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Family of monkeys struggles for normalcy after kidnapping

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/family-of-monkeys-struggles-for-normalcy-after-kidnapping/article1410981/

by Oliver Moore

 Globe and Mail  - Dec. 23, 2009 7:38PM EST

Their handlers have pinned stockings outside of their enclosures, and on
Christmas will allow them their favourite treats: fresh pomegranates.

But the seasonal flourishes at the Cherry Brook Zoo in Saint John can't
conceal a darker story of fear and loss that has afflicted a small family of
Goeldi's monkeys.

Bonnie and Clyde, and their two offspring Charlie and April, are a species
of South American monkey that is “rarer than a Rembrandt” – fewer than 1,000
are believed to exist around the world.

The zoo was the first in Canada to participate in a breeding program for
Goeldi's monkeys, in hopes of boosting their numbers. But the effort turned
tragic with the deaths of three newborns in the past 18 months.

The deaths have been blamed on the overprotective attentions of Charlie, who
was apparently distressed at the kidnapping of his sister, April, in 2008.

April was returned to the zoo only days after being stolen, and seems to
have shrugged off the incident. But Charlie has not been the same.

Zoo staff believe his neuroses made him hold the new babies for such an
extended time that they couldn't feed and get crucial colostrum from their
mother, Bonnie. They each died days after being born, the most recent in
October.

“They all take part in caring and raising the baby,” said Lynda Collrin,
volunteer director of zoo development. “What's not normal is for Charlie not
to return the baby. The consensus was that Charlie was taking the babies and
hanging on to them. [But] not in an aggressive sense: He thought he was
being protective.”

Mark Warneke, co-ordinator of the North American species survival plan (SSP)
for the rare breed, called the situation unheard of.

“If the mother's willing to care for the baby it'd be very unusual for a
sibling to take it and not give it back,” he said from the Brookfield Zoo in
Chicago. “We've never seen this before.”

Mr. Warneke said he was waiting for more details from New Brunswick.

In the short run, the callimico goeldii family at the Cherry Brook Zoo has
been divided into two enclosures.

“We did what we didn't really want to do, which is separate Charlie and
April out, because what we have here is a dysfunctional family,” Ms. Collrin
said.

The siblings will be moved to other facilities once suitable homes can be
found and weather warms sufficiently to allow travel. And when Clyde next
gets Bonnie pregnant, which is expected in the spring, zoo staff will be
watching anxiously to see whether the baby makes it.

It would mark a return to some kind of normalcy, after the kidnapping last
year, when thieves broke into the small zoo. The Goeldi's monkeys were in
their winter quarters and the thieves appeared to know what they were doing.
Or maybe they were just lucky not to go into adjacent enclosures holding
larger species.

“Had they opened the wrong enclosure, this guy can be very aggressive,” Ms.
Collrin's husband, Leonard, the zoo's chief administrative director,
explained, pointing to a de Brazza's monkey named Outlaw. “People don't
think about how strong these are.”

The thieves took only April, who at the time was about a year old and only
the size of a hamster. After a public outcry and worldwide publication of
the theft, police received an anonymous call and recovered the monkey
safely. But the story's happy ending has proved illusory.

“They were just, honestly, the perfect family group prior to this
happening,” Ms. Collrin said.