{"id":22869,"date":"2018-08-06T11:17:15","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T15:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=22869"},"modified":"2018-09-25T15:35:55","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T19:35:55","slug":"a-summer-of-monkeys-absolutely-this-is-what-i-want-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2018\/08\/a-summer-of-monkeys-absolutely-this-is-what-i-want-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"A summer of monkeys: ‘Absolutely this is what I want to do’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Rachel kisses Chika, a vervet who “chose” her as a surrogate mom.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rachel Fuller had no choice. She had to bite the baboon.<\/p>\n

In Baboon World, when a baby or younger animal gets too rough while playing or is just plain annoying, an adult will nip it at the base of its tail, Fuller says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a quick bite; it won\u2019t be like a dog biting something and shaking it. It will be like\u201d\u2014snaps fingers\u2014”\u2018Stop it!\u2019 It\u2019s like a slap on the hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this case, a baby baboon was biting a bit too much when roughhousing with Fuller.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to take hold of him and bite him and hold him down and show him that, \u2018You need to calm down. As soon as I come into that enclosure, I<\/em> am the alpha.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning how to discipline young baboons and vervets\u2014the small monkeys you often see sitting on people\u2019s shoulders\u2014was one of the least important lessons Fuller took away from her time at Riverside Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Centre, a rehabilitation facility in South Africa. A major in anthropology with a minor in biology, she worked there for a couple of months in 2017 and returned for a February-through-June residency this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing there that first time, it made me realize: Absolutely this is what I want to do,\u201d says Fuller, who graduated from UTC in May and plans to earn a master\u2019s in primatology.<\/p>\n

Riverside takes in orphaned babies or injured adults and those who have been pets or used in medical testing and, once they\u2019re ready, releases back into the wild, she explains. But the animals are not just driven miles away and unceremoniously dumped on the side of the road, she explains.<\/p>\n

Long before they\u2019re released, they\u2019re introduced to other primates with the hope of forming a cohesive group, known as a troop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want them to form a successful troop, which is grooming, copulating, babies, all of these different things,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Forming a troop can take years, and workers at Riverside keep an eye on them to make sure everyone is properly accepted and acclimated to the way things work in the real world of primates, Fuller says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about the introduction stage is that they are put in and we have to monitor them day and night to make sure they\u2019re not harmed. Baboons and vervets are territorial.\u201d<\/p>\n

She doesn\u2019t like the word \u201caggressive\u201d when describing their actions; \u201cprotective\u201d is more accurate, she says, because the animals generally fight only when other troop members are harassed or attacked, or males are jockeying to be the alpha member.<\/p>\n

Fuller acknowledges, though, that even if baboons are just playing, it\u2019s not something a human wants to join.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just roughhousing for them, but it could absolutely tear us apart, get chunks out of us,\u201d she says. \u201cAdult male baboons have bigger canines than a lion. \u2026 The average strong human man is nothing to compared to a female baboon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuller has a small scar on her right thigh that was caused by a vervet, but it wasn\u2019t a case of the animal attacking her, she says, it happened during playtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was throwing them in the air and one of them just snagged its tooth on me. Not even a canine,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

But she also has a monkey mark that she put there herself. On her right ankle is tattoo made from the handprint of a special monkey, a vervet named Chica that Fuller raised as a baby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called her my cheeky Chika,\u201d Fuller says with a smile. \u201cEvery morning I would take her out and I would hold her. She was a little baby and I would feed her flowers or give her acorns. We would be mother\/daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou take care of it like it was a human baby, so you hand-rear them, but you have to be careful with that because they\u2019re still wild animals. Yes, an emotional attachment is required for primates because they are highly intelligent creatures. They need emotional care and support.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as Chika got older, she started pulling away, a totally natural thing for her to do, Fuller says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll want to be with their own kind. Even if you were, say, their surrogate mother, they will still want to be in their own troop.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the separation still was painful, she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking to us because you love them. She would come up and touch my hand or try to groom my hair through the fence, but she didn\u2019t see me as her mother anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Brian <\/a>
Brian the Baboon <\/div> <\/div>
\"Kiwi <\/a>
Kiwi the baboon grooms Rachel, looking for bugs, ticks, lice and any wounds that need cleaning. Grooming is a way for baboons to bond with others in their “troop.” <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"On <\/a>
On the morning “baboon walk,” three of them decide they would rather be carried than walk. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Smaller <\/a>
Smaller baboons are bottle-fed milk and\/or formula. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The “baboon walk,”on a “baboon walk,” This walk lets them get extra exercise and perform instinctual acts, such as swimming in the river (which baboons love!), foraging, climbing, etc. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A bushbaby is a primate but is sometimes mistaken to be a relative of squirrels. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Volunteers <\/a>
Volunteers at the Riverside Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Centre in South Africa come from all over the world, including the U.S., Germany, France, the U.K. and the Netherlands. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel Fuller had no choice. She had to bite the baboon. “As soon as I come into that enclosure, I am the alpha.”<\/p>\n

Continue Reading <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1105,"featured_media":22877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_slider":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_featurette":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6743,123865,48248,3,64,72949,661],"tags":[464,83204,83203],"class_list":{"0":"post-22869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-biology-geology-and-environmental-science","8":"category-center-for-global-education","9":"category-community","10":"category-international-programs","11":"category-news","12":"category-social-cultural-and-justice-studies","13":"category-students","14":"tag-anthropology","15":"tag-monkeys","16":"tag-primates","17":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nA summer of monkeys: 'Absolutely this is what I want to do' | UTC News Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rachel Fuller had no choice. 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