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Sep. 9th, 2017 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaIt's been ages since I posted here! I have a whole stack of photos from various outings over the summer, and kept meaning to picspam them, but somehow I never quite got around to it - so those will have to keep for a summer retrospective post or two down the line, because instead I am going to skip over those other outings and picspam yesterday, which I spent at the Monkey World primate sanctuary in Dorset with Ian, Mum, Chelsea and Layla-May.
Now, as a family we have followed the story of Monkey World for the best part of two decades now, as the goings on at the park are filmed for the telly - which both raises the profile of their work and also provides a steady revenue stream to keep the park going. But somehow we'd never managed to make the journey down there - at two-and-three-quarter hours, it's a long way to go and back in a day! But with the park celebrating its 30th anniversary, and Layla-May about to turn 2, we decided to bite the bullet and make the journey.
The date of the journey was chosen based on Ian's shift patterns and my annual leave availability, so we were a bit dismayed when the appointed day came and brought with it torrential rain. Still, undeterred, we set off on our travels, and took the rain with us for pretty much the entire almost-three-hour journey - but then, as we got close to the park, a miracle happened: it stopped raining at last! And it stayed dry for most of the day, despite every forecast having predicted steady rain for the entire day - it was gloomy and grey, to be sure, with a bit of drizzle here and there, but unlike Legoland a few weeks earlier, we managed to stay dry all day.
And Layla-May had a wonderful time, splashing in all the puddles in her welly boots!
Although it had stopped raining by the time we arrived, a lot of the animals seemed unwilling to trust the gloomy weather and chose to hibernate in their warm, dry bedrooms - here's Amy the orang utang, all cwtched up in the window, where she can keep an eye on visitors passing by
Hananya's chimp group were all very chilled out over in their house - except for baby Thelma, who was bouncing around the place full of energy, just like any other toddler!
Here's boss man Hananya himself
Most of Paddy's group were out and about, enjoying the climbing frames in their enclosure, though
And we happened upon Butch's Bachelor Boys at feeding time
All the plastic packets you can see here strewn around their enclosure, btw, were punnets of fruit they'd been given - they got to enjoy the fruit and have fun playing with the packets through the day, and the rubbish would then be tidied away into the bin once they all went indoors for the night
Here we see one capuchin determinedly braving the chilly weather while another chooses to play inside in the warm
This is what the wider capuchin enclosure looks like - at least one of them, there are four capuchin groups at the park, living in separate enclosures
Seeing the monkeys moving around in that wide open space really epitomises what Monkey World is all about - most of the capuchins at the park arrived as a result of a single rescue operation and came from a laboratory in Chile, they'd spent something like 20 years living in tiny cages in solitary confinement, unable to see or touch one another. But now they live in large family groups and have all this space to roam around in, and are learning how to be monkeys again. It is really a beautiful thing.
Here's another capuchin, communing with Layla-May
The vast majority of the primates at Monkey World are rescue animals, stolen from the wild as infants to be used as beach photographers props or sold into the exotic pet trade, animals which have been severely traumatised and abused and can never return to the wild. Monkey World rescues them and rehabilitates them and gives them a comfortable retirement, with as close to a natural life as can be achieved in the Dorset countryside!
There are exceptions to the rule, however. Alongside the rescue animals are others who were born at the park, either by accident or as part of the endangered animals breeding programme - along with a growing number of baby orang utangs brought to the park from zoos around Europe after being orphaned or rejected by their mothers, because thanks to their success at hand rearing primates, Monkey World has been designated the European creche for all orphaned orang utangs, which are hugely endangered. Here are some of the babies in the creche, playing!
Golden-cheeked gibbons Tien and Kim, and Vietta
A woolly monkey and an agile gibbon, both choosing to stay dry indoors rather than risk the drizzle outside
And my favourite moment of the day - a stump-tailed macaque, choosing to play peekaboo with Layla-May! He was quite definite about it. She had approached to look through the window just as he poked his head up to have a look out for himself, and they were both startled to see one another - and were both quite delighted with one another. The stumpie then started turning away and then quickly turning back, putting his hand in his mouth as a gesture of friendship. Over and over, he did it, watching Layla's delighted reaction closely and repeating the gesture quite deliberately, at least half a dozen times. It was definitely a game, played by a monkey to amuse a toddler. Absolutely delightful!
Layla watches the Monkey World show with us at home, so already knew the names of a lot of the animals, but by the end of a day at the park, she knew them all. Chimpanzee, gibbon, marmoset, macaque, capuchin, she can say them all - much to the surprise of some of the other visitors, who weren't expecting to hear such complex names from the mouth of a one-year-old! She always has loved big words!
We also took a moment to visit the Jim Cronin memorial - a bust of Jim himself, Monkey World's founder, who died 10 years ago, with chimp Charlie, who really did embody what Monkey World is all about
And, last but not least, here's Layla-May looking cute. She'll be two years old on Tuesday - where did the time go????
Now, as a family we have followed the story of Monkey World for the best part of two decades now, as the goings on at the park are filmed for the telly - which both raises the profile of their work and also provides a steady revenue stream to keep the park going. But somehow we'd never managed to make the journey down there - at two-and-three-quarter hours, it's a long way to go and back in a day! But with the park celebrating its 30th anniversary, and Layla-May about to turn 2, we decided to bite the bullet and make the journey.
The date of the journey was chosen based on Ian's shift patterns and my annual leave availability, so we were a bit dismayed when the appointed day came and brought with it torrential rain. Still, undeterred, we set off on our travels, and took the rain with us for pretty much the entire almost-three-hour journey - but then, as we got close to the park, a miracle happened: it stopped raining at last! And it stayed dry for most of the day, despite every forecast having predicted steady rain for the entire day - it was gloomy and grey, to be sure, with a bit of drizzle here and there, but unlike Legoland a few weeks earlier, we managed to stay dry all day.
And Layla-May had a wonderful time, splashing in all the puddles in her welly boots!
Although it had stopped raining by the time we arrived, a lot of the animals seemed unwilling to trust the gloomy weather and chose to hibernate in their warm, dry bedrooms - here's Amy the orang utang, all cwtched up in the window, where she can keep an eye on visitors passing by
Hananya's chimp group were all very chilled out over in their house - except for baby Thelma, who was bouncing around the place full of energy, just like any other toddler!
Here's boss man Hananya himself
Most of Paddy's group were out and about, enjoying the climbing frames in their enclosure, though
And we happened upon Butch's Bachelor Boys at feeding time
All the plastic packets you can see here strewn around their enclosure, btw, were punnets of fruit they'd been given - they got to enjoy the fruit and have fun playing with the packets through the day, and the rubbish would then be tidied away into the bin once they all went indoors for the night
Here we see one capuchin determinedly braving the chilly weather while another chooses to play inside in the warm
This is what the wider capuchin enclosure looks like - at least one of them, there are four capuchin groups at the park, living in separate enclosures
Seeing the monkeys moving around in that wide open space really epitomises what Monkey World is all about - most of the capuchins at the park arrived as a result of a single rescue operation and came from a laboratory in Chile, they'd spent something like 20 years living in tiny cages in solitary confinement, unable to see or touch one another. But now they live in large family groups and have all this space to roam around in, and are learning how to be monkeys again. It is really a beautiful thing.
Here's another capuchin, communing with Layla-May
The vast majority of the primates at Monkey World are rescue animals, stolen from the wild as infants to be used as beach photographers props or sold into the exotic pet trade, animals which have been severely traumatised and abused and can never return to the wild. Monkey World rescues them and rehabilitates them and gives them a comfortable retirement, with as close to a natural life as can be achieved in the Dorset countryside!
There are exceptions to the rule, however. Alongside the rescue animals are others who were born at the park, either by accident or as part of the endangered animals breeding programme - along with a growing number of baby orang utangs brought to the park from zoos around Europe after being orphaned or rejected by their mothers, because thanks to their success at hand rearing primates, Monkey World has been designated the European creche for all orphaned orang utangs, which are hugely endangered. Here are some of the babies in the creche, playing!
Golden-cheeked gibbons Tien and Kim, and Vietta
A woolly monkey and an agile gibbon, both choosing to stay dry indoors rather than risk the drizzle outside
And my favourite moment of the day - a stump-tailed macaque, choosing to play peekaboo with Layla-May! He was quite definite about it. She had approached to look through the window just as he poked his head up to have a look out for himself, and they were both startled to see one another - and were both quite delighted with one another. The stumpie then started turning away and then quickly turning back, putting his hand in his mouth as a gesture of friendship. Over and over, he did it, watching Layla's delighted reaction closely and repeating the gesture quite deliberately, at least half a dozen times. It was definitely a game, played by a monkey to amuse a toddler. Absolutely delightful!
Layla watches the Monkey World show with us at home, so already knew the names of a lot of the animals, but by the end of a day at the park, she knew them all. Chimpanzee, gibbon, marmoset, macaque, capuchin, she can say them all - much to the surprise of some of the other visitors, who weren't expecting to hear such complex names from the mouth of a one-year-old! She always has loved big words!
We also took a moment to visit the Jim Cronin memorial - a bust of Jim himself, Monkey World's founder, who died 10 years ago, with chimp Charlie, who really did embody what Monkey World is all about
And, last but not least, here's Layla-May looking cute. She'll be two years old on Tuesday - where did the time go????
