Friday, December 11, 2009

Primate Update E-Newsletter, Volume 1, Issue 4

We hope that you enjoy this December issue of Pacific Primate Sanctuary’s E-Newsletter. Wishing you the best and brightest Holiday Season. May all blessings flow to you and from you!

PPS Primates in the Spotlight

Macaco arrived at Pacific Primate Sanctuary on April 7, 2009. He spent 9 years living as a pet in Los Angeles. His owner said that he made the difficult decision to send Macaco here because he loved him, and he knew that Macaco deserved the chance to truly be a monkey. Macaco had never seen another monkey prior to arriving. He was unable to communicate with the other animals, and had difficulties moving on the branches in his new home. Since arriving at PPS, he has really enjoyed observing the other monkeys, and will sit for long periods of time watching them. He has learned so much from his neighbors, including how to make monkey sounds and to jump with much agility from branch to branch in his outfitted portable.

Notable News

The Monkeys at Pacific Primate Sanctuary enjoyed a great November! Food donations were bountiful this month; the monkeys particularly enjoyed getting longan- a very rare treat. The weather has been getting a little chillier, and the families have been cuddling close together under their heat lamps for the added warmth. The sunny days are thoroughly taken advantage of, with many pairs grooming in patches of sunshine.


Thanksgiving was extraordinary—the day was bright and beautiful and the interns prepared a special snack of sweet potatoes baked with pineapple and nuts for the marmosets and tamarins. Contented noises could be heard throughout the corridor as the monkeys delved into this delicious meal. The Capuchins were particularly excited with their “packages” of sweet potato, nuts, apple slices, and pineapple wrapped up in ti leaves.


Happily, we were able to pair two monkeys this month!
Oona and Little Bea were each living alone, and in need of social interaction. The two are now living together, and getting along wonderfully. They really enjoy spending time on top of their soft sleeping house together.

Oona, a White-Tufted Ear

Marmoset

For the first time in their lives, Fern and Xylphone, two elderly ex-laboratory tamarins, have finally experienced the natural world! They were introduced into a Green Room this month. Initially they were a bit hesitant to check out the greenery, but now spend almost all their time outside. As soon as their breakfast arrives, they grab some and run out to eat. On one particular day, drizzling rain was falling lightly on the Sanctuary. Xylophone hung from the ceiling of her new enclosure, looking up at the sky and feeling the new sensation of light raindrops on her fur
Xylophone enjoying the sunshine

Meet More Monkeys





A white faced
Capuchin monkey peers out from her green world. Miranda was given refuge at Pacific Primate Sanctuary many years ago from a failed commercial venue here in Hawaii.








Fiona, a young female White-Tufted Ear Marmoset, enjoys a Thanksgiving sweet potato. One of the “free-generation”, Fiona was born at Pacific Primate Sanctuary to parents rescued from a research laboratory.







A Black-Tufted Eared Marmoset eating a delicious sweet potato. Cordelia lives with her mate Davis, and the two are inseparable.





What's Happening at PPS?

PPS Extension
We currently need to build more outdoor enclosures to accommodate the monkeys now living indoors in portables. There are 14 portables now crowding the corridor. Their presence is creating unstable social dynamics in the established monkey groups in the outdoor enclosures. We are in urgent need of funds to construct this additional housing for the primates.

The plans for the new addition are coming along well. We are coming to the end of our brainstorming, and are working towards finalizing the plans. Soon we will move into the next phases of fabrication and preparation!

Current enclosures nestled into the lush jungle environment

Please join with us in this life saving work. With your help, we can build this new addition with outdoor enclosures for the monkeys now living indoors.

Please send your tax-deductible donations to:

Pacific Primate Sanctuary
500-A Haloa Road
Haiku, HI 96708

Or donate on our website, using PayPal.


Pacific Primate Sanctuary on the Web
We are continuing to expand our communication through electronic means! We have started a blog. Many of our supporters do not have a Facebook account, and we want our Primate Update to be available to everyone! Check it out, and become a “Follower” to keep updated on the Sanctuary. Please share this link with your family and friends: http://pacificprimate.blogspot.com/

We are now on YouTube, and we have uploaded our very first video! The video is a beautiful slideshow of monkey pictures and music. Special Thanks to Morgan, Steven, and Erin for your wonderful contributions to this video. The video can be viewed at our blog and our Facebook page.


Support Pacific Primate Sanctuary just by searching the Web!
We are now signed up with a program called: GoodSearch.com this is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue (about a penny per search) to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!

GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall that donates up to 30 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, eBay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you'll be supporting Pacific Primate Sanctuary.

And if you download the GoodSearch – Pacific Primate Sanctuary (Hawaii) toolbar, our cause will earn money every time you shop and search onli ne, even if you forget to go to GoodShop or GoodSearch first! Add the Pacific Primate Sanctuary Hawaii toolbar.


Gift Wrapping at Borders

Mahalo to Borders Books and Music in the Maui Market place for letting us participate in their Gift Wrapping Fundraiser again this year. A special THANK YOU to Kristi Harata for all your help with getting us such great dates and times, including Black Friday- the biggest shopping day of the year! We have already had our first day of gift wrapping, and it went wonderfully. Thank you to everyone who has already signed up, and to those of you who have already participated!

We are signed up for 3 more days of gift wrapping in exchange for donations: December 9, 16, and 23. If you live on Maui and have holiday shopping to do at Borders, please stop by on these dates to support Pacific Primate Sanctuary by having us wrap your gifts!


PPS People in the Spotlight

Congratulations to our newest Graduates, Torsten, Katie and Jessica! Torsten and Katie are both Seniors in High School, and have completed training for the Afternoon shift. Jessica has recently finished training for the Morning shift. We are excited to continue their education at Pacific Primate Sanctuary, as they delve into Emergency Care Training.


Recent graduate Torsten in a greenroom



Meet Intern Robin:

Robin Burke arrived at Pacific Primate Sanctuary for the resident internship in June 2008. Prior to coming to the Sanctuary, Robin wrote: “My interest in primates started from a young age… In college at the University of Colorado at Boulder, I indulged my interest in primates by majoring in Anthropology and Psychology. …At CU, I thoroughly enjoyed every primate class I took… I became a zookeeper at York's Wild Kingdom in York, Maine, where I cared for a pair of white tufted-eared marmosets among other animals. After the zoo, I went to school to receive my Masters in Social Work and worked with kids, teens, and their families on behavioral and family dynamics issues. I am immensely excited to have the opportunity to serve at PPS. I have long known the importance of conservation, but didn't know what I could do as one person. By serving at PPS, I will be helping a cause that I feel strongly about. …I am looking forward to becoming a better human being through my interactions with the people and primates, and through the nature of the work.”

After completing her one-year internship, Robin decided to stay on for a second year! She has proven to be a wonderful asset to the Sanctuary. Robin has amazing observation skills, and is able to pick up on even the slightest change in behavior. This skill is invaluable to the care of these fragile creatures. We are also in awe of Robin’s technical abilities, and creative problem solving. She is very handy with tools, and great at setting up new enclosures. We are so thankful to have Robin as a part of our Volunteer Family!


Special Thanks

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the many Volunteers at Pacific Primate Sanctuary. We are so thankful for all that you do, for the many and varied gifts you bring to the Sanctuary. Thank you for helping us nurture our fellow beings and protect their precious lives.

Mahalo to Stacie for creating a wonderful soft sleeping house for the monkeys! We miss you, and are so happy that you continue to be a part of the Sanctuary ‘Ohana from so far away. Mahalo to Judi for mending hammocks to keep the monkeys in nice war m sleeping houses, we are happy that your sewing machine is working well again! Thank you to Dr. Cathy Johnson-Delaney for your advice on unusual medical situations, and Mahalo for your quick response! Mahalo to Dr. Dressler for your continued veterinary support, and constant advice on all situations!

Mahalo to everyone who helped get the Mailings folded, addressed, and stamped. This is always a time consuming activity, and we appreciate all the ext ra hands. A special Mahalo to Pete, Judi, Jennifer, Cyndi, Robin and Alli for volunteering their time to this vital project!

Mahalo to Maui Recyling Service for delivering a used refrigerator when the Sanctuary fridge stopped getting cold. They even took the broken one away to be re-cycled!

Mahalo to Chip, Howard, Jakob, Steven, and JK for picking up a larger donated fridge from Kula, and for getting it into the Sanctuary. Thank you to Anne and Erin for making the arrangements, and to Betty for the donation!




Volunteers moving a donated fridge into the Sanctuary!




Continuing Education


Special Topic- Intern Robin: Living Together: Social Interactions, Relationships, and Social Structure of Capuchin Monkeys
 


There are three levels of social behavior: interactions (what, who, when, for how long), relationships (a series of interactions which affect each other into a pattern over time), and social structure (a network of relationships). Capuchins interact with each other in three main ways: by sight, by sound, and by smell. The olfactory signals are not yet well understood, but vocal and auditory communication in Capuchins has been studied at length. Capuchins employ a variety of different facial expressions and vocalizations to communicate with one another, and in fact have many different sounds that mean different things. For example, there is a certain call that means “bird,” there is a trill that females use to coo rdinate travel, and there are many different food calls. These food calls have even been seen to be used deceptively by Capuchins when there is another around who might want to take the food item. The Capuchin brain is highly developed to be able to recognize these sounds, and to recognize each individual voice in one’s social group. There is a clear alpha male and female in a group, but the rest of the Capuchin hierarchy is not linear. Agonism is seen from many individuals and does not consistently come from higher-ranked monkeys. Agonism consists of supplantation (48% of interactions), threats and submiss ion (41%), and physical contact (11%). Females usually “squabble” more, and males are involved in more chases and physical contact, which can sometimes end in death. Capuchins utilize avoidance more often than reconciliation after a fight. Females are more likely to have others in their proximity and 
to form long-term affiliative bonds (they are the only Platyrrhines to form such female bonds), however males can also form these bonds, and can follow their friend into another social group. Females are also more likely to groom others, and some Capuchin species tend to groom down the dominance hierarchy, which is unusual for primates. Females will apparently groom males with no reciprocation from the male, but males who are more vigilant receive more grooming. Sexual encounters also have a social component, as Capuchins copulate far in excess of what is needed for procreation. 


Males typically emigrate from their natal group, so matrilines are very important in Capuchin social structure. Social groups differ on a continuum from uni-male controlled groups (despotism) to multi-male (cooperation). Generally, the higher the outside threat from other males, the more cooperative a group will be. There are periodic violent incursions from outside males who attempt to gain access to the females, and the more cooperative a group is the better their chance at fending off the outsiders. Females may influence the outcome of these altercations by siding with one group of males over another, or by leading the group away from an approaching group of males. In captivity, unrelated m ales can live together amiably for years without one fight, although rank-reversals can be quite tense. Males are usually not physically aggressive to females, and females can successfully supplant a male if they form a coalition. The strongest re lationship is that between a mother and her infant. After the infant is 3 months of age there is a high occurrence of “alloparenting” and “allonursing” (i.e. others caring for/nursing the infant), which is unusual for a non-monogamous species, but can be explained by the high rate of travel and separation during the day. Capuchins have the most complex social structures of all the New World Monkeys, and there is much yet that needs to be studied.

References:
Fragaszy, Visalberghi, & Fedigan
. 2004. The Complete Capuchin: The Biology of the Genus Cebus. Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press




We hope you have enjoyed this issue of Pacific Primate Sanctuary’s E-Newsletter. Thank you for your support of our life saving work. Because of compassionate people, the Sanctuary can continue to provide a place of peace and happiness for 70 primates saved from research laboratories, animal dealers, and smugglers. Here they can heal, form families, and live free from exploitation.

“The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.” —Helen Keller


Thursday, December 3, 2009

Pacific Primate Sanctuary, Inc, Slideshow

We have uploaded a video to YouTube!  Please enjoy this slideshow of the monkeys given refuge at Pacific Primate Sanctuary, Inc.