News

The importance of raising your voice

The well-known restaurant booking platform ElTenedor released an ad in which they used a young chimp. MONA took action and launched a petition demanding that the brand withdraw it. Within a few days, more than 36,000 people had signed the petition on Change.org, and ElTenedor withdrew its advertising campaign and promised not to use chimpanzees or other wild animals in their commercials.

We want to congratulate ElTenedor for making the right decision and being so receptive to our message. Surely they will serve as an inspiration for many other brands that, due to ignorance, continue to use wild animals in their advertising campaigns.

Why is it important that ElTenedor withdrew its ad with a young chimpanzee? 

Because of the big negative impact this representation has on society. It perpetuates the mistreatment of these individuals and of the next youngsters that will be used. (Yes, there are still creative minds who think that renting a chimpanzee to market a product is a great idea).

But the problem is not “only” the suffering of a “few” individuals. Seeing chimpanzees in disguise and acting, revives the illegal trafficking of primates, destined for the lucrative world of exotic pets. Already we have encountered about 80 cases of different species of primates in the hands of private individuals. Many more than those used in entertainment. And that shows the great problem that still exists today in the legislation and control of ownership, but especially in the importance of the education as an agent of change. From our beginnings we are working for the awareness of society, through guided visits and the training of future primatologists, but what is being done at the legislation level?

Turning point: Solving the European wildlife rescue crisis

Today, the 28th of June 2019, marks a very important day in the Mona calendar. It is 10 years since Mona rescued a wild born, female chimpanzee, Africa. She was captured from the wild and smuggled into Spain by boat. When she arrived in Spain she had bruises on her face and back, and a port worker decided to ‘save’ her and take her into his care, without knowing the full implications of keeping a wild animal in his home.

Head Keeper Talk
To help celebrate this milestone we conducted an interview with one of MONA’s first caregivers, Alba Gomara. Alba has worked with the primates at MONA from almost the very beginning, so knows Africa extremely well. We took this opportunity to look back over the past 10 years but also to look to the future.

What’s the biggest improvement you’ve seen in Africa?
When Africa first arrived we thought that her rehabilitation was going to be very difficult, as she was born in the wild, was highly humanised and hadn’t seen another chimp since being taken from the wild as a baby. Prior to her rescue she still had daily physical contact with her owners and they had developed strong emotional bonds.
The process of introducing her to other chimpanzees was slow, however she was curious. Once her other issues were addressed, such as her diet and medical problems, her rehabilitation started moving quickly. At the start she wouldn’t touch the floor and was scared of the straw, as she had never seen it before, but she soon learnt that it was not scary at all.
Soon Africa became a very intelligent and social chimp; she knows how to work the social hierarchy. For example, she created relationships with all the chimps […]

The clocks have sprung forward. The days are warmer and longer. Birds are singing. Crickets are chirping and the trees and plants around the sanctuary are bursting into flower.

Yes, Spring is here; it has brought to Mona long, green grass, trees full of leaves, blue skies, and lots of fresh new growth in the outdoor enclosures. The rescued Primates and their keepers are very happy the good weather has finally arrived!

From the middle of March we started spotting more birds, butterflies and bees flying around and more lizards coming out to sunbathe. Now we’re fully into springtime, trees are starting to blossom and the grass is really starting to grow. This has created a naturally enriching environment for the primates to enjoy.

Spring for the Barbary Macaques

In the wild, Barbary Macaques spend the majority of their day foraging for plants, seeds and insects. The Spring helps us to bring the wild to them, by giving us the opportunity to provide a lot more natural enrichment in the form of yummy plants, flowers and grasses; including one of the macaques favourites, dandelion flowers.

Abu in particular is very happy spring has arrived, bringing warmer weather with it; he loves nothing better than to spend his mornings sunbathing.

Spring for the Chimpanzees

Warmer and longer days means one great thing for the chimps – more time outside! They have more time to play, groom and lay in the sun, and more time to enjoy their naturally planted enclosure as it ‘springs’ into life. The warmer weather is favourite of Africa, she loves spending her days at the top of the tower sunbathing. To help with the heat they are starting to get ice lollies again, Toni and Juanito are always very […]