Monkey Business

Monkey Business

Last Thursday, a friend and I met up with my sister-in-law Judith, at Trentham Gardens. It was the first time I had seen her since before Christmas. Judith lives in Stroud In Gloucestershire, so Trentham was an ideal place to meet.

We visited the monkey forest which is part of the Trentham Estate. The forest is home to 180 Barbary Macaque monkeys which are an endangered species. There are less than 8000 left in their mountainous habitats in Morocco and Algeria. They live in the forest just as they would in their natural habitat. Of course, there were strict instructions about what we could and could not do and what we should do if a monkey came very close. We couldn’t eat or drink, shout or run and had to stand very still if one decided to cross our path. They often did this. It was surprisingly quiet in the forest despite the numerous children who had obviously listened to what they had been told.

I have never seen monkeys up close, only ever seeing them in a zoo. There was a woodland trail around the forest which allowed us to observe the monkeys at very close range. The monkeys were quite unconcerned about us being there and would walk across the path in front of us. There wasn’t much swinging from trees but a lot of lounging on the grass. There was the occasional fracas when the monkeys would screech and shout at each other, running up to the canopy of the trees. Quite often the fracas was caused by male monkeys trying to assert their parental rights (more about that next week). It was fascinating watching their antics and how they socialised with one another especially when they were grooming each other. This was a sign of friendship.

To be continued next week…….

Thank you, God, for all creatures, both great and small.