Khy is the recent winner of our Adopt a Primate Contest. So in honor of his win, he (and his neighboring monkeys) receive an extra day's supply of bananas.
Khy is a rambunctious 3 year old male snow monkey who arrived at the sanctuary in August of 2009. Sold as a "pet" it didn't take him long to demonstrate his desire for independence. Though he was in the hands of a doting human, by his second year Khy began to display the unpredictable behavior of the wild animal he is. Throwing "tantrums", menacing and threatening the very person who cared for him, Khy was growing up fast and was no longer the adorable little infant who so desperately needed nurturing after being stolen from his real mother.
When Khy arrived at the sanctuary he was quite a little handful and his high energy, exuberance and low tolerance for anything resembling constraint quickly endeared him to us — we love it when monkeys insist on being monkeys! However, we had a dilemma: receiving Khy this early in his development and given his current behavior we were confident that he could one day be integrated into one of the large troops of snow monkeys living naturally in one of the multi-acre enclosures — but he needed a safe home to gain experience with the big monkeys until he could get a little larger in size. We modified a good-sized cage and set little Khy up with his own heated sleeping quarters where he would be protected from the elements yet remain outside to observe normal monkey behavior and interact with some of the residents.
And interact he did (and does)! He quickly made friends with a juvenile male and young female and, confidence bolstered, even gave the adults a run for their money. Soon Khy will be moved to much larger quarters within our 56 acre enclosure where we hope to see him continue to develop physically and learn proper monkey etiquette. One of the fortunate "pets" Khy will now be allowed to spend his years in exploration of the natural world around him.
