Monday, February 20, 2012

Primate Update E-Newsletter, Vol. 4, Issue 2, Part 1


PPS PRIMATES in the SPOTLIGHT

Pacey is a white-tufted eared marmoset who was born at a breeding facility in Florida. Marmoset infants spend the first year of their lives riding around on their parents’ backs. At 3 weeks old, an infant is still completely dependent upon his mother and father, and yet when Pacey was at this vulnerable age, he was taken from his family by an animal dealer, placed on a plane all alone, and sent to become a pet to people he had never seen before.

Pacey’s new “owners” cared for him in the way they thought best. They did research on marmoset pet ownership, and loved him dearly. Unfortunately, the information available was often misleading and did not provide them with an understanding of the real needs and behaviors of a marmoset. Additionally, they were misinformed by the breeder, who told them that as long as they got the monkey as a baby, he wouldn’t bite anyone. As infants, marmosets are highly dependent on their parents and form a very close bond with them. With no marmoset parents, Pacey became very reliant on the humans who bought him. However, as marmosets age, their behaviors change. Adult marmosets are highly protective and very territorial. As Pacey grew older, this natural territorial nature took over. Pacey began trying to assert himself and bit people he felt were intruding, including the son of his “owners”. His natural behaviors would serve to protect his territory in the wild and ensure that he and his natal group would have plenty of food. Pacey’s new responses were not welcomed by the family- causing confusion and distress for both Pacey and the people he lived with. Initially, Pacey was allowed to roam freely; however, as his stress levels and aggression increased, he was confined to a small room, to prevent him from biting anyone. Pacey’s owners soon realized that it was unfair to him to keep him, and contacted Pacific Primate Sanctuary about providing Pacey with a more natural living environment.


"Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals, "love" them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more." —Edwin Way Teale, "April 28," Circle of the Seasons

While some behaviors are innate, marmosets are highly social, and learn much of their responses and communication from other marmosets. Pacey never had an opportunity to learn these social behaviors as a young monkey, since he was taken away from his mother at such a young age. When Pacey first arrived, he made very few sounds, but over time his vocabulary has greatly increased. He still does not understand how to interact naturally with other monkeys but at PPS he has the opportunity to live in close proximity and observe their interactions on a daily basis. Pacey has his own outdoor enclosure and loves to jump onto the plants and bask in the sunlight. He has had some social interaction, living with other monkeys for brief periods of time, and is slowly learning how to respond to them. When Pacey first came, he was highly stressed, easily agitated, and fixated on people. He did not act like a marmoset. We have focused on acclimating him, and have seen substantial positive changes in his behavior. Today, Pacey is calm and content and we look forward to the day when he can have a fully functioning social relationship with another monkey.

Please sponsor Pacey, and help us to provide him with a home where he can continue his rehabilitation process.
Donate now at: http://www.pacificprimate.org/help-donate.htm


SANCTUARY NEWS

Many of the animals who come to the Pacific Primate Sanctuary have never had the opportunity to express their natural behaviors. We provide refuge to monkeys who have been locked up in windowless laboratories, taken from their mothers as babies, kept in isolation, confined in small spaces, and gawked and shouted at. Our goal is to provide these animals with the best care possible, and allow them the opportunity to finally be who they are— monkeys. To us, this means giving them an environment where they are able to behave naturally.

Cotton top tamarins have very strong back legs,
which make them amazing jumpers!
 Fern, given refuge from a research laboratory,
leaps from a branch in his outdoor enclosure
.





At PPS, the monkeys live in lush jungle enclosures.
 Neptune is able to use his claw-like nails to cling vertically 
to a tree branch, giving him a great vantage point.
Primates are highly social animals. 
The monkeys at Pacific Primate Sanctuary are housed socially.
Frieda grooms her partner, Bruno, strengthening their bond




Spider Monkeys naturally move through the jungles
 using a hand over hand motion, called brachiation.  
Carlos finally has an environment at PPS 
where he can brachiate for the first time.













































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. 4, Issue 2, Part 2

WHAT’S HAPPENING at PPS

Farewell to longtime Volunteer, Judi.
Judi has been volunteering at PPS for the past 2-½ years, and has been an invaluable member to the Sanctuary Team. Each Thursday morning, Judi drives an hour and a half to come and share her time, good energy and skills with the monkeys. Judi has always been one of the first to sign up for any extra activities to support the Sanctuary, including gift-wrapping fundraisers, volunteer fairs, and even organizing a silent auction. She has been our special seamstress- creating and repairing custom sleeping houses for the monkeys.

Judi has a wonderful manner with the animals, very patient and gentle. Sadly, Judi is no longer able to be a weekly volunteer and the monkeys and their caregivers will all greatly miss her shining presence at the Sanctuary. Luckily for us, she will continue to make the special sleeping houses and other do other sewing repairs for the monkeys!

Judi Writes: It has been a privilege to become familiar with the sanctuary's residents. It's been an honor to work with a team who is so committed to a protected life for each little soul. I've experienced beginnings and endings during my time at PPS and with each I have learned about myself as part of life's fabric. I cherish the being a PPS volunteer and part of such a loving family.


WORDS OF APPRECIATION FOR PPS

How many ways can we say beautiful, nurturing (for people and animal residents) and amazing. First impressions: clean! Green and inviting! Bright! Animals living with plants and man made comforts. Lasting impressions: an oasis of joy in a crazy world. Awesome people doing a wonderful job. —Larry and Kathie Bell


HOW YOU CAN HELP THE MONKEYS

Did you know that you can earn money for Pacific Primate Sanctuary just by doing things that you already do anyway? The average person can easily raise $50 for the Sanctuary over the course of the year using GoodSearch.com, GoodShop.com and GoodDining.com! GoodSearch.com is a Yahoo based search engine. After designating Pacific Primate Sanctuary as your charity of choice, every time you do an Internet search, using GoodSearch.com, a penny will be donated to the Sanctuary. If you search the web 6 times each day, by the end of the year you will have raised $20! GoodShop is a network of popular online stores. If you designate Pacific Primate Sanctuary as your charity of choice, when you shop at any of these stores using the GoodShop.com network, the store will donate a portion of your purchase to PPS at no extra cost to you! The newest addition to GoodSearch.com is the GoodDining program. If you eat at one of thousands of participating restaurants, part of what you pay for the meal will be donated. All of these programs are easy, free and turn simple everyday actions into a way to help the Sanctuary and make the world a better place.

Volunteer Your Time
We are currently in need of more local volunteers! We need Animal Caregivers, Office Assistants, Handymen, and Gardeners/Landscapers. Retirees are welcome. If you live on Maui and are interested in becoming one of Pacific Primate Sanctuary’s Angels, volunteering your time and skills, please e-mail us at pps@aloha.net


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

Mary administers medications
Our newest Intern Mary is a very enthusiastic and receptive trainee. She has impressed us all with her outstanding accomplishment of graduating from both the AM and PM training in just a few short weeks! She also jumped right into the record keeping and Manual development portion of the Internship. We are currently focused on training Mary in Emergency Care procedures. She has learned how to administer subcutaneous fluids, medicate monkeys, use an incubator, and how to provide special individual care. We are so excited to have her as a member of our Team!

One of the greatest aspects of our internship program is that it is mutually beneficial, the animals get exceptional care from devoted caregivers and the interns are provided with a unique learning experience that will benefit them throughout their life. When Interns leave PPS, they carry with them extensive knowledge and understanding they have gained at the Sanctuary. Additionally, the year spent here provides Interns with much needed experience to continue on their career paths in animal welfare and environmental stewardship.

Intern Linda, was recently accepted into the Vet Prep program at Colorado State University! The program offers “coursework and mentoring to selected students who, upon successful completion of the one-year program and requirements, will be admitted to the professional veterinary medical program at Colorado State University.”

Linda writes:
PPS has helped me in many ways. Not only did I write about the sanctuary in my personal essay, but also the hands on opportunity that this internship has given me will be a part of my everyday work in my future career. I am confident that I can take care of monkeys in any situation. From giving specialized individual care to dealing with emergency situations.  The most important lesson that this internship has given me is learning that giving is so much more valuable than receiving!



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. 4, Issue 2, Part 3

CONTINUING EDUCATION

Special Topic: Intern Mary
Factors influencing spider monkey habitat use and ranging patterns


Spider monkeys rely on several resources for their survival. They require access to water, protection from predators, proper sleeping sites, and a warm climate. However, the most essential resource to spider monkeys is food. The distribution and abundance of food is the greatest factor influencing the habitat use and ranging patterns of spider monkeys. The average diet of a spider monkey consists predominantly of ripe fruits and spider monkeys will travel over two thousand meters a day to access this essential resource. With several factors capable of influencing the availability of ripe fruit, it is no surprise that a group of spider monkeys requires a large range.

The average habitat range for a group of spider monkeys is between 150-350 hectares. Although this range is large it is not uniformly used and monkeys have been seen spending up to 80% of their time in just one area within that range. The preferred habitat of spider monkeys consists of the upper and mid-level canopy of semi-deciduous tropical forest. Due to the risk of predation it is rare for spider monkeys to be seen in the dense lower canopy levels where visibility is poor. Poor visibility increases the risk of grabbing thorns, being bitten by venomous snakes or insects, as well as the threat of being ambushed by predators. The height of the canopy allows the monkeys greater visibility, which is key in protecting themselves from predators such as jaguars and pumas.

At Pacific Primate Sanctuary we have installed several high shelves, which Carlos and Montana use throughout the daylight hours, where they survey the entire property.
Carlos and Montana sit high on a platform, 
where they have the best visibility
We also planted an assortment of vegetation in their enclosure, similar to the plants found in their natural habitat. The vegetation is maintained at a variety of elevations— allowing the monkeys to experience the variation in canopy heights, simulating a rainforest environment. Carlos and Montana have access to both high upper canopy and a dense understory. Providing both monkeys with a variety of fresh fruits, along with other food items, on a daily basis means they do not need to travel a great distance in search of food or water.

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



Special Topic: Intern Annabel:
A Study on Aging in Marmosets

Marmosets are small-bodied new world primates that are found in the upper canopies of forests in South America. The average life span of a wild common marmoset is 12 years. In captivity common marmosets can live up to 18 years (Bowdon, 1979). When the majority of our marmosets and tamarins came to PPS, they were young individuals. Over the years they have aged and we are now faced with the challenge of looking after and caring for elderly monkeys. Some of the monkeys are starting to require specialized care to help them maintain their health and independence as they age. As marmosets age they become more prone to cardiac and renal failure. Some develop arthritis and find it harder to climb. They lose fat mass and require heat lamps to keep them warm at night (Tardif et al, 2008). They share a very similar aging process to humans and are the most common animal used in human aging studies. As marmosets age they develop heart conditions, arthritis, and other common ailments observed in humans as they age. The patterns of their life and aging process mirror ours (Ross et al, 2004).

Echo uses her jungle walkway
It is a new challenge here at PPS to keep the monkeys active and happy when they reach their twilight years. The elderly monkeys are provided with heat lamps and extra blankets for warmth during the night. Echo, one of the aged cotton top tamarins rescued from a laboratory, was born in 1995. She has developed arthritis as she has grown older and can no longer climb or jump well. Past caregivers built her family a jungle walkway and installed steps, ladders, and platforms in order to allow her to access to her greenroom and all the other areas and features of her enclosure. Her mate Apollo is the same age and also makes full use of the walkway to get around. In contrast, there is Bruno, a white tufted marmoset, who is the oldest PPS marmoset at 18 years old. He is still in excellent health with no mobility problems, and is able to keep up with his younger mate.

It is our aim at PPS to give the monkeys a safe and happy home until the end of their days. With a sizeable amount of our population getting older, it is important to provide for their extra medical and housing needs and find out how we can enrich and preserve their lives, keeping them as healthy as possible for as long as they live.

-Bowdon D. M. Aging in Non Human Primates, 1979
-Ross C, Davis K, Dobek G, Tardif S, Aging Phenotypes of Common Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), 2004
-Tardif S, Araujo A, Arruda M, French J, Sousa M, Yamamoto M. Reproduction and Aging in marmosets and Tamarins, 2008
-Tardif S, keith G, Mansfiels, Ratnam R, Ross C, Zieger T, The Marmoset as a Model of Agine and Age-Related Diseases, 2008


Special Topic: Intern Linda
Marmosets and Tamarins Chapter 7: The social organization of marmosets: a critical evaluation of recent concepts

This chapter explores the social aspects and organization of marmosets. The information is important and useful to the caregivers at PPS due to its relevance to colony management. We try to pair the marmosets and tamarins at the sanctuary based on individual personalities and their past history. We have also found that background knowledge of social organization is beneficial to finding the best pairing options. Primate groups are organized according to different classification levels. Following is a list of 3 different social classification levels:

• Sociographic level: Any group that has more than one member of either sex, is classified as a sociographic level group. This includes monogynandrous (one male/one female- mated pair), polyandrous (female has multiple male mates), polygnous (male has multiple female mates), polygynandrous (multiple males and females) or isosexual (same sex).

• Sociosexual level: This level includes only members who are sexually and reproductively active; differentiates between males and females.

• Genetic level: Non-related male/ female pair and offspring (Family); Family plus at least 1 unrelated member (Group).
A white tufted ear marmoset family

In nature, in complete and undisturbed marmoset and tamarin families, both the male and female are monogamous. In captive groups, however, this is not always the case. From captive studies it was found that in groups that are formed experimentally with more than one unrelated adult of either sex, all groups are polygamous. The studies also discovered that families are unwilling to include sub adult or adult strangers, and groups remained stable longer after loss of the alpha female compared to the loss of the alpha male.

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




“Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.



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 tourist attractions. 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.