Issue 15: Summer 2000 Price 75p

On 19 July 2000, the first shipment of

confiscated apes arrived at Monkey World from the Pingtung Rescue Centre for Endangered Animals. The shipment included onefemale orangutan namedRoRo and eight gibbons.These individuals were chosen for the first group asthey passed two rigoroushealth checks and were fitfor the long journey.

The orangutan and all of the gibbons shared the same tragic

story. They were all born in thewild, they had their mothers shotout from underneath them, andthen they were smuggled intoTaiwan for the illegal pet trade.The Authorities finally confiscat-ed all of the apes from people’shomes in Taiwan.

We estimate that RoRo is approx-imately 10 years old and camefrom Borneo. The gibbons camefrom various parts of South EastAsia and include:

● Three male and one femaleMueller's Gibbons from Borneo.The female is called Dalumie andthe males are called Fox, Adidas,and Nini. Nini is missing his leftarm above the elbow.

● One male Agile Gibbon thatcould have come from the MalayPeninsula, Sumatra, or Borneo.His name is Paul.

● One male Lar Gibbon thatcould have come from China,Thailand, Laos, Burma, MalayPeninsula, or Sumatra and isnamed Nike.

● And two female GabriellaeGibbons that could have comefrom Laos, Vietnam, orCambodia. Their names are Alexand Zoey.

The Rescue Centre in SouthernTaiwan was set up by theTaiwanese Authorities in 1993 toprovide temporary accommoda-

tion for confiscated wild animalsthat had been smuggled into thecountry illegally. The smugglingstarted after 1986 when a television programme called“The Naughty Family” featuredan orangutan as a family pet.Soon everyone wanted an exoticpet and the market in theseendangered primates went wild.As babies, the orangutans werecute and could be kept in a houselike a human baby, but in order tocatch them the orangutan moth-ers had to be killed in order toremove the clinging babies fromtheir chests. It is a very traumaticand bloody process and thebabies, who are weak and dependent upon their mothers,

RESCUE CENTRES JOIN FORCESRESCUE CENTRES JOIN FORCES

We arrived back in Dorset on July 19th andmoved RoRo into the orangutan housestraight away. She was clearly tired by herlong journey but interested in her new houseand all of the new and interesting faces. Wedecided to leave her alone in the big bedroomfor the first day so that she could have timeto rest and get used to her new home.

On the 21st we opened the slide that separated RoRo and Amy and Gordon for the first time. We have not done many orangutan introductions and everyone was a bit apprehensiveabout how Amy would react. When Jeremy openedthe slide Amy sprinted through and stopped dead inher tracks when confronted by another adult femaleorangutan. Amy retreated back intothe smaller bedroom andbegan to bark loud,deep threaten-ing noises.

Orangutansare usually veryquiet and we hadnever seen or heard her makesuch a commotion before. Amy continued barking atthe stranger in her house but was not interested incoming through to meet RoRo. Clearly enraged,Amy then began to throw bedding and anything shecould lay her hands on through the door.

RoRo’s reply was not much better. At first sheclimbed for the highest corner of the house andbegan to snap her teeth at Amy and Gordon. OnceRoRo realised that Amy was not likely to comethrough into her room, she gained confidence andstarted moving around and shaking the hammockframework to show Amy how strong she was. Amysimply continued to bark at the intruder. Gordonwas braver than either of the other two and after afew minutes decided that he should meet RoRo.RoRo was not so sure and threatened Gordon bysnapping her teeth at him. After an hour hadpassed, we decided to call it a day and leave everyone to consider their options overnight.

Over the next few days, nothing much changed. Wedecided that until Amy and RoRo had sorted theirdifference out that it was a good idea to keepGordon out of the way. He simply did not seem tounderstand that RoRo could be dangerous. Sowhile Amy and RoRo were offered the opportunityof meeting, Gordon was kept back in his oldNursery. Amy soon decided that she was dominantand could move throughout the house with impunity. Weighing 20kg more than RoRo, Amy wasprobably right. After several days, Amy’s vocal displays started to calm down but she and RoRowere still no closer to making friends. Amy stillthreatened her and given the chance would swingacross and swipe at RoRo. Both females wereclearly full of bluff and bravado.

On July 26th Jeremy took Gordon in tomeet RoRo on his own. We had cometo a stand off between the femalesso we thought that if RoRo couldmake friends with Gordon, Amymight then become moreaccepting. This plan workedmuch better. Gordon clungtightly to Jeremy and slowlybecame more relaxed as RoRomoved around the room. RoRowas also more relaxed as Amywas shut in the other room andcould not threaten her. We carriedon with this plan for a couple of daysuntil we decided to give Amy another

chance. Amy had not changed hermind however, and decided to

carry on with her sameintimidation tactics.

The big changeoccurred on the

1st of Augustwhen Jeremytook Gordon inon his ownonce again.

RoRo confrontedGordon at first with

snapping teeth andstarted grabbing at his

hands. Gordon grabbedRoRo back and both of them

suddenly realised that the othercould be quite good company. Wewere all quite nervous that RoRowould be too rough with Gordonbut he could not get enough of thenew female. The two orangutansspent the next three hourswrestling wildly. Gordon found acomfortable spot, hanging upside downand RoRo lay beneath him pulling on hisarms and slapping at his head. Afterthree hours Gordon started looking tiredand the floor was covered in his longorange hair. We called it a day, pleasedthat Gordon had finally made contactwith RoRo, even if his beautiful coat wasa bit worse for wear.

The next day we let both Amy andGordon in and just like the day before,Gordon sprinted to RoRo to begin thewrestling games. Amy was stunned andwatched in disgust as her son playedwith the new female. She soon tired ofthe show and returned to her room toconsider what had just happened. Overthe next few days Amy stopped threat-ening RoRo and appeared to acceptthat the new female was here tostay. By August 5th allthree spent the nighttogether and whileAmy and RoRo arenot the best of friends,they seem to beaccept each other’spresence now.

When Amy and Gordon Met RoRo

While in Taiwan organising thetransportation of the gibbons and

orangutan, the Taiwanese Customsraided a boat in Kaoshiung Harbour onthe 11th of July. The boat was carrying ahuge load of animals including birds,turtles, carnivores, and primates. All theanimals were confiscated and broughtto the Pingtung Rescue Centre. It was the largest confiscation of wildlife thatthe Centre had ever received and many of theanimals were in very poor condition. Therewere 17 baby rhesus macaques and four babyConcolor gibbons that were desperatelydehydrated and hungry. None of the primateswould have been weaned and as such wouldhave been totally dependent upon their moth-ers. The rescue centre staff jumped into actionand starting giving all of the animals a muchneeded drink. When the macaques and

gibbons were doused in water, they frantical-ly licked the water from their fur. The nextstep was to move the little monkeys and apesfrom the tiny birdcages that were fallingapart, into larger clean cages.

It was a very distressing afternoon and itmade us realise what a common occurrencethis was. Based upon all of the animals thatare at the rescue centre, it is clear that hun-dreds, if not thousands, of animals are beingsmuggled every year throughout South EastAsia. The boat that was caught was owned bya Vietnamese man and was registered inSingapore. The man claimed that he was sim-ply transporting animals from SouthernVietnam to Northern Vietnam and some howgot lost. The people who are smuggling theanimals are trying to make a living in a diffi-cult world, but if this illegal trade continuesunabated wild primates in South East Asia donot stand a chance of survival.

Vietnamese Confiscation

The Macaques of

Punghu Island

Over the past few years the PingtungRescue Centre have been inundatedwith macaque monkeys and as aresult they now have over 200macaques. Most of them areFormosan Macaques that can onlybe found in the wild in Taiwan. TheRescue Centre has a very difficultjob introducing these monkeys backinto social groups as they arrive atthe centre one by one.The first stage involved getting a smallgroup of monkeys, about 10 individuals,together in a large cage. Then two of thesesmaller groups were merged together in alarge open coral enclosure at the PintungRescue Centre. Once the large group wasstable, and any weak individuals wereremoved from the group, the troop wasmoved from the Centre to Punghu Island offthe coast in Southern Taiwan. The island isapproximately two acres and is home to millions of grasshoppers and other insects.

On the island the monkeys live a wild existence catching insects, eating the flowers of wild cactus plants, and kelp. Theyare given supplemental food a couple oftimes per week and at these times eachindividual can be observed to make sure

Letter Fromthe Editor

I must apologise for the delay in getting this latest issue of the ARC out to everyonebut it has been a very busy summer. After five years of correspondence Monkey Worldhas finally started a joint project with the Pingtung Rescue Centre for EndangeredWild Animals to conserve, rescue, and rehabilitate primates that have been smuggled into Taiwan for the illegal pettrade. This issue is dedicated to the incredible work the Taiwanese Authoritiesand the Pingtung Rescue Centre are doingto conserve wildlife.The organisation of such a large shipment of animals was not easy. All the staff at the PingtungRescue Centre should be congratulated on theirefforts to prepare the animals and boxes so that thejourney was not stressful for the apes. In particular,Dr Kurtis Pei, the Director of the Centre, was instrumental in organising the rescue and rehabili-tation of all the primates at the Centre. TheTaiwanese Council of Agriculture and PingtungU n i v e r s i t ysupported our joint project and British Airways flewall the apes (humans included) for free.

The park has been very busy this summer and wehave received many donations of vitamins, cod liveroil, heavy dog toys, supermarket gift vouchers, medical supplies, and knitted jumpers for the shop.Donations have been collected in many differentways: at work, pennies saved at home, jumblesales, collection boxes, a 12 hour fast, weddinganniversary presents, dress down days at work,memorial donations, and carnival stalls. Over thepast few months we have also received many birth-d a ypresents for the chimps. All your support is greatlyappreciated as it helps us to care for the primates tothe highest standard and it also helps us to rescuemore.

We are awaiting two more additions to the park. Inthe next few weeks we are expecting babies to beborn to Milagra, the woolly monkey, and Sage, thesiamang gibbon. It is the first time for both mothersso our fingers are crossed that all goes well forthese endangered primates. We will keep you posted of their progress. Rest assured that we havenot forgotten all of the monkeys and apes here atthe park; there just isn’t enough room to includeeverybody in this issue! In the next issue of the ARCthere will be a complete update on all of the groups.Promise.

often die while being captured or subsequently from grief and loneliness. For every orangutan that made it to Taiwanalive it was estimated that five died in the process.

Very quickly it became clear that somethingmust be done about the primates that were being smuggled into Taiwan. The trade was posing a serious threat to the survival of the species in the wild and futureproblems were expected when the tinybabies grew into 60 kg, unpredictable, dangerous adults. In 1989 the Authoritiespassed a Wildlife Conservation Law thateffectively stopped the trade in primates and prohibited people from keeping exotic animals as pets. At the same time the law was passed, owners of wild animals were given a period of 6 months to register their animals in order to be exempt from future penalties. From this point on, Officials confiscated any wild animals unlessthey had been registered.

The enforcement of wildlife laws in Taiwanhas been so successful that the PingtungRescue Centre for Endangered Wild Animalsis now full to capacity. Monkey World isassisting the Taiwanese Authorities by pro-viding a permanent home for the healthygibbons and orangutans that are at theCentre. We are expecting that more individ-uals will clear their health checks shortlyand we are hoping to bring some more AsianApes to Dorset by the end of the year.

How YHow You Can Helpou Can HelpThere are many ways which you can help Monkey World to rescue and rehabilitate more Primates. All donations go into a100% fund. Every penny goes to the animals;

NO ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS ARE REMOVED.

Our negotiations are continuing in order to rescue chimpanzees that have been smuggled into Turkey.

You can help by adopting a monkey or ape and you will receive a years pass to the park, a photo of your monkey or ape, a certificate, and the Ape Rescue Chronicle three times per year.

Help by donating goods such as fruit, vegetables, or bread. The primates also need vitamins and minerals such as cod liverand primrose oil and vitamin C. We can also use thick rope andheavy-duty dog toys.

Establish a legacy for the long-term welfare of the primates and be remembered in our memorial garden.

Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre, Longthorns, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 6HH, England

Tel: (01929)462537 Fax: (01929)405414 Email: apes@ape-rescue.org Web Site: www.monkeyworld.org

JimCronin - Director Alison Cronin, MA - Scientific Director Jeremy Keeling - Animal Manager

Design & Production - David Dancey-Wood & Ben Mason.