Those who have visited NANAS before will know that the canine species rule prominently, followed by our feline pals and then the rest of the other creatures. We do have one lonely pig tail macaque Alice aka Starbucks swinging around all by herself in her cage ever since our previous adult monkey and her only companion Ah Noy passed on in early 2010.
Raymund was travelling back to NANAS from Muar with a volunteer one afternoon when he saw a troop of monkeys crossing the road. There was a baby monkey trailing behind his mother and he was running to catch up but alas he was not fast enough and a car hit him. Raymund immediately stopped the car and alighted to take a look.
There it was, lying in the middle of the road, a long tail macaque. The car hit his little body and possibly rolled over his tail. Raymund approached the motionless body and was silently watching him for a while wondering what should be done. Suddenly, the monkey reached up and grabbed his hand! The first thought that came across Raymund’s mind was, “Please don’t bite me!” Instead, the monkey’s tiny fingers held on firmly to Raymund’s hand, as if pleading with Raymund to save his life.
The volunteer had to stop all oncoming traffic while Raymund tended to the injured monkey. He placed the monkey into a carrier and headed straight to a vet he has been constantly working with – Dr Koh. Dr Koh immediately performed emergency surgery on the monkey, as it had multiple wounds such as a broken right leg and a wounded tail.
Raymund was with Dr Koh throughout the surgery, assisting him during the two hour long operation. The monkey had lacerations all over his small body which Dr Koh managed to clean and stitch up. His long tail was furless and raw but it was not much of a cause for worry as it ought to heal over time. The most seriously injured part was his right leg, whereby Dr Koh had to insert a metal rod so that he can continue to use his leg but strictly only for standing and walking.
Raymund affectionately named him Berry and he is estimated to be only about six months old. He was brought back to NANAS and placed in a small cage in the clinic to recuperate. Berry is being fed medicine daily and Raymund has been able to gain his trust. Initially whenever anyone approached, Berry would give out loud shrieks: akin to what wild macaques in the wild would normally do as a warning signal to their fellow companions. When Berry sees Raymund nowadays, he just looks at Raymund longingly – we suspect it is because he wants more food!
At the point of rescue, Raymund was faced with two alternatives – to put him down immediately to end his suffering, or to treat him and let him lead a decent life. As with all rescue cases, time, effort and funds are required to treat and nurse an injured animal back to health, along with making plans for him/her after recovery.
Update on Berry: Regrettably, Berry had to have his leg amputated after a week or so after the initial surgery as it was suffering from gangrene and the metal insertion was not helping. A part of his tail was also infected and had to be removed. Despite his disability, Berry is affectionate, playful and cheeky. Whenever Raymund feeds him something he does not really fancy, he will put both arms up into the air, looking as if he is surrendering to Raymund! :P
Unfortunately, Berry cannot be released back to the wild due to his disability. Also, his troop will no longer accept him as he is now different. We eventually do hope to put him together with Starbucks but that will be after he has fully recovered. In the meantime, we plan to give him a larger cage to move around first. For now, Berry needs a bigger space to get used to having an amputated limb.
We are looking at raising funds to build a similar enclosure that Starbucks has, but this would be for Berry. We hope that you can help us sponsor the materials needed. In the event Berry can live happily together with Starbucks in future, we can certainly put the new enclosure to good usage for other rescued animals.
Please email us at noahsarkcares@gmail.com should you be able to help in any way, big or small. Thank you for your continuous support thus far and we will update with more news on Berry in time to come.
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