Mona

Jan 2008

The idea first arose when we went out for a meal Christmas of 2007. I had just left my job and was not sure quite what to do next and Jenny wanted some time out and to do something a bit different. We were both talking about how we’d love to work with animals and Jen brought up the idea of volunteering somewhere. A few weeks later I thought about what she had said, having a lot of time on my hands and thought we could seriously do this...

We started looking for ideas and came across a website called responsible travel. There were some incredible trips on there but most were very expensive and for long periods of time. Then we came across Mona, a chimpanzee Sanctuary based in Girona, Spain. It was abroad, but not too far and for a few days, just enough to get a taster and to contribute something worthwhile to the Sanctuary. So Jen got it all in motion by contacting Mona and we started to arrange our trip.

Mona is a fantastic charity caring for chimpanzees who have been badly treated and in a lot of cases used for the entertainment of humans at the animals cost. Unfortunately it is not illegal in Spain to keep monkeys as pets and so Mona have a fight on their hands trying to rescue those they discover, relying heavily on the public coming forward to report a sighting. Some of the chimpanzees had been used for television adverts or in circus acts. They were tied up in tiny cages not big enough to stand up in and fed extremely poor diets of cigarettes and fizzy drinks. Everyday people are profiting from these animals mistreatment. The idea at Mona is to recreate a safe environment as close to their natural habitat as possible so they can learn to become chimpanzees again. For this reason human contact is kept to a minimum and we would not be allowed to touch them or go in with them for direct contact. This would also be too dangerous, because of their past the chimps at Mona have serious psychological problems and issues trusting the humans they come into contact with. Jenny and I were excited to meet the people and the Chimps at the sanctuary and really did not know what to expect.

We were staying with an ex volunteer and friend of Mona called Jane who lived just outside Girona in a small Catalan village. Jane was a godsend during our stay, taking us to and from the sanctuary, giving us advice and information and preparing food for us. She even took us to the only local restaurant in her home town and ordered for us in Catalan as they did not speak English!

The first day at the sanctuary was exciting and nerve racking. It was very cold in the early morning and we were well wrapped up in fleeces and jackets and had our wellies ready. After a short drive we arrived and Jane introduced us to the staff leaving us in their capable hands. The kitchen and staff room was in a small porter cabin a little way away from the enclosures. As we sat in there a Robin flew up to the entrance and casually hopped in. I couldn’t believe it, as back home it is rare to catch even a glimpse of a Robin before it flies away. But this little guy was a regular visitor we were told and I couldn’t resist taking some snaps of him!  

It wasn’t long before we were to be introduced to the chimps and so we put on our wellies and stepped outside. The staff were whooping at our wellies and saying how excited the chimps would be. Mine were silver ‘space boots’ and Jenny’s were a black and white flowery design. I thought they were joking with us because we had such ‘trendy’ wellies but when we met the chimps we discovered they couldn’t take their eyes off them!

Our first meeting of the chimps was not at all what I expected. We walked through the kitchen and outside right next to the largest enclosure where the family reside. Toto is the alpha male, Romie (who sadly passed away recently), Waty and Sara the three females and then Bongo and Juanita, Juanita being the youngest. Nico one of the young males was not in with the family when we visited Mona as he had an injury and was being kept separate until he had healed.

We got ready sitting on a couple of crates about a metre from the fence. The chimps had yet to be let out of their night indoor enclosure and we could hear excited noises and shrieks from inside. Alba told us that the chimps would not trust us straight away and might act in strange ways, they could be aggressive but we were to remain calm and not react to anything they were doing. I felt butterflies in my stomach not quite sure how this first encounter was going to go. Jenny looked as nervous as I felt. Then the door opened and out they came. They were so fast and most of them ran straight to where we were sitting. The sheer size of the chimps surprised me straight away as I had not pictured them as being as large as they were. They were not happy to see us and some of them began aggressive behaviour straight away grasping dirt and grass in their hands and throwing it towards us through the fence. It was a shock and my first instinct was to scream but I knew I couldn’t react and so we looked away from them at each other whispering to each other. Probably something along the lines of ‘oh my god this is scary, what are we doing here!?’ One of the chimps began spitting at us as well. Alba came out and told off the chimps for their bad behaviour but who can blame them they have been treated so poorly by people who look just like us. Before going out there I had my camera ready to take photographs but as soon as they came out it did not feel right, it felt like exploiting their vulnerability so we put our cameras away. After our first meeting with the chimps we had dirt in our hair & ears and looked slightly bedraggled. However bewildering our first encounter, I think we were both eager to earn their trust and prove to them we were the good guys.

The sanctuary also look after a family of Barbary Macaques and we got to meet them too although they were a lot calmer to observe on a first meeting. Throughout the morning we cleaned up the Barbary Macaques enclosure and had a tour of the sanctuary.

Then it was time to prepare their breakfasts. There was a list of how much each animal should get depending on their size and appetite and also to make sure they each get a varied diet. It mainly consisted of fruits & nuts and also some bread & crackers, which we chopped up and put into individual bowls for each enclosure. We could hear the chimps outside awaiting their morning feast. While we were in the kitchen we learnt about the medical needs of some of the chimps and the medication they are given. Chimps have a lot of similarities to humans and I remember Toto the eldest of the chimps had vitamins and medications for joints and old age just like elderly humans.

Then it was time to go and feed the chimps. The biggest enclosure was to be done first with the family of chimps where we had had our interesting encounter that morning. But I was slightly more confident they would be a little more pleased to see us with their breakfast in our hands. And I was right, although they were still very unsure of us as we began to throw food over the fence of the enclosure they saw that we were not meaning harm. It was actually quite hard to throw the food high enough to get it over and we didn’t want to waste the chimp’s food. After a few minutes Alba said we could start putting food through the fence a bit closer to the chimps. This experience of feeding the family of chimps was fantastic and so memorable. You could see each of their personalities coming out and observe them much more naturally than before. They were obviously happy to get the food and my confidence picked up throughout. To get so close to them was incredible. After their food was gone Alba spoke to some of them through the fence and we observed them for a few minutes, getting close enough to take a few photographs as they relaxed. This no longer felt like an intrusion into their privacy as we observed them as individual characters.

Rest In Peace Romie x x

Toto

A friend of Alba’s and of the chimps arrived as we were finishing the feeding and she began to interact with Juanita through the fence. She picked up a long stem of grass with flowers on it and passed it through to Juanita. He accepted the gift and passed one back to her. Everyone laughed as he passed through a tatty looking twig and the lady exclaimed where her flowers were!

After we left the family we headed for the bachelor group where there were 3 male chimps together, Charlie, Marco and Tony. They were a lot less aggressive than the family but also wary of us. Charlie named after Prince Charles due to his extremely large ears and Marco got right down to business eating their breakfast. Tony was a little more reluctant. Tony is a lot smaller than the other males, due to a condition he has stopping his body from developing properly. He was one of the chimps rescued from a circus and that was the life he knew for many years. The staff at Mona asked us not encourage him as he still has tendencies to do tricks and run up and down the fence as I assume he had been taught. When he did the tricks there was no humour and all I felt was sadness at how he had been treated. He took a real shine to Jenny and we made sure he got some food too and that the other two did not scrounge it before he got to it. I think Tony had become a favourite of both of us already.

Finally we went to feed two of the newest recruits to Mona, Victor and Tico. It had not yet been decided which group they would be introduced to and so they were currently in a separate enclosure together. They were very playful and we had to stand well back from the enclosure, as having much larger gaps between the bars they could reach their arms right through to get to the food. My fondest memory of Tico and Victor was on the last day at Mona. Jenny and I were sitting on a bench our hard work done for the day and we were allowed to simply observe the chimps. Sitting relaxed with our wellies crossed we talked about the last few days when we both saw what one of the chimps was up to. He had got himself comfortable on a hammock and pulled a nice cosy blue blanket over himself to get snug. As we watched he picked up a newspaper and proceeded to open it and read. It was in fact upside down which made it even more comical. He looked like an old grandad and all that was missing were his slippers.

Our next task involved getting stuck in cleaning out the indoor enclosures whilst the chimps went out for their breakfast. This was where the hard work began, sweeping out the straw and muck and power hosing it down after a good scrubbing! Then we had to set about making it homey again with clean straw. It was physically demanding but we both enjoyed getting stuck in and it was satisfying to see it all clean and ready for the chimps after all our hard work.

The day was drawing to a close and it would soon be time for the chimps to go into their indoor enclosures to have dinner and then go to sleep. We were told we could observe the dinner feed but would not be able to get involved as it was a stricter routine and the chimps were used to the keepers doing their meal in a particular way. So we sat one of us at either end on a crate very close to the enclosures but were not to step past a line which had been marked on the floor as this was how far the chimps could reach out through the bars.

When the doors were opened and the chimps came in it was a little like the first morning experience but ten times louder. They came running in at such speed and launched at the bars, mainly in excitement of dinner time and not hostility, although one of the chimps did spit a few times! The noise was deafening, I have never heard anything like it, the sounds reaching a pitch so high, an ear-splitting scream, swinging and running around in a hyperactive frenzy. I recorded a video clip on my camera purely for the sound as I knew this would be something that no one would believe unless they heard it for themselves. It was a little frightening but more fascinating than anything. Once they had started to quiet down a little the food came out and the keepers began to feed them. It was so mesmerising watching them throw the food up in the air and the chimps put their arms out of the bars to catch it. The ones down the bottom they gently passed to them putting the food into their hands. Then it was just watching them thoughtfully chew and then put their hands out for more when they had finished. It was clear some had favourite fruits and some were greedier than others. As well as fruit, they had a yogurt each which they opened themselves and some juice from small plastic cups which the keepers held to their lips. They all looked really content.

The thing that stands out clearest in my memory is the size of Toto’s hands. They were huge, wrinkled skin like an old man’s but three times the size of ours reaching out through the bars. I can also still remember the sound when I think back to them entering the enclosure; it is so clear in my mind. Dinnertime was most definitely my favourite and most memorable experience at Mona and luckily we were allowed to sit in on both evenings we were there. Alba taught us how to wish the chimps goodnight in Catalan to quiet them down for sleep but you could hear them chatting to each other as we crept out for the night. The last evening it felt quite emotional wishing them goodnight as we knew we not see them again, on this trip at least.

The first day was exhausting and although it went so quickly we were happy to get back to Jane’s and curl up on the sofa. I think I had the best night’s sleep that night I had had in a long time.

An early start and we were back at Mona ready to start the next challenge. We got the chance to talk with some of the other staff and volunteers and find out what their stories were and how they had come to be at Mona. In Spain they have a late afternoon lunch which lasts a couple of hours as their working day is longer and it was a great opportunity to sit outside under a warm sun talking to these remarkable people who all shared a common interest...monkeys & chimps! Some were there on work experience, some as part of their studies and others had come from across the globe to work there fulltime. There were a few staff members who had been there since the beginning with Alba and the chimps were like family to them.

We didn’t prepare the breakfast that morning instead it was ready for us to put around the enclosure before the chimps came outside. Before putting out the food we had to clean up the enclosure which took quite a long time. We then spread the food about hiding bits and putting them on the apparatus so that the chimps could hunt for their food. It looked delicious, hot potatoes chopped up with chunks of fresh vegetables. The outdoor enclosures had plenty of apparatus to swing and jump off, things to crawl through, hide in and play with to keep the chimps stimulated.

One of our tasks for the day was making enrichment activities for the chimps with food to keep them entertained and give them challenges as well as food! We got large pinecones, coated them in honey and stuck nuts and seeds on & inside the cones for them to pick out and munch. Then we covered them with newspaper. This kept all the nuts and seeds in and for the chimps it would be like unwrapping a present, they would not eat the paper but would most likely play with it after they had eaten all the goodies. It was fun to do something creative especially when you knew the chimps would also enjoy it. When we gave the pinecones to the chimps they went crazy running around and were really excited. I particularly remember Charlie and Marco two of the males, they sat together and they shared their two cones together passing them to and fro, being so gentle and making sure they each got the same. I was thrilled to get some photographs of these intimate moments as they appeared quite at ease with our presence.

Before we could observe their evening meal again we got to help make some of it, as well as fruit they had large sticky balls of rice with a little mince meat, it was fun preparing them and getting in a sticky mess. These were a real treat that they don’t get everyday and you could tell they were everyone’s favourite! As we were cooking the kitchen door was ajar and we could see the chimps gathered at the fence peeping at us wondering what we were up to.

One of the volunteers who was there as part of her studies, did a presentation in the educational room on the site, about her observations and ideas for enrichment that she had worked on during her time at Mona. Then Jenny and I had a chance to walk around the centre and read the information about where the chimps came from and the impact and development of the sanctuary. The sanctuary is open to the public to visit, mainly for schools to go there for educational visits to try and teach them about the chimps, in an effort to create a positive outlook on animals in general. The aims, to help a new generation grow up with different views than those that are common in Spain currently. It made a real impact on us and made us feel that by coming to Mona not only had we enjoyed learning about and observing the chimps, but that we had helped the staff with their work and by paying to go there we had made a donation to a very worthy cause.

I will never forget the experience I had at Mona with Jen. It may have been short but it had a huge impact. I would love to go back there in the future and see how the chimps have changed and meet the new characters which have joined the sanctuary since.  Mona has since rescued another chimpanzee called Africa from Gran Canaria, where she was smuggled from the wild. Jen and I raised some money by making and selling Monkey cup cakes to help Mona build a new enclosure for Africa back in Feb 2009.  We also did two 5K runs for Mona and hope to raise some more money in the future for such a worthy cause.

http://www.mona-uk.org/