Monkey Business- Working Interview

I just got back from a working interview at a primate sanctuary. I'll save you the suspense and let you know that I was offered the job and I do intend to take it. I thought that some of you might be interested in knowing what a normal day of work would be like for me.

Oh- before I get started, I should probably mention that I had to sign an agreement saying that I wouldn't post any pictures that I took at the sanctuary (this is standard operating procedure at most sanctuaries), so none of these pictures were taken by me.

I flew into town the night before my interview. The sanctuary does supply temporary on-site housing for it's employees. An oil boom in the area has caused an influx of workers and there just aren't enough places to live. The other new animal caretaker started a few weeks before my interview and she told me about some of the places she had looked at already. One apartment complex was charging $800 a WEEK per person! She did end up finding an affordable apartment but there was quite a wait. So the fact that the sanctuary provides housing is a huge help.

Another obstacle to   moving there is that it is a very rural area. It's approx. an hour and a half drive from the airport to the sanctuary and we stopped 20 minutes into the drive to get groceries for my stay. All I could think was "There's no way I'll be able to support my ice cream addiction here." It turns out that the gas stations carry most of your grocery needs there just aren't as many options. This, I can handle- I'll just need to learn to plan ahead alittle better. Right now I live a block from the grocery and only buy food for 1-3 days.

Anyway, this is going to become a very long blog entry if I don't start telling you about my day. The days there start at 7:00 (alittle early for my taste, but I'll get used to it). Everybody punches in at the office then heads over to the feed room where food was counted out the night before. Here, we split into two groups. The first group went off to feed the main enclosure, pelka (named for one of the original monkey's descendants who split off from the main group and made her own. Eventually, her group grew large enough that they needed their own enclosure) and the semi-natural enclosures (used as temporary housing for new primates and when introducing primates to each other, so they can be better monitored). I went with the second group to feed the Northwest enclosure, baboons, long tails and cats (yes, cats. I'll explain that in a bit).

We did Northwest first. It was pretty straight forward, we basically transferred all of the food from the crates to a wheelbarrow then walked around inside the enclosure, stopping occasionally to throw food out to the monkeys. There were also some large water tubs that needed to be dumped, cleaned, and refilled. During this time we tried to look at all of the monkeys and note abnormal behaviors or injuries. There were two blind monkeys that we had to find and hand some food to.

Next we did baboons. I did not get to go in with the baboons (nor did I want to. I don't have a lot of experience with primates, but I have enough to be scared of baboons).

Instead there is a small part of the enclosure that is gated off with guillotine type doors so we could close the doors and lock the baboons out of that area. Then we go in and clean up the old food, give fresh food, and clean water. Once we were done, we opened the trap door and the baboons came in to eat.

Then we did the long tails. These guys had one natural enclosure, which was done similar to Northwest and a few semi-natural enclosures. The long tails were all ex-research and prone to getting worms because they were raised in such sterile conditions, so they are fed on feeding tables instead of on the ground.

Finally we did the cats. This enclosure has about 40 cats that have been abandoned at the sanctuary over the years and then bred. The enclosure is meant to keep predators out not to keep the cats in, but the cats stay in because that's where they are fed. I should also mention that the monkeys can get out of the natural enclosures. This is done on purpose so that if one monkey is being picked on, they can get away. So there are a few free roaming monkeys around the sanctuary. Those monkeys are called "the trustees."

After that we went back to the feed room to count out dry food and wait for the produce truck, which comes every Wed. I'm told that this weeks truck was a small one, but by the time we were done my arms were shaking and I was out of breath.

Once the truck was unloaded into the cooler, we went to lunch. Normally, they bring their lunch and eat on property, but since I was there it was a special occasion and we went out. We went to one of the small towns near by and ate at what I gather was one of the two restaurants in town.

After lunch we counted out produce for the next day then the manager took me around to see the enclosures that I hadn't worked with in the morning, she also showed me the construction being done so they could take in 130 primates from another sanctuary that has gone bankrupt, and pointed out all of the things that she hoped to improve in the existing enclosures.

Then it was time for meds. There are two monkeys with arthritis that get a pain reliever every night as well as a rotating de-worming schedule.The arthritic monkeys are weary of new people so I didn't get ot give them their meds, but I did get to hand out the cherry flavored de-wormer. One of the females decided that one "cookie" wasn't enough and she grabbed my arm trying to get another. It wasn't a violent grab, but her fingernails dug in and she left a bruise.

The last thing I got to do at my "interview" was to hand out bananas to all of the semi-natural enclosures and the trustees (so the don't try to steal them from the semi-natural enclosures). Some of the monkeys would come up and take the banana from me, others I had to toss it in for them. The only black crested macaque at the sanctuary was one of them that would take it from my hand. There are lots of snow monkeys, long tails, baboons, and bonnet macaques, but only one black crested macaque. As the odd ball out- he was instantly my favorite.

This picture is really cool. The black crested macaque stole 

someones camera and took a picture of herself, then gave it back. 

While handing out bananas, I also met a snow monkey who came from a zoo where he was housed with no other monkeys and therefore needs to work on his social skills. He's in transition so he is still in an enclosure by himself where he can see the other monkeys but he can't reach them. He's conflicted. He so desperately wants to be groomed, but he knows that he shouldn't be interacting with humans. So he'll offer his back to be scratched but once you start scratching he'll turn around and show his teeth in a threat. Sure enough, that's exactly what he did when I made my rounds. What do you do when a monkey is threatening you? You  avoid eye contact, hand him his banana, and move on. 

At the end of the day I was tired, soar, bruised, scratched, dirty, and happier than I can remember ever being.