24th September 2010

As of two weeks ago, i flew out to Canada to carry on freshwater turtle research at a Provincial Park in Southern Ontario. If you would like to hear about the research work i have done and am doing then check out the Research section under Specialist on the home page.

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5th September2010

Today, i thought the little monkeys could have a treat. I have strung together numerous monkey nuts on a long piece of string. These  monkey nuts, i have strung up in the inside of their enclosures for the to play with and eat. The first enclosure has the red-lipped tamarin and a little cotton-top tamarin. Well, they went NUTS for their new hanging toy! The cottontop rushed over and grabbed a monkey nut and sunk his teeth into the crunchy shell to rip off a piece exposing a wonderful nut inside. It was exciting to watch them grasping at the monkey nuts and enjoying the bounty they possessed. Then the squirrel monkeys. Tyson, as usual, came racing over and pulled up the the piece of string and grabbed a nut like he done this all before. Dirty Harry stood back awhile to wait and see what to do. Then, i placed one inside ‘Bob’s enclosure (marmoset). Just like Bob, he hung back for quite a long time to assess the situation but eventually he came over and checked them out but i know that Bob is rather a ‘private’ monkey. He would rather stare at you for ages than find out what yummy treats you have put out for him. I gave him soaked gum arabic the other day which he was ever so pleased about. I put some mealworms in it too and as he picked them out and ate them you could see this enjoyable gooey consistency as he munched on his treats!

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31st August 2010

I have made more enrichment toys for my little monkeys in lemur land. Today i put an upturned broom in the garden for the squirrel monkeys and put mealworms in the bristles. Tyson came running out squealing with excitement at this new toy and could see the mealworms wriggling around. He leapt onto the broom head and vigorously felt through the bristles for the bugs. I could hear the crunching whilst he obviously was enjoying this glorious snack.

I am currently in the middle of making long strings of monkey nuts for the other monkeys to play with. We are looking forward to seeing how they get on with them. They enjoyed the corn on the cob we threw in at meal time the other day. I did peel the one for ‘Storm’ our black and white ruffed lemur on his own due to his hand being deformed from a baby.

I would like to take this opportunity to say hello to John who i met yesterday after his accident. A wonderful man, with a fabulous sense of humour, a pleasure to meet and hopefully we will see him and his family again soon!

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Today, i provided enrichment for the monkeys. I made a ball on a rope using an old football and hung it from a tree branch for the Black and white ruffed lemur group. As soon as they came out to see it they made  burring noises and blew out their cheeks at to each other. Buffy who shows leadership or high rank in the group made his way over to the string and marked it. Suddenly, all the lemurs in the park started calling.

Yesterday,  i made tennis ball enrichment toys for the squirrel monkeys and the tamarin enclosures. I took three tennis balls, made a hole in the upper side so treats could be placed inside and thread a piece of string through them all. Tyson and Dirty Harry, the squirrel monkeys, absolutely love their new toy. The tamarins were not so sure. It took a while before they went close to the toy but showed alot of interest.

In the future, these balls can all be rotated between enclosures so the primates can smell different smells. I have already tried drops of eucalyptus oil on the footballs for an interesting smell. We will try other oils aswell.