Barbary macaques, Africa’s own snow monkeys
When you see pictures of monkeys frolicking in the snow, you’re usually looking at photos of Japanese macaques. The species is famous for taking a break from the winter’s cold by basking in natural hot springs. Now Keri Cairns, IPPL’s roving representative zoologist, introduces us to Africa’s version of the snow monkey. Barbary macaques, too,…
Read MoreAdvice for travelers to Marrakech
IPPL’s favorite investigative zoologist and photojournalist Keri Cairns is in Morocco this month, and he is bringing us on-the-ground reports about that country’s native Barbary macaques. And this important advice: “If you do visit Marrakech, please don’t pose for a photo with the monkeys. It’s one of the many problems they face that is helping…
Read MoreU.S. primate import statistics for 2012
Last fall, we got a surprise package. Actually seven of them. They were boxes of papers that were the result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that IPPL CEO Shirley McGreal had submitted… four years earlier. Shirley had wanted to know more precise figures about primate imports into the U.S. So she tried…
Read MoreCourtney’s birthday
Courtney—the youngest gibbon at our sanctuary—turns 11 years old today! But since I can’t interview Courtney herself on this fine occasion (she would just keep trying to steal my pen), I thought I’d check in with one of her favorite people—Barbara Allison, IPPL’s long-time office manager, who first came to IPPL in 1998, four years…
Read MoreRemembering Beanie and Bullet
On December 30 I received a welcome visit from long-time IPPL supporters Tim and Christi Doyle from California. I had met Tim at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia years ago. They had visited IPPL once before—way back in 1999. Tim and Christi were amazed at the changes. Since their last visit we have more…
Read MoreFaux snow balls for our gibbons
This year, it looks like we’ll be without a White Christmas at our South Carolina sanctuary again (big surprise). But our administrative assistant, Tina McCoy, wanted to present our gibbons with “faux snow balls” (really, ice balls) as enrichment during our current mild mid-winter stretch. She got the idea online. She saw that you could…
Read MoreOur gibbon gals: Large and in charge!
Walking back toward the office earlier today, I saw one of our gibbons, Robbie, sitting at the end of an aerial runway, enjoying the winter sunshine. A moment later, along came his mate Dianne. She got to within about six inches of him when he suddenly stood up, climbed past her, and sat down again…
Read MoreRemembering the arrival of the Maui Three
Happy Birthday, Maui! Maui Gibbon was born on December 8, 1990, at the Maui Zoo. His parents were named Jade and “Boy.” Jade had reached the Maui Zoo from the Honolulu Zoo, and “Boy” had been a family pet of Sam Pryor, a retired Pan Am pilot. Unfortunately, the Maui Zoo kept its gibbons in…
Read MoreMake Giving Tuesday “Gibbon Tuesday”!
Last Thursday, many Americans had their fill of turkey (or Tofurky) as we sat around the table and shared the many things we are thankful for. The IPPL gibbons also enjoyed their version of the holiday with a variety of seasonal treats. Thanksgiving remains one of the few of our holidays not burdened by over-commercialization.…
Read MoreSlow lorises on TV
When a “ticklish” slow loris took YouTube by storm a few years back, it was a disaster for the species. By promoting the idea that these “cute” little nocturnal primates make great pets, the video certainly fueled the illegal trade in these animals. Hopefully, a couple of TV shows within the next week will help…
Read MoreRemembering Dian Fossey’s grave site
Last month I had a wonderful visit from Lori Powell of nearby Seabrook Island and her sister LuAnn Short, who was visiting from Florida. LuAnn was keen to visit IPPL as she knew I had been a friend of her heroine, the famous gorilla expert Dian Fossey. In 2008 LuAnn had even visited Dian’s former…
Read MoreFree the Animals 2012
“Ask not what primates can do for you, ask what you can do for primates.” Shirley tweaked a classic line from President Kennedy in her main presentation on the primate trade at an animal rights conference in Saint Louis, Missouri, last weekend. [field name = “shirleys-saen-presentation-re-trade”] The “Free the Animals” conference in the…
Read MoreAustrian visitors spoil our gibbons
Friedrich Wendl is an IPPL supporter and gibbon adopter. He works for the Austrian parliament, but he also has literally decades of experience as a gibbon handler. Last week, he and his very patient friend and old army buddy, Johann Schmidt (who actually calls Omaha home now), came to visit the South Carolina Lowcountry for…
Read MoreThe Arashiyama Japanese macaques: An epic journey
One of the most beloved epic stories in China is known as the “Journey to the West.” It’s the tale of a traveling monk who has, as one of his most resourceful companions, a wily monkey. This week IPPL has been delighted to host as a visitor Dr. Linda Wolfe, a macaque expert and IPPL…
Read MoreRemembering teaming up with “Chief”
I had a real surprise earlier this week when a package from Malaysia arrived in IPPL’s mail. It was a book I knew I’d never be able to read: a newly-published guide to Malaysia’s mammals—written in Bahasa Malaysia. However, I have been enjoying the photos of all the animals, especially the primates. But what made…
Read MoreTripa in trouble
Indonesia’s ecologically-sensitive Tripa peat swamp forest is still in trouble. As reported in IPPL News earlier this year, environmentalists around the world raised the alarm as fires raged throughout the Tripa forest, which is one of the last habitats remaining on earth of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan. The Tripa forest, which is located in…
Read MoreWith apologies to William Carlos Williams
The Yellow Wheelbarrow so much depends upon a yellow wheelbarrow glazed with rainwater beside the white-handed gibbons. (Sorry, Bill.)
Read MoreA new monkey house rises in the Amazon
This past spring saw an unusual amount of flooding along the Amazon River. Although animals of all sorts (including people) know to expect rising river levels during the rainy seasons, the deluge this year came as a surprise. As a result, our friends with Fundación Maikuchiga were left in a bit of a bind. The…
Read MoreBeauty and the Beast
That’s how I think of them. Uma, with her demure eyes, lush growth of fur framing her face, and her graceful body. Scrappy, with his funny-looking teeth, gangly build (all knees and elbows) and… other peculiarities… But they’re a team, and they both celebrated birthdays last week: she was born September 5, 1985, and Scrappy’s…
Read MoreDay of Caring 2012
Every year around this time we welcome a host of community volunteers to the sanctuary to help with a variety of back-burner tasks that we never seem to get around to and take advantage of the (marginally) cooler fall weather to do a bit of planting. It’s all part of the Day of Caring, an…
Read MoreRemembering Hurricane Hugo
Now is the peak of the hurricane season. Hurricane Isaac, a Category 1 storm with winds around 70 miles per hour, struck Louisiana this week. This brought back memories of IPPL Headquarters being slammed by Hurricane Hugo, a Category 4 storm with steady winds of 135 miles per hour and gusts of up to 175…
Read MorePoisonous primates?
We’ve all heard about venomous snakes, frogs, and spiders, but what about primates? Venomous mammals are fairly rare. There are some shrews and shrew-like animals, and the male duck-billed platypus has a spur on his hind leg that can deliver a painfully toxic punch. But the primate order has a few species, too, that produce…
Read MoreIPPL on YouTube: What’s missing?
What would you like to see on IPPL’s YouTube channel? We’re just getting started! We plan to include a lot more uploads about our gibbon sanctuary, feature more videos uploaded by our overseas partners, and more—but we’d love your suggestions! Post a reply or send us an e-mail about… what kind of footage you would…
Read MoreA voice for primates at national animal conferences
Part of being a voice for the world’s overlooked primates means searching out sympathetic hearts and minds. The past two weekends, IPPL staff and volunteers have been spreading the word about primates as victims of trafficking and abuse at two major animal rights conferences, both held in Washington, D.C.: Taking Action for Animals (TAFA), sponsored…
Read MoreRemembering Rita Miljo, the “Mother Teresa of Baboons”
Rita Miljo, founder of the Centre for Animal Rehabilitation and Education, a baboon sanctuary in South Africa, died in a fire last Friday evening along with three of her favorite baboons. The blaze consumed her home as well as the clinic and nursery night quarters. No other staff, volunteers, or animals were harmed. Her loss…
Read MoreA legal victory for night monkeys
Angela Maldonado deserves to be known as “Our Angel of the Night Monkeys.” Last year she filed charges against the most powerful scientist in Colombia. This year she won. On July 5, the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca in Colombia revoked the permits of noted malaria researcher Dr. Manuel Elkin Patarroyo. (His lab has benefitted greatly…
Read MoreMeet Blair, our summer intern
How do you get an internship at IPPL’s gibbon sanctuary? By being talented, persevering, and dedicated to animals—just like Blair St. Ledger-Olson, who is staying here several weeks this summer and is working on a project for her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies at Hollins University, in Roanoke, Virginia. Maybe having studied the rare Peaks…
Read MoreA tragedy in Eden
It’s in the news again: a human being was seriously attacked by chimpanzees. That was the main topic I was asked about at my friend’s potluck last night: they wanted an explanation for this shocking behavior. This time the scene of the tragedy was Jane Goodall’s Chimp Eden sanctuary in South Africa. Although…
Read MoreIgor’s 25th anniversary at IPPL
Twenty-five years ago today, Igor was released from the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates and allowed to retire to IPPL. He had spent 21 years at LEMSIP and, before that, five years at a drug company. Igor was wild-born, probably in the rainforests of Thailand, so we will never be able to…
Read MoreNew chimpanzee habitat for DRC sanctuary
With the help of funding from IPPL and our generous supporters, a new forested enclosure built especially for sanctuary chimpanzees in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo welcomed its first residents last month. Construction on the 2.7 hectare (nearly 7 acre) electric-fenced enclosure at the Centre de Réhabilitation des Primates de Lwiro (CRPL) started in…
Read MoreGibbon conference is a first!
1. How can you get a gibbon to take his medicine? 2. What do you do with twin baby gibbons? 3. What’s the connection between palm oil and gibbons? These are just a few of the questions we asked and answered at the conference that IPPL Executive Director Shirley McGreal and I attended last week.…
Read MoreGuest post by a “half woman, half gibbon” from Oz
My name is Sophie Miller, and I am a zookeeper from Australia—also known as “Oz”! [field name=flickr-slideshow-sophie-miller] I work mainly with a variety of primates, but gibbons have a special place in my heart. I have a bumper sticker that reads “half woman, half gibbon,” and it definitely suits me! My fellow Australian primate keepers…
Read MoreA field report from South Africa’s baboon sanctuary
Hello from C.A.R.E.! This is day two, and I’m starting to get acclimated. The first day was spent meeting the baboons and catching up with C.A.R.E. founder Rita Miljo, who sends her best to IPPL and its supporters. We are staying at the wonderful Mfubu lodge in a cottage overlooking the Olifants River. No alarm…
Read MoreZanesville deaths highlight the tragedy of exotic animal ownership
Last weekend, I found myself in the midst of a “teachable moment” with one of my hair stylists, as we discussed the horrible shooting deaths that occurred in Zanesville, Ohio, just one week ago. All last week, it seemed like the whole nation was talking about the tragic killing by local law enforcement of nearly…
Read MoreU.S. 2010 primate imports decrease slightly over 2009 figures
According to data IPPL has received from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the U.S. imported 21,315 monkeys and apes last year. That is 783 fewer than in 2009. This sounds like good news, but the data do not indicate some important information, such as: how many monkeys were dead on arrival, where the imported…
Read MoreCheers to our “Day of Caring” volunteers!
Today was Trident United Way’s annual Day of Caring. It was also our seventh year participating in this wonderful community-wide volunteer blitz. (And this time we even made the news!) Each year around the time of the 9/11 attacks, our tri-county area has marked the anniversary with a massive, coordinated volunteer drive. This year,…
Read MoreIPPL remembers the “Pitch in for Pitchou” campaign for an orphaned gorilla in Cameroon
In 1998, IPPL raised over $35,000 from our supporters to help a unique baby gorilla girl named Pitchou, whose mother had been shot for bushmeat. Pitchou had languished for three days in a small crate in a tourist area hotel before being bought by the hotel’s owners, who could no longer bear to see her…
Read MoreEscape from a cancer lab: Arun Rangsi’s story
Maybe you’ve seen those heartbreaking photos of tiny monkey babies being raised in a lab, clinging desperately to a wire “mother.” Such cruel old experiments confirmed that all primates—human and nonhuman alike—need love and affection to grow up normally. Sadly, that was how our own Arun Rangsi spent his early life. Born in a cancer…
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