I am really achey and sore this evening! Today was a lot of manual labour! I will definitely be feeling this in the morning!
First task was to thoroughly scrub down the interior of the squirrel monkey enclosure. Muck was splashed on the platforms, up the walls and even across the window, so every inch needed scrubbing with trigene. As I started scrubbing the monkeys peered inside, inquisitive to see if I had brought them food. Two females appeared with tiny babies on their backs, their little faces peering out. They were adorable.
Squirrel Monkey. Photo by: mape_s
We then cleaned out the spider monkeys, I filled 5 huge bags with wet, smelly straw, which we then carried round to the bins. Unfortunately I managed to pick the wettest bag, and after carrying this over my shoulder, found it leaked all down my back and on my legs. Yuck! I quickly forgot about it when I watched Maz feeding the spider monkeys, two huge crates of fresh fruit and veg, they quickly got stuck in.
Spider Monkey. Photo by: Ivan Mlinaric
Most of the afternoon was spent gardening, and it was hard work! Maz was creating her own 'bamboo garden' as the gentle lemurs loved eating it. We began by planting one row of bamboo plants in an already dug ditch. Easy enough. But then Maz suggested digging another ditch for a second row. I was determined to tackle this task. But the ground was literally clay, and I managed to get half way before its started to rain. But I was thankful. Any more and I may have collapsed into a heap!
I then went and helped Maz prepare the fruit and veg. She was like a chopping machine! She then made a 'gourmet plate' for the squirrel monkeys and red handed tamarins. Cooked noodles, biscuits, mealworms and a special 'tamarin cake'. They ate better than I did! Maz carried out the gourmet plate, a waitress for monkeys! As soon as it was down they made a beeline for the cooked noodles. They loved it!
We then went round to feed the gentle lemurs, I peered into the enclosure and was thrilled to see the newborn baby clinging onto mum. They had been worried as yesterday they kept finding the baby on the floor, and a stillborn twin had been found later that evening. But today everything looked well. Baby was moving around and mum looked content.
Gentle Lemur. Photo by: Jon Mountjoy
Tomorrow is my last day, and I will definitely be sad to go, but I have Shamwari to look forward to in just over a week! For those of you who want to follow my journey make sure you keep an eye on the blog over at Worldwide experience. I am currently running a twitter contest so make sure you enter!
