February 2009

My work schedule became a little more relaxed as summer faded away – not that it wasn’t damned HOT (45C almost every day), but the days were getting shorter and I have a hard time getting out of bed when its not bright outside (I know, what am I going to do in Germany?!?). I did, however, come to the realization that due to the nature of my work I had no real need to get up early anyway, as long as I still put in 8 hours of work every day, which wasn’t a problem considering that’s about all we had to do anyway. Learned a lot more about GIS over the last few months thanks to the books I brought (thanks Brian, you rock my world!), and trial and error. A huge relief. Spent more time at the Wildekrantz River waterfalls to avoid the heat – they were sheltered by Afromontane Forest and the water coming from the mountain is super cool. In the photo you can see it’s brown from all the tannins in the fynbos. Took me a day or so of flushing and reflushing the toilet to realize that.

Steven and Sarah arrived – Steve was originally from South Africa but has been living in Ireland I believe, and Sarah was from Wales. Nice to have such a diverse group. Unfortunately they were also followed by Michael – the most obnoxious Aussie I have ever met in my entire life. Scratch that – most obnoxious person. One of those people where if I was in a different situation I would put up with him for a day then do everything in my power to avoid him at all costs. Fortunately we didn’t have to live together – Diego Elodie and I stayed at the Heron House while Michael, Steve and Sarah moved into the Weaver’s Nest. Unfortunately I had to work with him almost every day (he was there to help create a new trail system). Opinionated, ignorant, vegan (ok I have nothing against that but it was like a religion to him and he was like a Mormon about it), loud mouthed, intrusive…. Aahhhh. Paula heard about this baboon sanctuary over the mountains, Cape Center for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife and the Joshua Baboon Sanctuary, AKA The Manger. She agreed to let me tag along on one of her trips to speak to the owners, Peter and Nola. They know more about baboons than a lot of primatologists, so she was hoping to talk to them about our wild troop and just make general acquaintances because they seemed like amazing people (Pete was a homeopathic doctor, they are both extremely spiritual, and they managed to raise like 90 orphaned or injured baboons even though they had no background in anything related). She was right – they had great insight into the minds of the baboons. Maybe not as much as they would like to believe – they have an ‘animal communicator’ who can talk to some of the baboons so the baboons can speak to Nola and Peter if they need anything. Aside from that, the whole thing was very legit – orphaned babies start out being hand raised, then they are put in a small cage with a few other babies, then the babies are put in with an adult female who has already reared children and will adopt the babies and an adult male who as long as he has another female around, will not partake in infanticide.

Its all a lot more complicated in that but basically they are able to create troops of baboons from individuals who were brought to the sanctuary. Once a troop is formed they can take on more and more baboons. The ultimate goal is to release them into a large enclosure – either 5 hectares or 100 hectares. They cannot release them back into the wild because it is not safe for them. In the large enclosures they are able to assimilate into a hierarchical troop with an alpha male in charge. The only big difference is that they are protected from the outside world of farmers who shoot anything that moves and they are support fed twice a day by Nola and her workers. It’s an amazing system. I already wanted to give them all of my money, and then I met Caitlin. I have never felt any kind of attraction to primates the way people like Paula do – they are amazing creatures; smart, fun loving, adorable – but the fascination wasn’t there. Caitlin changed everything. She was almost 10 weeks old at this point, still a little black ball of fluff with an adorable pink face, and still in the hand rearing stage.

We all sat on the porch to talk and have tea when Peter brought her out. She was very shy at first, and clung to him in her little diaper, hugging her bottle, looking at us wearily. Eventually she felt comfortable enough to venture a few feet away from his leg, where she would fiddle with something that caught her eye (shoelaces, shiny things…), then scramble back to safety. At one point she caught sight of my ring. She wasn’t brave enough to get close to me, but she sat on the edge of Pete’s chair, looking at my face, then at my ring. She was so mesmerized that she dropped her bottle to the floor, which I picked up and held out to her. She reached for it immediately, and then in a moment of hesitation, looked up at me, only she just sat there, looking at me, and I cannot explain how it felt. It was like looking at a human baby in a fuzzy little body – the curiosity on her face, the emotion in her eyes. Eventually our little moment was over, but she came back a few minutes later with a bit more courage, on a mission to steal my ring. She stepped forward tentatively, on 2 feel because she clutched her bottle to her, so I put my hand on the floor next to her. She immediately tried to pick up my whole hand, began fingering the ring, twisting it around and biting it with her tiny little teeth. Her little hands were so dexterous! I could already imagine what a handful she could probably be, the trouble she could get into if given the chance.
Unfortunately that was the extent of my monkey bonding at the time, but it gave me a huge newfound appreciation for baboons, and Nola invited me back to take care of Caitlin for a few weeks since Peter had been ill and couldn’t care for her as much as she needed. I thought I was going to pee my pants I was so excited…