Unscrupulous claims of "found" baby monkeys.
This is a lie. Infants will never be separate from their mother until they are at least 3 months old. As the baby begins to explore independent from his mother,she will always stay close and is ever-vigilant for danger, immediately retrieving her infant if threatened. The entire troup works to protect the infants and young females take turns “baby-sitting” and learning how to care for infants.
Shooting mothers and retrieving the babies
This is the most common method of capture. A female carrying an infant is shot from the trees. When she falls to the ground, the infant is pulled from her body.
Many young monkeys are injured in this process and many more will die within the first week or two of captivity from malnourishment, illness or hypothermia.
Those that do survive are usually abused and neglected, particularly once they pass the cute baby stage and become sexually mature and aggressive.
Felling trees to aid ground capture
The family group is isolated and then the surrounding trees are felled until the monkeys are forced into the one remaining tree. This is then chopped down and the animals chased and captured. During a recent incident of this nature, the mother was shot, and as the crying baby was being taken, the adult male and others in the group came to its defense and were also shot and killed. More than 10 adult monkeys were eliminated to retrieve that single baby.
Did you know...?
It is illegal under Belizean law to capture, kill, keep or molest any wild animal.
There are very few facilities in Belize which are approved and qualified to accept and/or rehabilitate wildlife. Check with the Forestry Department for approved centers (822 1524)
Mistreated, abused, caged or over-habituated wildlife should always be reported to the Forestry Department.
Wild animals should never be made dependent for food: this can lead to aggression, transmission of diseases and attacks on domestic animals by wild predators who no longer have healthy fear of humans.
