Dear Alison and Monkey World Team
My wife and I have just experienced another wonderful day at Monkey World. We would like to thank you sincerely for initiating a “soft opening” and allowing us adoptive parents to visit early. This must have been a very hard decision, in these unknown and unprecedented times, and hope the situation continues to work safely for the primates and staff alike.
We were a little apprehensive about whether we would be endangering the primates and/or staff by our visit but were relieved of that fear when we experienced what precautions you have in place. The wearing of a mask/face covering was a little daunting to start with but we fully appreciate why this had to be done and in the end we didn’t even realise we were wearing them and it soon became the norm. We hope the precautions you are taking continue to work and that everybody continues to abide by them.
The centre and the grounds are looking extremely good. We understand from talking to one of the groundsmen that you let the grounds grow wild whilst in lockdown. This must have been wonderful for the local wildlife and we could still see the benefits of that even on our visit today. We took advantage and did a 15 minute survey in support of the Great British Butterfly Count Survey and couldn’t keep count with the high number of species we spotted. Brilliant.
All the primates are looking in great condition and seemed only too willing to present themselves as we approached their enclosures. Highlights of the day included seeing the Golden Cheeked Gibbons, Tein and Kim come swinging across their enclosure in the early morning sun to look down on us; seeing Paul the Agile Gibbon in close up and seemingly so attentive to our presence; and seeing and hearing Gordon roar from his highest platform. We’ve never seen him do that before. He seemed to be using the shelter to echo and enhance his call. So clever. We were lucky enough also to have good sighting of your two newest and youngest arrivals and a good early sighting of Honey. Unfortunately no sighting of Freddy today.
We have been coming to the park for over 20 years and this has to be the best day yet. From a purely selfish point of view we liked that the park was very quiet. However, we do hope that you are soon able to open fully, especially for the much needed income and only hope that the wider public appreciate the need for precautions and behave in a responsible fashion.
Please, all stay safe and we hope to visit again very soon. We may even take advantage and visit again on one of the adoptive days next week.
