We mourn the passing of our precious Viola…

On March 10, 2008 PPS Interns Erin and Tez were awakened by loud noises at the Capuchin enclosures. In the dark, they were barely able to discern Miracle giving birth to a tiny infant. Early the next morning, this precious little being was found lying on the ground, cold and barely breathing. Her life was hanging by a thread, and we needed to respond quickly. She was pulled out of the enclosure, warmed and given food.

The first few weeks were a critical period for baby Viola. Sanctuary interns worked around the clock to care for her, waking several times each night to provide food and comfort. In her role as primary caregiver, Intern Erin found that opening her heart fully to this amazing being was vital to the infant’s survival.

Viola grew rapidly during her first several months. She became more alert, and examined her surroundings. Soon she was climbing, exploring her environment, and eating solid food. Finally, after five months of constant care, it was time for the baby to return to her own kind. Viola was released into the large enclosure with her Grandmother, Miranda. It was a beautiful sight; Miranda was so protective and caring. In short time, the adventurous youngster was running and playing in her new environment. She bonded with Miranda. We were excited to see this human reared monkey climb onto her Grandmother’s back, and hang on as Miranda carried her from branch to branch.

Over the next 2½ years Viola grew into a beautiful young Capuchin. She was so full of life and joy and was constantly exploring her outdoor enclosure. Miranda taught her how to groom with citrus fruit, and the two monkeys often played together, chasing and wrestling. Viola also loved to paint; she would choose colors from the paint palette and spread them all around on a canvas using her hands, feet, tail or a paintbrush. (See the video Viola Paints on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/pacificprimate)
Viola was bright, inquisitive, and full of energy- always running, jumping, swinging and bouncing. She touched the heart of anyone who came into contact with her, and was truly loved by all.
Viola passed away on August 28, 2011. Her loss is really too profound for words.

SANCTUARY NEWS

Several weeks ago we placed cotton top tamarins Armando and Eudora next door to one another. We watched them carefully, to see if they were interested in being companions. The two showed immediate interest, eating side-by-side and gazing inquisitively at one another. Anytime Eudora’s portable enclosure was moved away, Armando would follow to see where she went. With such positive interactions, we knew it was time to attempt a pairing! Eudora’s portable enclosure was pushed right up to Armando’s, and her door was opened into his enclosure. Eudora was nervous about entering into the new space, but Armando quickly entered her enclosure and explored a little bit. After a few minutes, Eudora followed her new companion into his outdoor enclosure. This happy pair explored together during the day, and cuddled close together in their sleeping cube on the first night.

Little Bea explores

her new home

White-tufted eared marmosets, Oona and Little Bea, were moved into a new enclosure this month. They have both really been enjoying their larger space, and spend most of their time exploring the outdoor portion. Oona is often seen soaking up the warm sunshine first thing in the morning.

Please help us continue to provide a place where monkeys like Armando, Eudora, Oona and Little Bea can live in social groups in the natural world.
Donate now at: http://www.pacificprimate.org/help-donate.htm

This Blog and its content is copyright of Pacific Primate Sanctuary, Inc.—

© Pacific Primate Sanctuary, Inc., 2009. All rights reserved.

Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:

you may print or download to a local hard disk extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only

you may copy the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you acknowledge the website as the source of the material

You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.

Primate Update E-Newsletter, Vol. 3, Issue 9, Part 2

WHAT’S HAPPENING at PPS?

COO Erin and Intern Caroline represented Pacific Primate Sanctuary at the Seabury Hall Volunteer Fair. Seabury is a local High School, and each year they bring in non-profit organizations to speak to the students about volunteer opportunities within the community. Many students were very interested to learn more about the Sanctuary, and quite a few left with Volunteer Applications! We are looking forward to hearing back, and bringing in some new Volunteers.

PPS Intern, Caroline, speaks with interested students at Seabury Hall

Thank You to Nick for all your help around the Sanctuary over the summer! Nick has been volunteering at PPS every Sunday for the last several months, doing a wide variety of projects. He built a new compost box, pruned, fixed drawers, and latches, powerwashed, and helped get rid of slugs just to name a few of the wonderful things he has accomplished. It has truly been a pleasure having his good energy here, and we are all in awe of his skills and amazing fix-it abilities. Nick had to head back to the mainland but he has told us he will be coming back and we all look forward to seeing him again.



Helping the Monkeys
We are currently in need of more local volunteers! If you live on Maui and are interested in becoming one of Pacific Primate Sanctuary’s Angels, and volunteering your time and skills please e-mail us at PPS@aloha.net. We are looking for Animal Caregiver Volunteers, as well as Office Assistants, Handymen and Handywomen, and Gardeners/Landscapers.

How to Donate Directly
We deeply appreciate your continued partnership. You, and your family and friends, can make tax-deductible donations to the Sanctuary on our Website: www.pacificprimate.org and on FaceBook, using PayPal, or by sending a check to:

Pacific Primate Sanctuary

500-A Haloa Road

Haiku, HI 96708

With your support, you make everything we do possible!

PPS INTERNSHIP

Welcome to our newest Resident Intern, Annabel
Annabel traveled all the way from Kent, England to be our September 2011-2012 Resident Intern! She has recently completed a degree in Animal Conservation and Biodiversity. Annabel has experience working with gorillas at Howlett’s Zoo, as well as working with baboons at the Born Free Foundation. She also spent a year studying the effect of different forms of enrichment on black and white ruffed lemurs.

Annabel writes:
Thank you for the invitation to join your team for an internship. I am so excited to come and join you all and feel I can learn so much whilst there. My aims of the internship are to become a responsible and capable animal caregiver, responding to the… needs of the primates and helping to enrich their lives. I aim to be efficient in the administration of medical care to the animals... I also wish to learn as much as I can about the primate species I will be looking after, as I have not worked with these before therefore it will be a perfect opportunity to familiarize myself with these species.


…Pacific Primate Sanctuary seems like such a lovely place where the animals really do come first and it will be so interesting to see the differences between PPS and the other animal institutions I have worked in. I hope that the knowledge that I gain at the end of the internship will enable me to give excellent care to all primates that I work with in the future.


I do not know how I will feel when my internship comes to an end. I may be a bit homesick or I may want to stay forever. All I do know is that once a place has become my home I will always be back.


…thank you so much for the opportunity to become part of your team.

Annabel is passionate about working with primates, and we are all excited to have her here at Pacific Primate Sanctuary. She has already begun her training, and has shown great enthusiasm and competence.




This Blog and its content is copyright of Pacific Primate Sanctuary, Inc.—
© Pacific Primate Sanctuary, Inc., 2009. All rights reserved.
Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:
you may print or download to a local hard disk extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only
you may copy the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you acknowledge the website as the source of the material
You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.

Primate Update E-Newsletter, Vol. 3, Issue 9, Part 3

CONTINUING EDUCATION

Special Topic: Intern Caroline
Complete Capuchin: Chapter 9. Engaging the world. Exploration and problem solving.

Miranda and Viola examine

the inside of a fig

Capuchin monkeys are initially interested in opening up, getting inside, taking apart and also the altering of objects and surfaces. Capuchins in captive situations especially enjoy manipulation, since constant tampering with objects can take an entertaining or exploratory tone. It often appears that the monkey is trying out new actions for the pleasure of mastering something. This can be seen when giving the capuchins at PPS a lilikoi fruit filled with sunflower seeds (with only a small hole to get the seeds out). The capuchins begin biting at the fruit and sticking their fingers inside and sometimes even throwing the fruit to get the seeds out.

A study also showed that capuchin monkeys (of all ages) frequently splashed water out of a pan and often would throw bits of straw or food into the pan, then scoop them out, and repeat the process. We see this at the Sanctuary when Prospero soaks his bread repeatedly in water before eating it, or Viola dips her tail or hand in the water dish to drink or splash the water. These behaviors illustrate the remarkable ways capuchin monkeys use their hands, tail and feet, and the innovative techniques with which they explore their world and solve problems.

-Fragaszy, D.M., Visalberghi, E., Fedigan, L.M. (2004) The Complete Capuchin: The Biology of the Genus Cebus. UK. Cambridge University Press


Special Topic: Extern Dawn
Chapter 11: Immaturity in spider monkeys

Play is a very important part of life for primates, a critical factor in the socialization process. Primates are noted for their long period of immaturity; in fact, the length of this period relative to the total life span is the most unusual aspect of growth and development in non-human primates.

Those primates with the largest relative brain sizes appear to have the longest juvenile periods, and spider monkeys exemplify this trend as anyone who has met PPS spider monkeys, Carlos and Montana will confirm. An invitation to play may consist of the shaking of a tree, or in our case, a red bucket and this will be followed by lots of excitement, backing up and racing forward until the invitee reciprocates.

Interesting to note, the feeding behavior of the spider monkey suggests that some chemical components in fruits interact with their chemosensory receptors to permit them to gauge these foods in terms of dietary quality. In view of this, their preference for certain fruits should be taken very seriously as Carlos and Montana, do in fact know best!

Males are more gregarious then females and preferentially seek out the company of other males as they mature, directing most of their aggression toward females, so if you ever get concerned that our guys are in need of the fairer sex, think again. They are quite happy and content, even though with those beautiful blue eyes, the girls are really missing out!

Spider monkeys brothers, Carlos and Montana, Hugging

-Campbell, Christina J. Spider Monkeys: The Biology, Behaviour, and Ecology of the Genus Ateles (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology). UK. Cambridge University Press. 2008.



Special Topic: Intern Linda
Marmosets and Tamarins Chapter 1: Systematics, Distribution and Conservation

This chapter introduces the species taxonomy, location and status. Different species are characterized by behavior, dental morphology, and immunology. Here at the sanctuary there are three different species of marmosets and two different species of tamarins. The table below summarizes each species’ common name, location, and conservation status.

-Rylands, A.B. Marmosets and Tamarins. Systematics, Behavior, and Ecology. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Callithrix Kuhlii, Father and Son at PPS

“…the natural world is in a real crisis situation, but there are all around the planet extraordinary people who are absolutely determined that certain animal species or plants or ecosystems shall be helped to restore themselves.” -Jane Goodall


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 73 primates saved from research laboratories, animal dealers, and smugglers. Here they can heal, form families, and live free from exploitation.

This Blog and its content is copyright of Pacific Primate Sanctuary, Inc.—

© Pacific Primate Sanctuary, Inc., 2009. All rights reserved.

Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:

you may print or download to a local hard disk extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only

you may copy the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you acknowledge the website as the source of the material

You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.