Monkey Rescue, Rehabilitation and Release to the Wild

In July 2006 a message was passed on to Kate: "Do you want a baboon?" She reacted cautiously. Why was this monkey unwanted? She imagined a large, unmanageable - perhaps dangerous? - male baboon with vicious-looking canine teeth. However, several days later, when she and her husband (Asenake Eshete) went to visit the family who wished to be rid of their pet, they found a small female Gelada baboon being kept in a windowless, corrugated-metal cupboard in the yard. She was fed on bread and only let out to amuse the children when they were not in school. For Kate, it was love at first sight.

Jenny the Gelada baboon was the first of 27 rescued monkeys to pass through the Tara Centre, the community centre in Gondar's city centre that Kate ran for five years. The peak was reached in June 2008 when the purpose-built monkey enclosure held five different species: Gelada baboon, Hamadryas baboon, Anubis baboon, Patas (Nisnas) monkey and Grivet monkey. Most of these animals were malnourished babies; there were seven undersized adolescents. No captured monkeys appear to survive to adulthood, presumably because of poor management. Although they consider it fashionable to have a sweet baby monkey for the kiddies to play with, owners have no understanding of what constitutes appropriate food for a monkey. Anubis and Hamadryas baboons can cope with being subjected to a wide variety of human foods (including bread and coffee, which is what Hannah, Kate's first rescued Anubis baboon, had been fed, resulting in stunted growth and discoloured teeth) but Gelada baboons need only grass, roots and tubers and do not thrive on anything else.

At first the monkeys came to Kate through referral by friends or when she spotted animals in dire circumstances. She found an adolescent Gelada baboon tied up at a hotel outside Gondar; the owner said he had bought her for 50 Ethiopian birr (a very small amount of money). Kate named her Babs and took her back to the Tara Centre in a taxi. Soon Kate had the full support of local authorities, including the police who assisted her, and she and her team were actively seeking out monkeys. In 2008, Mr Asfaw, who was at that time the Manager of the Simien Mountains National Park, accompanied Kate to rescue a young Hamadryas baboon called Rita from the inner-city slums of Gondar. They found Rita tied with a short length of rope, her faeces scattered beneath her; she was in the full sun with no water or food, her owner having gone off to work for the day. Patas monkeys do not make good pets as they are fast runners and soon escape. Kate tried to help one Patas monkey but when Asenake went with a policeman to collect him from his owner, they found that the monkey had been knocked down and killed by a car that morning. Another Patas monkey lived in Gondar by stealing bread and other food from homes. He became such a nuisance that local people tried to kill him by mixing food with rat poison.

During 2008 Kate handed ten rescued Gelada baboons, including Jenny and Babs, over to the University of Michigan's Gelada Research Project at Sankaber in the Simien Mountains for release to the wild. The scientists checked stool samples for parasites before releasing the Geladas. They placed the Geladas carefully - for example, Babs, being a female close to sexual maturity, was released near a group of bachelor males, assuring her acceptance. Last year she gave birth to a baby.

Where possible, Kate and her team released well-bonded groups comprising males and females of the same species. In January 2009 they delivered three Anubis baboons and four Patas monkeys to Alatish National Park south of Metema, on the border with Sudan. Although the monkeys had been quarantined for months, it was decided that they should be released at a remote site just outside the Park because of the fear of their introducing disease into the Park populations.

In February 2009 Kate and her team set three Grivet monkeys free in forests in the Lema Limo Nature Reserve, which is part of the Simien Mountains National Park. And Rita, the Hamadryas baboon, was introduced by Asenake to a troop at Lama Wenz, near Debark, where she was immediately befriended, groomed and mounted by a dominant male.

In Gondar Kate employed keepers to feed and exercise the monkeys. Twice daily they were taken to the Angereb river valley on long lines and let free to run in the meadows, much as you would take your dogs to the park and throw sticks for them.

According to the latest news received from the staff of the two national parks, all the monkeys Kate returned to the wild are still alive. There are no monkeys left in Gondar city but Kate hear reports of primates in other towns and cities.

On 8 May 2009 the Amhara State Parks Development and Protection Authority (PADPA) held a one-day workshop in Gondar city on the subject of stopping the illegal trade in wildlife. Representatives came from North Gondar woredas (counties), Government ministries, national parks, the police and the courts. Mr Berhanu Gebre, General Manager of PADPA, invited Kate to talk about her experience of rescuing captured monkeys, rehabilitating them and returning them to the wild. The message she gave delegates was that prevention is much better than cure. Once monkeys and baboons are removed from their natural habitat and social hierarchy, and become accustomed to living around humans, their chances of survival when returned to the wild are much reduced. Furthermore, monkeys in captivity do not thrive and have short life expectancies.

With the closure of the Tara Centre in December 2009 and Kate's move to Dib Bahir, 120 km north-east of Gondar city, she will work on stopping monkeys from being stolen from the wild for illegal trade, through educating people, particularly youngsters. She is also continuing to help captive monkeys and is campaigning for the release of the monkeys held in Addis Ababa Zoo and Bire-tsege Recreation Park in Addis Ababa.

"When visiting Addis Ababa Zoo, it is heartrending to see a pair of Geladas, Degu (male) and Chilfit (female), confined in a nine square-metre cage and fed on grass clippings for the entertainment of paying visitors," says Kate. "Degu and Chilfit should be living free on the mountain grasslands and cliffs."

Kate was also upset to see the Patas monkeys. "One adult alone in a cage was obviously bored and stressed, pacing up and down - three metres this way, three metres that way," Kate says. She was sad to hear later that he died. In the wild, Patas monkeys have territories covering 20 square kilometres. Monkeys are also very social animals and normally live in groups. "These Patas monkeys should be taken back to the forests where they belong," says Kate.

"If people want to see Geladas, they can visit the Simien Mountains National Park; and if they want to see Patas monkeys, they should go to Alatish National Park," says Kate. "It is so much more educational and pleasurable to observe monkeys as part of a group, behaving typically in their natural environment."

To help Kate rescue more primates, please make a donation. For instructions, see the GIVE section.