Katy

Katy was the first macaque to be rescued by MONA. When she arrived she was very young but already showing signs of stress due to the early separation from her mother and lack of socialization with her own species. She was very used to human contact. The original idea was for her to stay at the centre until we found a suitable home with a group of macaques for her to live with, as back in 2002 MONA had no facilities for keeping macaques. She was placed on the waiting list of several centres, but the months went by and her self-harming behaviours increased as a way to get rid of frustration.
After eight months on the waiting list, we decided to rescue other macaques that had been intercepted and start a social group, of which she was a good leader.

For some years now she has not been the leader of the macaque group. She was superseded by Pipa, the other female of the group, who now rules with an iron fist and is always alert to what the others are doing. Katy has been second in command of the group for a while now but her position is far from secure and she shares the role with Titin, depending on the day. Below Pipa, the other three macaques are constantly struggling to avoid being the last and lowest ranking.
Apart from the problems caused by power struggles, it is normal to find Katy calmly grooming one of her companions, basking in the sun or looking for seeds and bugs in the foliage in the Springtime.

These primates are of the species Macaca sylvanus, the only genus of macaque that lives in Africa and the only primate, apart from Homo sapiens living in Europe (Gibraltar). Pipa belongs to the only group of macaques living permanently in MONA. The group is formed by two females and two males and is led by Pipa. In the wild, Macaques live in groups containing males and females.
Higher ranking individuals get first access to food and other resources, which means here at MONA, with Pipa being the dominant female she gets first choice of food and enrichment.
Katy and Titin are interchangeable in the middle of the group. Depending on the situation and day, Titin can rank higher than Katy and on other days, Katy can rank higher than Titin.
Katy threatens humans a lot, mainly when Pipa can see her. This is because normally when caregivers are in close proximity it means the Macaques are being fed and Pipa always wants to eat first. If Katy is seen to be threatening the caregivers there is nothing for Pipa to attack her for. Basically, she is trying to deflect any negative attention from Pipa towards humans. However, when Pipa is not around Katy is calm with her caregivers.

• Katy loves fruit, vegetables, herbs and especially dry bread.
• Katy likes to eat the bark off of branches.
• Katy loves to eat flowers and leaves from branches we give them.

• When Katy was offered a beetle larva the first time she jumped in fright. Now however she eats them in a jiffy.
• When Katy see hawks flying by over MONA she gives an alarm sound to the whole group and also does the same with cats.
• When Katy was the leader of the group they all lived more contently than now with Pipa as head as she was fair and empathetic.
• When Katy meets a new caregiver she is elusive but when growing confidence with them she threatens the caregivers constantly.
• When caregivers are filling up with water bowls with a hose pipe, Katy will jump through the water stream multiple times. Then will walk away shaking herself to dry off.
• When caregivers introduced some new feeding puzzles it took Katy a few weeks to figure out how to get the food out.