Mr Patas & Penelope
When Monkey World contact the charity for a grant to cover the costs of the rescue of Mr Patas & Penelope the answer was always going to be a resounding YES! We knew from the Get-go that this was going to be a wholly worthwhile grant, that would ensure a safe and bright future for them both at Monkey World.
Initially Mr Patas and Penelope were housed in the guenon house, however mesh introductions were quite aggressive, and it became clear this would not be the best fit for them. The park moved them across to the stump-tail macaque area, where they now have three bedrooms and a newly refurbished outdoor cage all to themselves.
Mr Patas is an incredibly powerful and impressive monkey he can move extremely quickly and take giant leaps around his enclosure. He’s BIG, confident and, extremely food motivated, yet despite his power and speed, he is generally very well-behaved when he’s around the primate care staff. Penelope on the other hand was a very nervous individual. She was incredibly scared of people, choosing to cower in the corner, as far away from you as possible.
The fantastic team at Monkey World were determined to help her become more confident. A small and female only team, (she appeared to be very nervous with men) were allocated to her care. Each morning the primate care staff worked hard to raise her confidence until she was able to sit with Mr Patas and take rewards from the staff. They took the time to introduce more staff members and eventually male staff members into the team and now her fear of men no longer appears to be an issue.
Mr Patas & Penelope are both now thoroughly enjoying their outside enclosure, confident and happy in their new home.