May 28 2008
From Times Online:
A television star and her footballer boyfriend have adopted a chimpanzee called Bryan in Dorset, saving him from working as a beach photographer’s toothless prop in Mexico.
Gemma Atkinson, an actor in daytime soap Hollyoaks, and Darren Bent, who plays football for Wigan Athletic, adopted five-year-old Bryan after watching the primate’s plight on television.
…
May 27 2008
From Dorset Echo:
ACTRESS Gemma Atkinson and footballer Marcus Bent paid a visit to Monkey World in Bovington to support its adoption campaign.
Former Hollyoaks star Gemma is famous for taking part in the ITV show I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and will appear in the Brit-flick Boogie Woogie to be released in August.
She and her boyfriend Marcus, 30, a Wigan Athletic footballer, contacted Monkey World last month after seeing Monkey Life - the Channel Five soap opera about the lives of the apes at the primate rescue centre. The couple visited the centre to officially adopt Bryan, one of the stars of Monkey Life series two.
…
May 27 2008
From Dorset Echo:
YEAR 2 pupils from Wool CE First School have been getting involved in some monkey business for their latest class project.
The children spent the day at nearby Monkey World as part of a project to help feed the primates at the centre.
The pupils brought with them giant papier maché nuts’ they had made themselves in class, which staff at the centre then filled with food for the monkeys.
The children got a close-up view as keeper Mike Colbourne and section head Lee Butler gave the nuts to the centre’s capuchin monkeys, which had recently been rescued from a laboratory in Chile.
They looked on as the monkeys ripped the nuts open to get at the treats inside, replicating skills that they would use to find food in the wild.
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May 20 2008
This video of Sally grooming Rodders was recorded by our own forum member, Kinglee.
Kinglee’s description:
Picture this, Sally and Rodders on quite a cold day in early March. It was just before Jeremy comes down to give the youngsters their tea so Sally was at the window watching and waiting. She must have thought that Rodders looked a bit scruffy to eat tea and, even though he was ‘playing’ with us through the window, she got hold of him quite firmly and began to groom him. Look at his little face – bless.
May 16 2008
Two great videos from the Dorset Echo:
Baby Bart - BART the six month old chimp who is melting the hearts of Monkey World visitors.
Monkey Life -DR ALISON CRONIN of Monkey World talks to the Daily Echo about the new series of Monkey Life on Channel Five and the tribute programmes, Monkey Business Jim’s Legacy, which ITV will be showing later this year.
May 12 2008
From Daily Mirror:
This cute little woolly monkey will become a TV star tonight - and he’s not doing a PG Tips advert either.
Six-month-old Paulo is featured in a new series of Monkey Life on Five.
He is being hand-reared by Dr Alison Cronin, director of Monkey World, in Wareham, Dorset, where the series is based, after being unable to suckle from his mum.
Oddly, Monkey Life is the favourite TV show of Russell Brand - who has plenty of animal magnetism of his own.
A Five source said: “Russell has visited the centre several times and is always talking about it on his radio show. As well as being cute, there is a decent story to go with the monkeying around.”
In addition to the woolly monkeys, there are chimps, gibbons and orangutans. The show is on every weekday for a month and is guaranteed to make you go aaah…
May 08 2008
Monkey Business is back for two episodes in June, covering the history of Monkey World.
The episodes will be shown on Meridian ITV1 at 19:30 on 05 June and 12 June.
There is some more detail in this article from the Bournemouth Echo, but note that the dates in the article appear to be wrong. The full article is well worth reading.
IT’S little more than a year since we mourned the passing of Jim Cronin, the inspirational founder of Monkey World rescue centre near Wool.
[June] sees the brief return of Monkey Business, the TV programme largely responsible for raising awareness of Jim’s work, in the first of two special editions to honour the man, his mission and what he has left behind.
Monkey Business: Jim’s Legacy (ITV1, 7.30pm) goes right back to the beginnings of Monkey World in 1987 when New Yorker Jim took on a derelict Purbeck pig farm and fought tooth and nail to establish a place in which exploited apes and monkeys from around the world could learn to be themselves again.
… a second programme will look at what Jim Cronin has bequeathed to the public and the future for Monkey World.
May 03 2008
From the forum:
Returning to Five this week [12 May 2008] for a new run of programmes is the documentary series following the day-to-day lives of the 252 monkeys, chimps, orangutans and other animals that live in one of the largest primate rescue centre in the world.
Filmed over the course of a year at the Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre in Dorset, the series follows the nail-biting rescue and rehabilitation stories of some of the most abused and neglected primates in the world. It also explores the unwavering hard work of Dr Alison Cronin MBE and her team in their ongoing mission to stop the illegal smuggling of these animals from the wild.
Displaced and abused animals from all over the world are brought together at the centre, where they are given the chance to spend the rest of their days being cared for in a safe, natural environment. From power struggles to bonds of friendship, family feuds to new arrivals, Monkey Life follows the daily dramas of some of the most beautiful creatures on the planet.
May 01 2008
If you haven’t come across it before, I recommend you take a look at the Gombe Chimpanzee Blog. It is now hosted by the Jane Goodall Institute.
You can follow the movements of the chimps in Google Earth, giving you a good sense of exactly where on Earth they are.
