2008/06/20
THREE years after they were brought to an East London rehabilitation centre, 49 vervet monkeys were yesterday released back into the wild in the largest operation of its kind in the Eastern Cape.
The animals had been in the care of the East London-based Debracy Primate Rehabilitation Centre and were released on a farm in Stutterheim.
Limpopo-based primatologist Bob Venter said the release was the biggest to take place in the whole world after a similar operation in his province in 2002 when 38 vervet monkeys were returned to their natural habitat. He said research showed about 20 percent of the population was lost every year because people took them as pets.
“We are losing huge numbers of the monkeys every year and there was a concern that the wild population of the species may go extinct by the year 2015,” he said.
Venter said it was still going to take the Stutterheim troop time to get used to the wild again.
Lyn Shelley, who rehabilitated the monkeys, said it was her first release since she opened the centre in 2001. - By SINO MAJANGAZA
|