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SANCTUARIES >> CARING FOR WILD ANIMALS 52 |
Jungle Friends MONKEYING AROUND GAINESVILLE Stor y and Photography by Hayli Zuccola
H
idden behind a curtain of trees and a path of azalea bushes is a jungle-like atmosphere designed to give rescued monkeys a sense of living in the wild. A Cotton-Top Tamarin with fur as white as snow and patches of chocolate brown snacks on a peanut that’s almost too big to grasp. Brown Capuchins are like fuzzy acrobats, using the fencing around the enclosure to climb and swing across their habitat. Squirrel monkeys, whose hands look like they reached into a bag of Cheetos, playfully run across branches and jump through hula-hoops. At Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, foster monkeys of differing backgrounds and personalities have a place to call home. Before coming to the Sunshine State and living among the monkeys, Kari Bagnall worked in Las Vegas as an interior designer. Her boyfriend at the time decided to adopt a pet monkey from a breeder, but little did she know that Samantha, a baby White-Faced Capuchin, would change her life forever. After separating from her boyfriend, Bagnall continued to care for Samantha on her own, learning everything she could by reading Jane Goodall books. She soon realized that monkeys are social creatures and that Samantha would need a friend. That’s where Charlotte came in. To help pay for Charlotte and learn more about monkeys, Bagnall worked for the Las Vegas breeder — that is until she discovered the truth about how baby monkeys are captured. One day while working, Bagnall witnessed the breeder pull a baby monkey away from its mother. This didn’t sit well with the monkeys — or Bagnall. She knew something had to be done. Fast-forward five years later, Bagnall hopped on a private plane with 13 monkeys, two parrots, one cat and a dog and moved the Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary to
OUR TOWN MAGAZINE
MAY/JUNE 2016