THE CANADIAN PRESS
April (top), a baby callimico Goeldi monkey, is shown at the Cherry Brook Zoo in Saint John in this August 2007 photo. Officials at the zoo made a desperate plea yesterday for the return of the stolen baby monkey.
Baby monkey stolen
Cherry Brook Zoo appeals for return of rare Goeldi monkey
By JEFF DUCHARME
Canadaeast News Service Published Thursday April 24th, 2008
SAINT JOHN - It may have been late night monkeyshine gone awry, a family wanting what they thought was a cute pet or even an organized ring of monkey thieves.
Regardless, the Cherry Brook Zoo lost one of its tiniest residents in the early morning hours yesterday. A callimico Goeldi monkey named April, so tiny it could fit in the palm of a child's hand, is now in the hands of thieves and in peril. The highly endangered baby was born at the zoo last year and is part of a worldwide breeding program. There are only 1,000 or so such monkeys alive in the wild and the Cherry Brook Zoo is one of only two in Canada that houses and breeds them.
As zoo director Linda Collrin stood in front of the Goeldi cage yesterday, the three remaining Goeldi monkeys seem subdued, almost as if they were looking for something. Only allowed outside over the last few days, the monkeys would usually be screeching and bouncing from branch to branch in an almost non-stop frenzy. But not today.
"It's OK, babies. We're going to get her back," Collrin said to the remaining three -- mother, father and brother. Collrin believes the thieves were looking for that specific monkey. They walked by another cage that contained a larger species and went right for the tiny Goeldi. The monkey-nappers left a number of the other Goeldi monkeys running around inside the monkey house, but closed the door to the outside so they couldn't escape.
"This was planned," Collrin said. "I think they just grabbed whatever animal they could and, of course, the baby is going to be probably the easiest one to grab," she said, adding the other monkeys were left terrorized.
"We get a lot of phone calls from people that want to own monkeys. They think they'd make a nice pet -- they don't."
Only a few days earlier, a family was in the zoo's office asking where they could get such a monkey.
"Don't let it go because it won't survive," she said to whomever may have the monkey. "Something will eat it, something will kill it."
The monkey also requires special food and can't survive on dog kibble. More important, Goeldi monkeys can carry diseases such as TB and herpes simplex that can very easily be spread to humans.
"They're putting themselves at risk,"; Collrin said, "and they're putting anyone that's around this monkey at risk."
The zoo's director said she'll gladly go pick up the monkey and won't press any charges.
"They made a mistake. Correct the mistake and bring it back to us. It's a baby."
Callimico is Latin for beautiful little monkeys and Goeldi is the name of the Swiss naturalist Emil August Goeldi, who first documented the little black fur balls.
"We're talking about the survival of an entire species of monkey," Collrin said.
Sgt. Pat Bonner of the Saint John Police Force said getting the monkey back to the zoo and giving it the care it needs is critical. Police will even send a car to retrieve it.
Goeldi monkeys make an ear-splitting squeal that can be heard across great distances. The thieves, he said, didn't try to steal the proper animal. "I don't see them trying to steal a tiger," said Bonner.
Baby monkey stolen
