Staring Through the Eyes of War
The greatest factor that is likely to have influenced our wildlife is the uncontrolled manner in which agriculture and forestry has changed natural habitats. Competition with "livestock" for food, cultivation, overgrazing, the persecution of perceived "problem animals", and soil erosion are some of the factors that have contributed ot the decline of healthy wild populations.
The lure of vegetable and fruit crops against the backdrop of a shrinking natural habitat has resulted in a severe war on diminishing primate populations and irreparably damaged troop structures. Crop farming harms species such as porcupine, bushpigs, bushbuck and other vegetarian and omnivorous mammal populations too.
Some nine years ago, when I first moved to the Garden Route, after establishing a baboon sanctuary in the Magaliesberg, I decided not to continue rehabilitating and rescuing non-human indigenous primates. My reasons had much to do with what had occurred on the sanctuary, the one we'd named "Imfene" which was based at the foot of the Magaliesberg Mountain. Neighboring farmers, legislation that seeks to persecute these species, widespread negative misconceptions about their behaviour and status as "problem" animals in relation to the humans who have robbed them of their natural habitat and the right to live freely, and the chronic consequences of loving non-human animals that face death on a daily basis were a few of the factors that caused me to turn away.. Back in 2000, I had no intention of risking all that again.
Instead of getting involved hands-on with animals, I decided to stick to a safer plan; working towards a harmonious co-existence between humans and non-human primates - finding solutions, educating and fighting our unacceptable laws. This work continued until residents with injured and orphaned baboons and monkeys began to seek me out; there are no vervet monkey sanctuaries or rehab centres in the Western Cape. There had been no other solution but to 'euthanase' those in need. Currently there are no official primate rescue centres in the Western Cape other than the Darwin primate Group. Most orphans are "euthanased"/shot after their parents have been killed by humans.
Once again, I felt compelled to do something - faced with an infant orphaned primate who has no future other than death, the choices are few. The Darwin Primate Group was founded to find solutions to bring harmonious co-existence between non-human and human primates and rescue and rehabilitate vervet monkeys.
Without the necessary infrastructure and the limitations of living on rented land, we went ahead, taking in any infant orphans and injured adults that came our way. My method of rehab has been to integrate all the monkeys that get brought here so that they are bonded and can freely roam in the wild indigenous forest that surrounds our home. Today most of these individuals are bonded, have learnt all the necessary wild lessons about foraging for natural foods and the threat of predators. Sometimes newcomers take one month to integrate and become free, others take six months. The goal always is to work towards total freedom in the wild.
Obstacles in the form of poachers, farmers , unprotective legislation and low funding continues to plague the project but along with that is the unrestrained joy of observing unrelated monkeys bond and form strong alliances, exhibit a clear understanding of predators, bound freely through the 40 meter high branches while foraging on natural food sources along the way and interact with wild neighbors such as baboons, caracal, snakes and raptors. .
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God bless you for your work...there are alot of sick, serial killer minded people here on youtube who sooner or later will drop negative comments but dont mind them. Once again, thumbs up...cheers!
sepehrfarzaneh 4 months ago