Primarily Primates Newsletter

Autumn 2008

Sun and Wind Provide Power for Primarily Primates

Our 75-acre sanctuary in San Antonio is home to 450 animals, and it’s also a space within a larger ecology. So we’re turning to the power of the wind and sun. This month, we’ve overseen the installation of a 50-foot wind turbine to offset the rising financial and environmental impact of electricity and fossil fuels.

The small, stand-alone turbine is versatile enough to supply power to lights, security cameras, and cooling systems. It produces 400 watts of electricity per hour, and feeds power back into the grid while the windmill gathers energy to recharge two 12-volt batteries. The power supply is uninterrupted, and free of charge.

R.B. Electrical has helped Primarily Primates meet our electrical needs for nine years. When renewable energy became a viable electric power option, R.B. partnered with San Antonio’s Connexa Energy, a leader in solar and wind turbine technologies.

As our executive director Stephen Tello says: “Power is a large part of our operating budget, so renewable energy is a great way for us to respect our donors’ gifts while meeting the needs of the animals in our care.”

The new turbine will allow Primarily Primates to avoid additional power costs for our new lights and security cameras. We’re also planning additional installations to cut overall electrical costs by a third.

A solar panel will power the lighting for a living area for our former US Air Force chimpanzees, and an overhead solar-powered street light now lights a large natural aviary for parrots.

Richard Stein of R.B. Electrical describes Primarily Primates as a little village, with our many shelters of different sizes.

“There are individual heating needs, group spaces with cooling systems, refrigeration, lighting and security needs,” says Stein. “As the sanctuary grows, turbines and solar panels will be easy to install, and provide instant energy, allowing the refuge to reduce or even eliminate reliance on traditional fossil fuels.”

U.S. wind power grew by 45 percent in 2007, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Wind is replenished daily by the sun: As portions of the earth are heated, air rushes to fill the low pressure areas, creating wind power, which is converted by the turbine into electricity.

And Priscilla Feral, president of the sanctuary and Friends of Animals, points out: “Our new turbine emits a hum that warns and protects birds and bats. The use of natural energy will help bring our refuge in line with our concern for the ecology and the beings that inhabit it.”

Rescue and Respect on a Delicate Planet

Primarily Primates houses members of 32 species of primates. All are dependent on human care due to their past situations. Most primates, once captive, can never be safely released into their home territories. They lack the survival skills, and released animals can threaten local populations by introducing diseases. Captive animals also usually have unknown genetic backgrounds, which can pose an additional risk to the integrity of free-living communities.

And many of primate communities worldwide are struggling for their futures.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature reported in early August that nearly half of all primate species are now threatened with extinction. The study, involving the work of hundreds of scientists, found that the future prospects for monkeys, prosimians, and nonhuman apes is worsening.

Several reasons are involved. Primates are hunted and killed by poachers or captured and sold by traders. Severe drought and competition with humans over water sources can also have lethal results. And there is deforestation of primates’ habitats – in order for humans to obtain timber, biofuels, palm oil, or land to graze farm animals. And in animal agribusiness, even more land is needed to grow feed crops.

Employees and supporters of Friends of Animals, led by primatologist Janis Carter, have been working in Africa for decades. Now assisted by the Arcus Foundation, we are minimizing conflicts for scarce water resources between human and chimpanzees by building and maintaining wells in small villages.

And at Primarily Primates, we are learning and teaching the importance of reducing our impact on the planet through our diets and our energy sources. We are doing what we can, in every way we can, to become responsible tenants on the only Earth we’ve got.

We’re all connected.

Olive Baboon, Vervet and Macaque Monkeys Settle In

An olive baboon called Karibu arrived in June. Karibu, formerly at a university on the east coast and the subject of research, is visibly happy with the outside living area and the sunshine, and is sometimes seeing rolling on his back kicking his feet up in the air in delight.

But since then, we received a frantic phone call from Louisiana. The callers had purchased a vervet monkey, Harley, and a macaque, Logan—spending $3,500 for one of them. Both Logan and Harley were showing early signs of aggression toward their human owners. Logan is four years of age; Harley is just two. Logan already has signs of self-mutilation, and both have been castrated. (That would not have been done by our doctor; vasectomy is the gentler procedure and it maintains the social integrity of groups.)

Primarily Primates welcomed them within 15 hours of that phone call. Having spent the last two years together, the two monkeys are friends. They now live together in a shaded living space, near our office so the animal care staff can closely observe their transition.

Kecko the Ringtail Lemur Arrives, and Finds a Friend

In early July we received a message from a Houston area resident: “I have a ringtail lemur that is 17 years old and need to find him a home. He is too mean to be held and will only allow me to rub his back through the bars of a 4’ by 5’ cage. I have asked the zoo to take him but they said no because he was bottlefed. Please help me because I live in a county that says no primates.”

So we had to travel to Houston to catch Kecko and bring him to San Antonio.

All captive primates can become aggressive. After jumping on two children, Kecko was kept in a parrot cage that measured 58” high, 30” wide and 60” long. The imprisonment lasted ten years—a life as unfair for a monkey as it is for a bird. Kecko was bought from a Louisiana breeder and was removed from both his

mother and twin sister. Freedom and family were taken from Kecko forever, but we can do our best to make life better by offering a large outdoor habitat, and friendship.

Kecko was fed bird food and is overweight, with two large tumors on his face. Our veterinarian, Dr. Kirk, is currently evaluating these, and our whole staff is ensuring Kecko’s comfort and nutrition.

One of our lemurs, Scarlet, was placed in a holding cage next to Kecko, then carefully released into a shared living area. They enjoy each others’ company.

 

Gibbons Reunited

As our readers know, the case involving a dozen gibbons who were removed from Primarily Primates was settled only after ensuring that one gibbon, Kimchi, who was left alone at Primarily Primates, would again have some companions.

José María, Junior, and Scoshio, who returned to Primarily Primates in June, are now enjoying Kimchi’s company—and newly expanded living spaces. The greatest news of all the sound of Kimchi singing again.

A Better Future Starts Here. How You Can Help Primarily Primates

Dear Friend,

In these pages you’ll read about several new primates at our sanctuary. By the time this newsletter is mailed, two more macaques and six other primates will be coming from two different research labs. And with your help, our doors will always be open for animals who need us. You are a vital part of our team.

By investing in our future you make it possible for us to feed our animals a nutritious variety of foods, afford top quality veterinary medical care, provide daily grounds maintenance, and build new housing as needed. We put your gifts to work directly for the animals. Animals who arrive at our door are assured a staff veterinarian and the best of care for the rest of their lives.

I need your help now. The slow economy has combined with rising costs of produce, which we feed to our primates every day, and the cost of construction materials and electricity.

So please be as generous as you can. We will put your gift to work immediately.

Many Ways to Help

Become a Sanctuary Partner

Many of you, our Primarily Primates donors, told us you’d like to become a Sanctuary Partner but the donation levels for the monthly sponsorship were just too high. So we have revised our suggested monthly support amounts. The new Sanctuary Partners gift levels are listed on the back flap of the envelope inserted in this newsletter. If you have already signed up for one of the higher sponsor levels and want to adjust your gift, please let us know.

Sanctuary Partners provide monthly support: vegetables and fruits, nutritional supplements, veterinary medical care, daily maintenance of living spaces, and a large animal care staff. Every month Primarily Primates has to spend more on produce, and it’s now running $800 each week. Vegetables and fruits are necessary for the good health of many of our animals, and eaten with great excitement.

By pledging a monthly gift, you will be providing constant sponsorship for the animals in one of our many animal communities, from chimpanzees to lemurs. As a Sanctuary Partner, you’ll receive a video disk of the animal community you’ve chosen to support.

Project Cargo Net or Project Hammock, A Fun Way to Help

Project Cargo Net is off to a great start. One extra large net and 20 smaller ones have been installed inside our habitats for small primates. The nets inspire hours of fun and climbing exercise for all of our primates. Used cargo nets are often found at shipping piers and trucking docks, and we’ll recycle them proudly. Shipping costs for donated nets run around $50. We still need about 30 more nets for our habitats.

Using donated used fire hoses, Project Hammock is also off to a great start. So far we are about half way toward our goal of installing 57 outdoor resting hammocks for our chimpanzees. When interwoven and secured around a rectangular steel frame, they’re transformed into nest-like hammocks. Fire hose is durable and apes love to relax on their hammocks during the day. The frame and construction runs about $200 per hammock.

We’d love it if you could sponsor one of our cargo nets or hammocks— and so would the nonhuman primates! Enclose a note inside your donation envelope to let us know your gift is for one of these projects.

Remembering Primarily Primates in Your Will

Because many of our nonhuman residents will outlive our own lifetime, including Primarily Primates in your estate plans is vitally important and a very special way you can continue to provide security and care for the animals living in our sanctuary. You or your attorney will need our tax ID number (74-2164756). If you have questions about including us in your will, or need additional information, please call our office or include a note in your donation envelope.

Online Donations Give Us a Boost Any Time

For donors who prefer the convenience of making a secure online gift, you can go to our web site, www.primarilyprimates. org. And while you are there, you can watch over 40 wonderful videos of the animals in whose future you’re investing.

Thank you so much for your support and for being part of our lifesaving team.

Sincerely,
Stephen Rene Tello
Executive Director