IPPL’s Helping Hand - South America

December 2003

Chile’s primate sanctuary, Elba Muñoz Lopez, IPPL Representative in Chile

IPPL has been a very important organization for us. It was the first one helping us with money. We applied for a small grant that we used to build a habitat for the spider monkeys.

In the year 2000 Viejita and Gordita, two female capuchins from the Bioterio de Primates laboratory of the Universidad Catolica, reached our sanctuary. We wrote Shirley to ask for help to enclose a habitat with special glass so it would allow us to control the temperature inside, because the monkeys were used to living in controlled temperatures.

These monkeys are doing well and are now integrated into a group of eight capuchins. Viejita is more than 45 years old and is the oldest monkey at the Centre.

In December of 2000 we bought new land and, again IPPL was the first to help us with buying the things we needed to build the first enclosure there.

In November of 2002 I attended the meeting in Santiago for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) as an observer from IPPL, on the invitation of Shirley McGreal. It was a fantastic experience that allowed me to meet representatives from other organizations and let them know about our work.

In the beginning of 2003 we rescued the chimp Toto. Animal Defenders, a group we met through IPPL at the CITES meeting, helped us with the money to build a beautiful habitat for him. Animal Defenders also helped finance his stay during the seven months he was with us recovering. Toto is now at Chimfunshi in Zambia, a rescue center for chimps.

IPPL has been helping us in very special moments and I feel very honoured to be their representative in Chile.

Woolly monkeys find sanctuary in Peru, Lucy Molleson, Ikamaperu, Rio Mayo Reserve, Peru

In northern Peru, a group of young woolly monkeys is growing up in the sheltered sanctuary of a project known locally as Ikamaperu. Ikamaperu is run by Helene and Carlos Palomino, with the help and support of IPPL-UK.

Known locally for their work rescuing injured wildlife, Helene, and Carlos brought in their first monkey four years ago. He was severely malnourished and had been cruelly soaked in engine oil. After three weeks of intensive care, Taysu was healthy enough to be identified as a rare woolly monkey infant. He was the first member of an expanding group, which now includes seven other young woollies.

Helene and Carlos are determined that these monkeys should have the chance to lead as free and natural as life as possible. Woolly monkeys are hunted in the wild, and are becoming extremely scarce. The orphans from Ikamaperu and other rescue centers may well become the future survivors of their species.

By dedicating all their time and their own resources, Helene and Carlos have been able to secure 50 hectares of forest along the banks of the Rio Mayo, which will become a protected reserve for monkeys. Cyril Rosen, the director of IPPL in the UK, came up with an inspired idea to raise money for completing the reserve. Members were asked to sponsor an achiote tree, one of the monkeys’ favorites. Work began in earnest this summer, with over two thousand tree seedlings planted to enrich the forest, and the first building begun.

Thanks to IPPL, the little monkeys at Ikamaperu will have a home for life.