On 14 February the Animal Tracks centre in Goa received a number of calls to say there was a young boy in Calangute beating a monkey which he had on a chain. Regrettably there were no police available to assist IAR staff and so, when IAR Goa Chairman John Hicks saw the boy, he immediately accosted him to confiscate the monkey. The IAR team hadn’t arrived on the scene, but John was worried that the boy might disappear into the crowds. The young culprit did try his best to escape and his mother soon turned up to help him. As it was the busy time of day a huge crowd soon gathered to see what was going on and John not only had to fight off the mother and son, he also had to fight his way through the crowd to reach his car. This was achieved whilst also restraining and protecting the monkey at the same time.
Once inside the car John managed to drive through the crowd with the monkey loose inside. Anyone who knows monkeys will appreciate that driving with one loose in your car is far from easy, especially if you are not sure if the monkey is about to attack you.
The IAR wildlife rescue extension was built at John’s home so that he would be able to supervise the treatment and diet of the animals that were brought in. When the monkey was examined closely it was clear that she was in a very poor state. The poor creature had had her canine teeth knocked out, she was skin and bone and, needless to say, she was terrified.
To help her through the trauma John sat with her in his arms for the rest of the day and most of the night. After a long deep sleep the little monkey started to look a lot brighter. John was probably the first person who had treated her with kindness and shown her any affection and she was desperate not to be separated from him. However gradually, over the next 48 hours, her confidence grew and she eventually found another friend in Chico, one of John’s dogs. They began to play together and, with them both loose in the house, they are causing havoc racing around and knocking everything over.
The challenge now is to try to persuade her to socialise with the other monkeys which it is hoped will eventually be to rehabilitate back to the wild. The new monkey is about two years old and the other three females are not keen to accept her because this would mean accepting a drop in their status. However, with time and lots of patience we hope she will eventually be accepted. The fact that she is female certainly makes it a lot easier than if she was a two year old male, as the Alpha male would have fought viciously to prevent a new adult male from joining the group.