested we were in the monkeys, she told us about the Tree House; a monkey rescue centre which was originally set up by John and Jo Hicks (who started the veterinary centre we were working at). She offered to arrange for us to visit the rescue centre now run by The Primate Trust, the following day.
The next morning we walked up to a beautiful house to be met by a slightly intimidating, barking dog; who was doubling as a door-bell. I’m sure she was lovely, but after two weeks of working with street dogs, we had developed a natural caution around dogs that we didn’t know.
We were shown to a living room, where three volunteers, all originally from the UK were spending time with four orphan baby langur monkeys. The monkeys had all been brought to the trust because their mothers had died. They had been killed in a variety of circumstances eg falls, road traffic accidents or electrocuted by power lines. The monkeys ranged from nine months to only a few weeks old and needed bottle feeding- every few house, along with a diet of fresh fruit and vegetables. They also need contact from adults; in this case the volunteers were serving as surrogate mums and giving lots of cuddles. It’s really important for normal psychological development that monkeys have this physical contact.
The babies were obviously very settled with people they knew, but were somewhat wary of Vince and I. This didn’t stop them bouncing around the room though, and using us as a springboard if we happened to be where they wanted to go. The coiled-spring type energy of a young monkey is incredible! It was slightly unnerving as I didn’t know which direction a young monkey was going to land from. They also have the softest hands, as I discovered when they reached out to touch me. They were fascinating to watch, especially when rocking on their plastic horse, or playing with toys designed for human babies.
To give them a change to calm down, we went outside with one of the volunteers to meet the other monkeys. As well as langur monkeys (which were the ones we’d seen in the trees by the veterinary centre), The Primate Trust also looks after two different species of macaque. The adults live in cages outside; as far as possible they have been integrated so that they live in social groups. All these monkeys have been rescued in some way. Many have been taken from people who kept them as pets in unsuitable conditions or tried to make money from offering tourists the chance to take pictures with them.
Other monkeys are there because they have been injured. It’s very difficult to give veterinary care to wild monkeys as if they are not treated and returned to their family group very quickly, the group will move on to a new location and the injured individual will be abandoned. Monkeys cannot survive on their own as other troops will kill a strange monkey in what they perceive as their territory. If an monkey cannot be reunited with their own troop quickly then they need to be looked after indefinitely by the centre.
The monkeys at the centre are kept in cages, with some environmental enrichment, but they are not as large as anyone would like. They cannot be allowed out on their own in the garden area, as there are tribes of local monkeys who will attack them. Whilst we were there, we saw a local monkey just hanging out in a tree in the garden and a wound on a hand of a caged monkey, who had been bitten through the bars. The monkeys are taken out on a long lead to jump, exercise and swim in the pool; but obviously that’s not the same as being free.
We me Rex, an old and very sociable monkey, who tragically spent the first twenty-five years of his life in a parrot cage or sitting on the sofa with his owners, eating unsuitable food. He has been integrated with a female monkey and they are now kept together, but he likes nothing better than having cuddles with people. He was absolutely fascinated by Vince’s freckles on his arms and kept trying to groom them off.
Whilst we were visiting, Mrs Hicks arrived back from the local market with bag loads of fruit and vegetables for the monkeys. She goes to the market several times a week and is given the fruit and vegs which they can’t sell by the stall holders. The staff sort out what is edible and prepare a carefully balanced diet for the primates, which is a huge job in itself. They are certainly doing their best for the monkeys with what they have.
They are collecting towards larger enclosures for the monkeys, as they freely acknowledge that their charges need more space. You can make a donation here.
I feel really conflicted about ethics of the care of monkeys. There is no doubt that the monkeys who have been rescued from parrot cages or touts on the streets are much better looked after at The Primate Trust. Here they have a good diet, interactions with other monkeys and more space; although obviously not as much as anyone would like. It seems reasonable that they should be allowed to live out their days in comfort. However, it would be much better if they hadn’t ended up there at all and people had not been allowed to keep monkeys in unsuitable conditions in the first place. Laws should be passed and enforced to ensure monkeys cannot be kept as pets by those with no knowledge or exploited for unscrupulous touts.
I find it much harder to decide what should happen with the baby and wild monkeys which the centre looks after. There is no way these monkeys can be released back into the wild as the local monkeys will chase and kill them. There is no chance to them integrating, even if they were returned to the area where they were collected from. Currently they live in cages which although not tiny are far from ideal. The baby monkeys are likely to live for fifteen or so years, but they have to spend all their life in captivity.
Better, larger enclosures would make a huge difference to the future of life of these monkeys. It is a difficult ethical decision as to whether life in these cages can be sufficiently enriched to be good quality of life for these primates. There is no doubt that the Tree House has dedicated and hardworking volunteers and staff, and that they are doing their best with what they have; but in an ideal world, they would have so much more.
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