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I must apologize for my silence. We have been really busy with lots of "Monkey Stuff" and my email was hacked. So if you sent me an email within the last month or so, and I did not respond, please re-send. My email should be fixed by the end of next week.
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Baby Rico drinking from his bottle.
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Let's see, where to start... I think I should tell you about baby Rico! On September 4th I was contacted by Frank, a compassionate gentleman in Las Vegas who was given a 12-week-old squirrel monkey named Rico who was still on formula.
Baby Rico was born in Florida, stolen from his natural monkey mom and sold, only to be bounced from two other homes until he landed with Frank. We are very grateful to Frank for contacting Jungle Friends about this tiny baby. He felt that monkeys should not be diapered and kept in cages, but should live with other monkeys.
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Rico didn't like to sleep alone. |
I called Susan Schneider, our Vice President who lives in Vegas and she contacted Frank. Susan picked up Baby Rico right away. Although Frank was very sad to see him go, he knew Rico needed to be with other monkeys.
The process of finding a veterinarian who would even see a monkey, was quite an undertaking.
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Info & photo on shipping crate.
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The next problem was the heat embargo on United Airlines, which was the only airline that transports monkeys to sanctuaries. We also wanted Rico to travel on a direct flight, we did not want him changing planes at all! We did find a direct flight from Phoenix, Arizona to Atlanta, Georgia on October 2. Susan and her son Brandon, Rico's fourth guardians, drove him to the airport, and myself, Sara and Terry drove to Georgia to pick Rico up when he arrived the afternoon of October 3.
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Rico, safe and sound.
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When they brought Rico off the plane he was frightened and screaming for a bottle,
he had been alone in the crate for nearly 6 hours.
We got him into the van and out of the crate as quickly as possible, wow, was he hungry. Rico was so happy to be out of the crate with a warm body and formula, our weary traveler fell fast asleep in my arms.
Rico has been doing fantastic, and all of the amazing Jungle Friends care staff and volunteers took turns around the clock making sure that Rico had
his
formula whenever he made the tiniest little squeak; Rico was never left alone. Monkeys Rico's age should be clinging to his mother and playing with other young monkeys in the wild, and although humans are a poor substitute for a mother monkey, we did the best we could.
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| Rico loves trees! |
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Rico started visiting the other monkeys in a habitat which was adjoining Chi Chi's habitat on October 8 and we could tell almost immediately they were going to work out just fine together!
If you remember Jasper's story, he was also a baby monkey who arrived after being traded in a used car deal when he was still on a bottle and ChiChi
was his surrogate mother. Now Jasper is being introduced to
Simon, another boisterous squirrel monkey, and they play and play and play throughout the day.
On October 18, ChiChi and Rico were united, and they have been together ever since. He is eating mostly solid foods and is being weaned off of the bottle. Please consider sponsoring Baby Rico.
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Kari Bagnall, Founder & Executive Director
Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary
386-462-7779
P.P.S. We now have an easy way for you to receive Jungle Friends updates - Text MONKEYS to 51555 to sign up! Check it out!
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