Monkey World

We gave William and Anna a choice between a day in London - 45 minutes away, and going to Monkey World - two hours away.

Monkey World all the way.

It was cold and rainy and the monkeys were not interested in being outside on their wonderful jungle gyms.

Monkey!

At the Centre refugees of the illegal trade of smuggling primates from the wild as well as those that have suffered abuse or neglect are rehabilitated into natural living groups.

There was a very wily young chimpanzee that was harassing his family non-stop. As we are busy raising our own young primates, it was nice to see that small ones are universally, chronically playful. Eventually all the chimps settled down for a nap except for the excited youngster. A while later a mama chimp dropped down from her bed and snuggled her wild child up and he settled down with a nice snack of num nums. So cute!

Monkey See and Monkey Do.

William showed that he has a way with primates. They seemed interested in him, and the handsome fellow in the photo below was especially enthusiastic.

Telling William all about it.

Pound it Oshine.

From Monkey World website:

Oshine is a female Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) that was born at a zoo in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 27/02/97 and arrived at Monkey World 13 years later on 31/08/10.  As an infant, she was given to a couple living in South Africa to raise as a pet in their home.  Oshine grew up in the house wearing clothes and eating a human diet.  At 6-7 years old she became too difficult to keep in the house and the family built her an enclosure of her own.  With little exercise and a diet which included sweets and processed food, Oshine developed a weight problem.

Oshine was very interactive, asking with sign language to see the contents of people's bags. We saw her do this several times. Completely entertaining.

We opted to skip the cafeteria at Monkey World and headed to a nearby pub, where our recent visit inspired some art work.



Oshine by William.




Oshine by Michael.