HE was one of Monkey World’s very first inhabitants and now this cheeky chap has been immortalised in bronze.

London sculptor Andy Garner brought along a 2ft high bust of Charlie, one of the primate rescue centre’s much-loved chimpanzees, yesterday.

The bronzed-resin sculpture of loveable Charlie was presented by Andy to Dr Alison Cronin, director of Monkey World, and Jeremy Keeling, animal director at the popular attraction.

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A WOMAN who dedicates every day of her life to helping the homeless, stroke victims and families has been crowned Bournemouth’s Hero of the Year.

Gwen White, a volunteer for Winton Salvation Army, was also given the Community Spirit Award at the Unsung Hero Awards, organised by Bournemouth 2026.

Speaking after the ceremony at the Carrington House Hotel, the 76-year-old grandmother from Southbourne said: “I enjoy what I do.

” I love people and have so much love in my heart that I like to help them. I’m very shocked and humbled to have won this award.”

The awards were hosted by the Daily Echo’s news editor Andy Martin, the Mayor of Bournemouth, Cllr Stephen Chappell, and Alison Cronin of Monkey World, who paid a moving tribute to her late husband Jim, founder of the animal sanctuary at Wool.

She said: “Jim was a great believer that every single person could make a difference and he believed in the spirit of the unsung hero.

“Jim was a hero in many people’s eyes and all of his characteristics of passion, focus, drive and giving are present in the finalists of these awards.”

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Monkey Life - Series 1 DVDs will be available in the Monkey World shop this September!

Monkey Life - Series 2 transmitted on Channel Five in May/June this year!
As soon as new transmission dates are known, we’ll post them up here.

Monkey Life - Series 3 is in production - there’s more to come…

Monkey Life Series 1 on Animal Planet

Tickets are still available for the Echo-backed Unsung Hero awards.

The event at the Carrington House Hotel has been organised by Bournemouth 2026 and takes place on September 16. Guest speakers include Alison Cronin of Monkey World, Mayor of Bournemouth Cllr Stephen Chappell and Echo news editor Andy Martin.

The evening is a celebration of those individuals working tirelessly to make Bournemouth a safer, greener, healthier and more community-minded place to live.

Tickets include a three-course meal and drinks. Sponsors include JPMorgan, Dave Wells Properties and Transdev Yellow Buses.

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A mystery monkey caused uproar at a busy train station in Tokyo, Japan.

Police tried to capture the creature with nets, but it climbed down and ran away through the crowds of commuters.

It remains unclear where the monkey came from - it could be a stray pet, or a wild monkey from a mountain area near Tokyo.

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IT was a dream he did not live to see come true, but the founder of Monkey World would have been justly proud of the centre’s latest achievement.

The wife of the late Jim Cronin, Dr Alison Cronin, has this week returned from Vietnam where, after six years of work, a 64-hectare rehabilitation centre for golden-cheeked gibbons rescued from the sickening smuggling trade has been opened.

Alison said: “All those years ago Jim turned to me when we saw the first illegal shipment of gibbons in Thailand and said We should do something about this’.”

Working with the Vietnamese authorities, a project began to establish a primate rescue centre in the south of the country, at Cat Tien National Park.

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Monkey World collaborated with Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam, the Pingtung Rescue Centre in Taiwan and the Endangered Asian Species Trust (EAST, UK Reg. 1115350), a charity set up by Monkey World in the United Kingdom, to build the Rescue Centre, which has taken nine months to construct and a total of seven years from inception.

The aim of the Centre is to rescue and rehabilitate endangered primates and when appropriate release the rehabilitated pairs of gibbons back into the forests of Cat Tien National Park. So far the Centre cares for 6 golden-cheeked gibbons (Nomascus gabriellae) that were rescued from a motorway rest stop and a small schoolyard menagerie. These gibbons have undergone veterinary health checks and are now beginning their rehabilitation process. In the future the centre will also be home to black–shanked douc langurs, silvery langurs, and nocturnal primates called loris.

Dr Alison Cronin, MBE, Director of Monkey World, was at Dao Tien last week to officially open the rescue centre. At the entrance to centre is a memorial in the memory of her late husband, and founder of Monkey World, Jim Cronin, MBE. “This is a very important day for a couple of reasons: this is Monkey World’s first insitu conservation project where we have a chance to keep the monkeys and apes where they belong – in the forests of Southern Vietnam – and on a personal note, this is a project that Jim and I started many years ago. It is truly amazing to see it come together and already making a difference in the lives of six rescued golden-cheeked gibbons. Jim knew that a few people could make a difference in saving endangered species and this is what the Dao Tien Rescue Centre is all about.”

Dao Tien is a 57 hectare Rescue Centre and lays at the entrance of Cat Tien National Park on the Dong Nai River, located in the centre of the natural geographic range for golden-cheeked gibbons in Vietnam. The 10 rehabilitation cages on the island are only phase 1 of a long-term project. Monkey World will now embark upon phase 2, the design and construction of semi-wild enclosure on the island before considering certain pairs of gibbons for release back to the wild.

A group of orangutans who appeared in Hollywood films, television commercials and magazine advertisements is being relocated to Great Ape Trust of Iowa – a significant move that begins to close the curtain in the United States on the decades-long use of orangutans in the entertainment industry. Great Ape Trust, a scientific research facility in Des Moines, Iowa dedicated to the study of primate intelligence and behavior, will triple its orangutan population from three to nine.

The first of the new residents, 3-year-old Rocky and his 19-year-old mother Katy, arrived safely at Great Ape Trust on Saturday, July 12, from the Los Angeles area, where they had been privately owned by Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife, co-owned by Steve and Donna Martin. Their company specializes in providing trained animals for entertainment and advertising.

In discussions with Dr. Robert Shumaker, director of the orangutan research program at Great Ape Trust, the Martins decided to donate these orangutans to The Trust and discontinue their use of orangutans in entertainment.

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The Nam Cat Tien National Park in southern Dong Nai province on July 12 put into operation a wildlife rescue centre, specializing in primate.

The centre, covering 30 ha of land inside original forests on the Tien (Fairy) island, has been entrusted to step in when illegally-caged primates or primate trafficking are found.

It will also conduct research on rare primates’ habitat to farm rescued animals in the natural environment before freeing them into the forests.

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