Young monkeys are just like human children, they grow up fast, too fast. Young Schatov started his journey to monkey hood this week by trying to join in the morning chorus. Okay it was a little squeak and it came out all wrong but it was a beginning. The howler monkey is the second loudest animal on earth and it makes this incredible noise through a special hollow bone in its throat, the hyoid bone.

The following is a study published on the net by Animal Planet, Corwin's Carnival of Creatures.

In the main this is a valuable round up of information but I do differ in some matters of fact and some differences between animals in the wild and those in semi domestic situations. My comments are shown in red in the text. My comments are based on eleven years constant contact with both wild and domesticated Howler monkeys.

Red Howler Monkey

(Alouatta seniculus)

Order: Primates
Family: Cebidae

I. DESCRIPTION:

·         Red howler monkeys are sexually dimorphic in size; males average between 50 and 67 pounds, and females weigh about 33 to 50 pounds.

·         The howler monkey has a large neck and tremendous lower jaw; its tail measures between 2 and 3 feet long.

·         The howler's coat is a deep reddish-brown, although the shade varies slightly with age.

 Depending on location, the colour can be light brown over the back and this is not dependant on age.

II. GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE AND HABITAT:

·         The red howler monkey's range encompasses much of South America: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

·         It lives in tropical rain forest and tropical deciduous forest.

III. DIET:

·         Primarily folivorous, the howler monkey eats new leaves and fruit, and sometimes feeds on flowers and insects.

In domestic environment, the howler will eat fish and meat in preference to other foods.

IV. LIFE CYCLE/SOCIAL STRUCTURE:

·         Diurnal, the red howler monkey spends almost its entire life near the top of the forest canopy, where specific leaves are abundant.

·         It sleeps more than 15 hours per day.

Sleep in the middle of the day as a siester. Then all the hours of darkness, say from six to six

·         Howlers live in groups of three to 16 individuals, consisting of one to two males, a few females, and offspring. Bachelor males also live together in groups, and both males and females disperse from their natal groups.

·         Fierce sexual competition often exists between male howler monkeys; members of a bachelor troop will fight with a male in charge of a female troop in an attempt to take over. Males are expelled from their natal groups upon reaching sexual maturity, and must invade an outside troop to gain admittance. Once a male successfully enters a new group, he kills all infants present, thus insuring all offspring belong to him.

·         Red howler monkeys move slowly on all four legs, and use their tails to suspend from branches while feeding.

We have both Capuchin and Howlers here in domestic environment. There is no difference in their speed of reaction or movement.

·         Females become sexually mature at 5 years of age, and males at 7 years.

No Jose, Emma gave birth to Tess here at Canaote when she was aged three years and six months.

MonaLisa is now 4 years old and has been coming on heat twice a month for more than a year.

Marco a male is two years and six months and he is sexually active.

·         Red howler monkeys appear to breed year-round. The female is usually the sexual aggressor, approaching the male and moving her tongue rhythmically; if the male does not respond in the same manner, she may move on to another.

·         Females give birth to a single young. The mother carries the helpless infant on her belly, and older offspring care for young. The newborn often becomes the focus of other females, especially those without infants of their own. Females may gently touch infant with their muzzle and hands, and encourage it to climb on them. Additionally, the male may also allow infant to climb on him.

·         Red howler monkeys rarely groom socially.

Funny thing, ours do groom regularly.

V. SPECIAL NOTES/ADAPTATIONS:

·         Red howler monkeys have upper molars with sharp crests, which they use to grind leaves; large salivary glands help the howler's digestive system break down tannins in the leaves before they reach the gut.

This digestive saliva also contains an enzyme which is transfered to the chin and then used to mark out territory by marking trees by rubbing with the chin.

·         Males in a group perform long calls (amplified by a hyoid bone that acts as a resonator), which are answered by all other howler troops in area. Calls can travel up to eight miles and are used to communicate group location, distance and composition; they can be directed at solitary individuals or other group members. These howls are most often heard at sunrise and are referred to as the "dawn chorus."

The calling takes place at dawn and at dusk and is a group effort which includes the females and the young males. The Paderoti is of course the loudest. Woe betide any male who is louder than him.

·         The red howler improves its digestive efficiency by eating unusually nutritious, tender leaves. It can live for weeks at a time on these leaves.

VI. EFFECT ON ENVIRONMENT:

·         Red howler monkeys are hunted for food.

VII. POPULATION STATUS:

·         Infanticide is the major cause of infant mortality in red howler monkeys. Mothers try to protect their infants from invading males, but with only a 25 percent success rate.

·         The red howler monkey is not considered endangered or threatened. However, the species is becoming rarer in some areas, probably because of habitat destruction.

VIII. MORE RED HOWLER MONKEY FACTS:

·         The red howler monkey has the widest geographical distribution of all New World primates.

·         Female howler monkeys pay little attention and provide little assistance to the babies dangling from their stomachs. Luckily, baby howlers figure out early on how to use their tails to hang on.

·         Howler calls responded to by other howler troops in an area serve to warn one group of the other's location, and thus prevent the two sides from squabbling over resources.

·         Red howler monkeys howl at the onset or sound of approaching rain and sit hunched over until the rain ends.

·         The red howler monkey has developed the loudest call of any New World animal, a characteristic that has allowed the species to survive.

Sophie and her surrogate mother, MonaLisa are highly human domesticated howler monkeys. Under normal circumstances MonaLisa and Sophie would be allowed to run free over our house and the immediate area including the greenhouses. They presented us with a particular problem when they had to be restrained during periods of the day. Unfortunately MonaLisa playfully bit our housekeeper in the ankle though formally she got on well with this lady. The housekeeper developed a phobia against the monkey and it was then a question of restraint for MonaLisa or lose a good housekeeper. At the same time, we received a new baby girl howler, she had her own enclosure. Sophie possibly anxious over her status in the group began to attack the newcomer through the wire of the enclosure. She was successful in damaging the newcomer, Emma’s hand quite severely. Because they had developed human related habits, we had to consider trying to incorporate some of these events in their enclosure. Elsewhere in these notes I have written about a new approach to containing monkeys that have known human comfort but briefly, we have constructed a location that includes a house and garden. In the house the monkeys have every comfort that they are used to, for example a bed with pillow, a hammock, a marble table for their food. A human would not feel ill at ease living there. Through the window there is access to an extensive but enclosed garden, fitted with ropes and bamboo walk ways, endless games for a monkey to play. We had to think about providing for some of their domesticated habits. For example, they would demand a toothbrush to clean their teeth at ablution time, steal coffee from the early morning brew. Later raid the breakfast table of cereals and toast. And so it goes on through the day. All these items have now been attended to. Toothbrushes complete with a small smear of Colgate are provided early morning and coffee a small quantity is given with their breakfast which usually comprises of fresh fruit. Cereals and toast come later in the morning. MonaLisa has not adapted to this new environment easily. She wants to wander free and make her own way to the human breakfast table. But as we have increasingly emulated her habits she has become more agreeable to being contained. Sophie has no problem with the new house. I should mention that they are released each evening after the housekeeper has left and they quickly make their way over to our house for their evening meal and later to sleep in a human bed. The title of this piece? Well, one of the tests of the health and happiness of a howler monkey is whether they join the morning chorus. We have six howlers here at this time and they join the many groups of wild howlers in this area and call at particular times of the day. In the early morning starting at just before six and again in the afternoon about five they call. After the addition of coffee to the howler breakfast table, MonaLisa and Sophie started howling.

The seasons move on and the frequent crashes through the night coming from our metal roof clearly indicate that we are now into the mango season. Over the past few weeks the mango trees have been covered with the pretty flowers of the mango. The air has been filled with the heady intoxicating perfume of this fruit tree and the buzz of millions of bees doing their annual duty. Now some of the more advanced trees are producing fruit. How I love a plate of mixed mango and papaya for breakfast. Of course all this is for free. The 500 mixed type mango trees were here when we arrived here 11 years ago and are very mature, hence heavy bearing with fruit and the papaya trees we planted in vast numbers as a commercial venture. Incidentally the papaya planting is now really bringing to pay off as we now produce commercial quantities each week.

Since we were appointed officially a rescue center for primates, our family of monkeys has grown. We expected two male Capuchin monkeys to arrive yesterday. They did and caused quite a flurry. I mentioned to you last month that Abu, a female capuchin monkey, had come to stay with us and that she was lonely. Well she certainly isn’t lonely now, with two very active male friends to play with. She also shares her enclosure with two multi coloured macaws and two green parrots. I mentioned David’s unfounded misgiving to you last month. But this does have its problems, which are now exacerbated by the arrival of the new Capuchins. Monkeys like toys. Swings, ropes, dolls etc but unfortunately all these things are made of easily destructible material.  There is nothing our birds like better than to chew down a swing or bite the head off a doll. We have found a novel answer to this problem. The previous owner of the farm installed several sets of playground type swings with metal seats and chains. These were in an area somewhat remote from the main house and thus very rarely used. We transferred them to Abu’s enclosure and were rewarded with whoops of delight from Abu. Now she and her two male cohorts happily play on them all day.

Last month I wrote,

‘In particular our baby howler monkey girl Emma is always very playful and pleased to see me. She is a little lonely in her very large enclosure even though she has many toys and really loves the attention I give her. Maybe now we are an official branch of ARFA, the association of animal rescue, she will ultimately find a companion’. Well I am glad to tell you that it happened. A very small howler male named Schatov after the character in Russian literature (a small prize for the first person to name the author and the book), arrived having been handed in to us in Caracas. He is a delightful little fellow and it was a marriage made in heaven. Emma took an instant liking for him. She is no longer lonely and he quickly adapted to life here in Canaote.

For those who do not know, ‘children’, in the following notes, refer to monkeys in our care.

Sussy is a Howler female, a grand old lady of 16 years. She took in a waif, Marco, two years ago. At that time he was only 500 grams and rode around on her back. Today he weighs 8 kilo’s and is fully developed. He is mature sexually.

Schatov is a male howler, probably 10 months old but very small for his age. He has been with us only a few weeks. He shares with Emma, a young female howler of approximately the same age but much bigger. Emma came from ARFA in Vagas in June 2005.

MonaLisa is about 4 years old and came to us from an apartment in Valencia, having never seen another animal or felt rain upon her face or even seen the sky. She made a perfect mother for Sophie, a waif who arrived exactly two years ago. She rode on MonaLisa’s back for many months. MonaLisa is very domesticated. She loves living in houses and sleeping on beds but not too keen on climbing trees. This is why we created Casa MonaLisa, so that she can be comfortable in the daytime when she is excluded from our house.

Abu is a female Capuchin monkey. She is about 4 years old and fully mature and she shares her enclosure with two green parrots and two macaws. She is a little lonely but we are shortly expecting male company for her.

Notes for February 8, 2006

We are at the end of a really lovely day here at Canaote. The mango season has begun seriously. Most of the trees are heavy with very young fruit. It’s going to be a big fruiting year. The perfume from the mango flowers is intoxicating and the air rich with oxygen. It’s one of those days when it feels good to be alive. I have been with the children most of the day. I like to spend an hour at least in each enclosure. Marco was very cheeky this morning and ran off with my hat. He teased Sussy to the point where she came to me for protection. He is a naughty boy but he is very young (and big), he doesn’t really know his strength. He NEVER really hurts Sussy but he pushes her and she cries out for me when this happens. We have a small door separating the front of the enclosure from the back. Sussy likes to sit in front most of the day, enjoying the sun, so I close the door and this leaves Marco plenty of room to play on the ropes and leaves Sussy in peace. In spite of this, they sleep close together and would not be separated for all the tea in China. Sussy’s location is of course getting old and is in constant need of repair. This is a very big encloure about half the size of a football pitch and very high. We have carried out some major repairs this week. New wood etc. We hope one day to replace all the wood with metal. Dare I say it? It will cost a bomb. Cheques and silver in the hat by the door.

Schatov and Emma are a marriage made in heaven. They complement each other so perfectly. Although he is quite small Schatov doesn’t lack in boldness. He is also a brilliant thief. I have never understood why howlers think the food in another monkey’s mouth is better than they have. He repeatedly takes the food that Emma has and runs off with it. Both of them use the hammocks and ropes until they are tired. In the midday they find a shady spot to settle down for a few hours and then wait to see what the afternoon brings.

MonaLisa and Sophie have not yet completely adapted to life in Casa MonaLisa. They sleep in our house at night and I carry MonaLisa over to her house in the morning after the helper has scrubbed the floors and table. Sophie just follows. They have ropes and walkways, hammock and a bed as well as a marble table full of the best food. They eat well but still there are tears when I pass by. They want the freedom to wander the finca that they formally had. It can’t be helped and it has to be this way. MonaLisa bites our housekeeper and Sophie would like to menace Emma and Schatov. They could not have a better environment than they have at any price and I am sure that in time they will settle down.

Abu is such a delightful young lady. She is always very alert and has an interest in everything around her. Today she has been teaching the Macaws that it is not a good idea to steal her food. She really is the boss in the enclosure. We are expecting a boy to join her at the weekend and we are working on a feeder large enough for two. The present one is only sufficient for one. We have had a problem with monkeys and macaws stealing food from her, so we are designing a new feeder. We should start constructing that tomorrow. (Photo when it is ready) She has completely recovered from her sadness and is obviously very happy.

Why do you want a monkey as a pet?

The traditional human pets are dogs cats and horses. When you collect a monkey maybe you don’t realize all the ramifications. Howlers in particular are unsuitable as pets because of their variable behavior They can bite very severly even in play. Very unsuitable as a pet for children. You want to love the monkey and he/she will want to learn from you. If you obtain the little person young enough, they may abandon their innate racial knowledge. For example we have here in the center a howler monkey that is not very keen on climbing trees. She is fully mature but ignores the advances of a wild howler that visits the center, high in the canopy above her of course. She prefers to cling to the legs of any young male human, making sexual responses including smelling bedding and underwear. She cleans her teeth daily with a brush and loves shaving cream.  Given the chance she will select meat and human food rather than fruit and leaves. This young monkey is now a human in all but appearance, except she is not able to obtain the status of mother, which she desperately wants.

The plight of this monkey is not uncommon among the waifs that finally make their way to our facility. A typical story would be that the young monkey has been purchased from children by the roadside in a rural area. This fact is rarely admitted. Usually the story is that it has been an unwanted gift from an unspecified source. The story continues happily for perhaps two years, at which time the monkey is of mature size. The monkey becomes occasionally aggressive and bites a housekeeper or a female visitor or child. The owner suddenly realizes that the monkey can no longer be kept in the apartment or city house..

By this time the monkey has become part human and domesticated and demands to sleep in a bed with pillow and sheets.

The problem of how to rehabilitate this domesticated wild animal has been very much in our minds for a considerable time. How can we give the monkey back his/her dignity without also breaking her heart? Release into the wild is totally out of the question for health reasons. Her own heath, in as much as she lacks the skills of survival and the health of the surrounding wildlife who may not be resistant to infections that she may relay from her human friends. And as important, the health of humans who may subsequently be infected by retrovirus that come back to us from the wild kingdom, as instance HIV aids, Chicken flu, and many other zoofitic diseases.

We have begun a bold experiment by constructing an actual house with an open window, leading out to a large but enclosed area containing mature trees. Here the monkey at once has all the human comforts including a bed with sheets and pillow and a roof in a spacious dwelling and the trees and view of the wild in a very large contained area. This is not a cage as such but rather a house and garden.. The staff visits the location daily for considerable periods. At first human contact is very high, but gradually the monkey is left more and more to make their own fun. Food of course is supplied in abundance with the emphasis on natural food, leaves and nuts, collected daily from the forest. The foraging instinct of the howler monkey is taken into consideration, since the daily meals and the selection of leaves is varied day by day. This is an experiment designed to help restore the dignity and happiness of animals that have known great human contact but now for one reason or another have been abandoned. It leaves many questions unanswered, for example, how to deal with the females strong sexual needs. Answers may suggest themselves from this first experiment.

This past few weeks the BBC has been asking viewers for their opinion on certain aspects of their programing. I felt it was time to make a contribution on behalf of those overseas listeners that live in South America. Frequently we are not given a weather forcast, for some reason South America drops off the bottom of the map. and I can’t tell you how difficult I have found writing, without appearing to be an Asia basher but you are drowning us in Asia programs and here in Venezuela we probably have the smallest population of Asian people to be found anywhere. The BBC transmits a heavy mixture of Asian context programs to us. These are not of any particular interest to people here. It is unfortunately true that you have chosen a period of disaster and suffering in Asia in the news with an ASIA week, in addition to ASIA today etc. We can forgive the large proportion of your presenters that are of Asian origin because many of them are very talented and deserve their role with the BBC. The overall effect is that a substantial group of people here call the BBC, the ‘Bolitish Broadcasting Corporation’

However please realize that the racial mix here in Venezuela is African American and European White predominantly. Venezuela is one of the rare areas of the world where racial discrimination scarcely exists. Let’s try and keep it that way.

Having said all that. I am an avid BBC watcher and recognize the professional quality of your programs but please ……..

So far this season there have been 23 hurricanes in the Atlantic tropical system starting with ARLENE in June and Otis on the 3rd of October 2005. Katrina and Stan have been particularly viscous and although Venezuela fortunately is just below the Hurricane belt, we do have heavy winds and heavy rain downpours in the tail of these tropical storms.

The whole question of whether the vigor of these storms as well as those in the Pacific are caused by global warming is still an open question and the jury is still out on this issue.  Tsunamis do happen Even if people stopped pumping out carbon dioxide and other pollutants tomorrow, global warming would still get worse, two teams of researchers reported on Thursday. . . .

Virtually no one disagrees human activity is fueling global warming, and a global treaty signed in Kyoto, Japan, aims to reduce polluting emissions. But the world's biggest polluter, the United States, has withdrawn from the 1997 treaty, saying its provisions would hurt the U.S. economy.

Actually, lots of people disagree that "human activity is fueling global warming,"
In any case, the first paragraph quoted above refutes the second one. If there's nothing we can do to stop "global warming," how can we be causing it to begin with?

On the 12^th of October at three in the afternoon I arrived back at my farm, having been on a trip to Valencia. I was at once faced with a gunman holding my housekeeper as hostage. He threw her to the ground and advanced on me. I was still sitting in the passenger seat of my car. My driver ran off leaving the engine still running and in reverse. I jumped clear of the car and it continued to reverse into a tree, where it stopped. The gunman without any provocation then shot me in the leg. Bleeding profusely, he then frog marched me back to the house, demanding money and guns. David Clulow and some of the staff escaped with a cell phone into the forest. The four bandits were aware of the cell phone and knew that their attempt was limited by the time it would take the police to arrive. This of course added to the viciousness of their behavior. Well I don’t have a gun and I had very little cash, having spent most of my funds on provisions in Valencia. The bandits finally ran of with my bag containing my most important documents like passport, identification, driving license and well as my small camera and PDA. My neighbor retrieved all my documents from the river. Unfortunately I have lost my brilliant little HP 607 digital camera and I don’t know what life will be like without my HP PDA, I have become so dependent on it.  

Okay so bloodily but unbowed I was speedily taken to hospital, where I received excellent attention and I am now back at home. I am recovering fast. The leg hurts but I have my life and I am not much the worst. The bandits got very little for their trouble.

We are always reminded of our closeness to the forest here. Nature can be kind but is often vicious and mindless. Two years ago we fostered two Macaws. At that time we did not realize that they were male and female. When the time came we stopped clipping their wings and allowed them to fly freely. Of course we always wished that they would regard us as home and live in the trees close to the compound. You can imagine our disappointment when one day they disappeared. The weeks went by and then the months and no sign of our lovely friends. To our joy, after an absence of eight months, the two macaws returned. Little did we suspect the whole story? They started eating at their food table as of old. Sunflower seeds and corn off the cob and bananas are their favorite foods. Suddenly there was a distraction from above, a hell of a din and two young macaws joined the others at the table. The family stayed with us through the whole season and gave us delight every day. But when the first rains came that following year, they all disappeared. Yesterday there was a commotion in the trees above the house. I looked up and there were six brilliantly coloured macaws above my head, red blue and yellow, the colours of the Venezuelan flag. Shortly afterwards they all landed on the bird table, all six chomping away at the seed and bananas that we lay out every day. We have two other young macaws which have been donated to us. Altogether now we have eight. We have succeeded in repopulating the area with the macaw, a much endangered bird. You can imagine how happy that has made us. More on this if you ask me.

Well that is nature’s bounty. On the other side you may remember that I reported some months back that my dog Ben Gurion had been killed by a toxin in a commercial dog food. Since then I have been preparing the dog food in the farm. Most often Spaghetti, with a tin of sardines or some cheap meat loaf.  Yesterday, the supplier reported that he had no supplies of the industrial quality Spaghetti. Instead I gave them cheap meat loaf. Sadly not enough it seems because during the night they hunted and killed a porcupine. Can you guess the rest? Yup three of the dogs had painful spikes in their mouths. Our dogs are not completely domesticated. It has been a trial today to get them together for extracting the spines. But we had success by late evening. A lot of protest but, success.

To end on a sad note. We have employed a young helper. Mainly to help me with the cleaning and feeding of the monkeys and other animals. During a walk on the mountain seeking leaves for the monkeys, he found a baby rabbit. He brought this back to the compound and proudly declared that this was a present.  David almost had a fit. “Don’t bring that creature into the compound; if it gets loose it will eat my plants’. My thoughts were to return it to where it was found, some great distance from the house. But in the meantime I said it could be kept in a cage near the house overnight. Cruelly, the cats ate it during the night. The cage was not secure enough to defend it. Nature can be cruel, and humans not wise enough.

I mentioned little Emma the baby howler monkey, last month. She had a bad experience in a meeting with Sussie our old howler monkey lady. Much to our surprise, Sussie attacked the little newcomer quite viciously. Whereas we had expected her to take the young one under her wing and act as a surrogate mother. There you are you think you understand the mind of a monkey but you soon find that you are still a learner. We know that old Sussie is going through some changes. Her young ward Marco has turned into a bit of a toy boy and is vying with her for place as the alpha monkey. She is having a problem with accepting her new role. It could be that she regards Emma as being responsible for her woes. Heard that story before? Tell me about it.

Briefly, last month I mentioned Ramon now Ramona, the street monkey in Tinaco. I have continued to visit her almost daily with leaves from the forest. Good news is that she has now completely recovered from her shock and her fall.

But talking about shock, I certainly had one a few days ago. We had a lengthy power cut lasting most of the day. I decided to leave our12 volt battery pack to 120 volt converter power for later in the evening so that I had sufficient light to prepare the evening meal. Later I approached the battery unit and began to reorganize the cables. At that moment I realized that there was one cable, a brown one, too many. I was on the point of picking it up to examine it, when it moved. Its small green eyes flashed in the light of the torch which I was playing on the battery. It was one of South America’s most deadly snakes, the mumpanari.  With incredible presence of mind I quickly retreated to the kitchen and acquired a long meat knife. I returned just in time to prevent the snake from slipping away under the battery. “One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back”. (Apologies to Lewis Carol).I may have talked about snakes in this district before. They are in no sense predatory. They don’t like the company of people and avoid us at all cost. But they really don’t like heavy rain and moist environments. They prefer dry warm areas with lots of sun. The extraordinary wet and rainy weather we have been experiencing over the last few months drove this poor animal towards our house. Although many snakes inhabit this area I can honestly say that I have rarely encountered one and certainly never been in fear. They scuttle away, when you are on foot in the forest and you are never aware of them.

A wedding has been announced.

 I will end on a very happy note. ‘Little Pig’ is the name of our Vaquero. Vaquero is the local name for a Peccary.  They are a pig like animal indigenous to this area and are a protected species in Venezuelan law. She came to us about a year ago as a small baby. We had to feed her with a bottle. She and her brother had been stolen from the mother and far too early at that. The little boy did not survive the separation but ‘Little Pig’ has grown into a fine and friendly young lady. But very lonely. Recently we were told that a family in the local town had a male. They were having a problem with their dogs that were molesting the Peccary. On the 27^th of July Perulo came to the farm and was married to ‘Little Pig’. Although suitably shy and cautious, we know that ‘Little Pig’ and Perulo will make a fine couple and who knows, perhaps some more little pigs.

Pictures of the pair will arrive on my blog space at the address below.

One day I will tell you about a peccary that was weaned by a dog.

It does seem that a lot of my time this month has been spent caring for monkeys. I occasionally visit a howler female now called Ramona. When I first saw her she was chained to a tree in the center of Tinaco, her owner was absolutely certain that she was a he. It’s a common mistake as howler female gentilia are external and rather similar to a very small male organ. Even after I showed the owner photographs of male and female alongside each other, they refused to believe that their handsome howler monkey was a beautiful young lady. They still call her Raymond. She has been a great worry to me as high tension power lines without insulation run across the top of her tree. Well last week my fears became a reality. She climbed up onto the wire and received a severe shock. Fortunately she has apparently recovered from that but having been shocked she fell from the wire and injured her leg. When I arrived this time, she was obviously in distress and unable to climb or walk. I telephoned my friends at ARFA and Lucy Alio the President readily agreed to provide a vet from the rescue center. The following morning, Lucy and the Vet went with me to see her. The Vet confirmed that Ramona has a hairline crack in her pelvis. She is being treated, and the following day I took her a big bunch of leaves from the forest. She was looking better already.

As a follow up. I have been providing fresh leafs of mango, hobo, tamarind and various other delicious tidbits from the forest, every day. This morning, the 15th July 2005, I called in on my way to Valencia for a brief visit. I brought with me the usual gift of leafs. I received an incredible welcome from the young lady. She jumped onto my shoulder and gave me a kiss.

Then I was really astounded to see her jump into the tree and swing from a branch. She is well on the road to recovery. Thank you ARFA.

I am enclosing a photograph, taken this morning of Ramona amongst the leafs.