He hasn't been moving around much.
- We got a call that someone was bringing in
an injured baby monkey.
- Thanks so much for bringing him in.
- We were quite nervous to see what condition
this baby was gonna be in.
- Hit by a car.
- And so, I - Just now? - Yeah.
So the mother was squashed.
Injured his little foot.
Unfortunately, he's too young to go back.
We'll give him a mother here.
The Vervet Monkey Foundation
is a rehabilitation center and sanctuary.
for orphaned vervet monkeys,
monkeys who were illegally kept as pets,
or injured. It's a place for them
to live out the rest of their lives
or be released where possible.
- How cool is this, man?
It’s an emergency.
Go get sick bay ready, buddy.
- Where are we? - The end of the tail
looks like it's coming off. - Yeah. -Yeah.
- Hi.
Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.
Jerry had a broken foot, and bruising
all down her tail.
She was also quite emotionally traumatized.
Just really confused.
She didn't know what was going on.
So we made sure that we gave her lots of hugs.
and to calm her down, while we tried
to get that foot stabilized.
- Fluids?
- See if it drinks. - Okay.
- Hey, sweetie-pie.
Hey, beautiful.
- Was her Mom with her? - Yeah.
- And where's Mom, did she die? - Yeah.
All right, babes. Let's go.
She was relatively quiet. Taking everything in.
Wasn't really sure what was going on.
- Now she has a nice little purple foot.
- We should all sign her cast. - Yeah.
All right, baby.
If you can keep that on,
that would be swell.
Let's go.
We have around 570 monkeys.
Our goal is to get them
in a social environment again,
so they can form a troop and a family life,
like they should have once had.
The bigger vision is to
create an area that we're gonna call "The Vervet Forest."
A place they can roam free.
They shouldn't be in homes. They shouldn't be in cages.
We need to get them back where they belong.
When a monkey first arrives,
they will go into quarantine
before we move them to meet other orphans.
- Hi. What's this?
What's going on, baby monkey?
- We can't rescue a monkey and then just release it anywhere,
because it will simply die.
They do need their support system.
And we have the enclosures here
for the family environment for them.
Jerry had a bandage on her foot.
And, you know, wasn't quite sure of
exactly how to walk.
And she didn't really connect with the other monkeys.
- Just gonna bandage it.
Jerry's bandage for the first few days
was changed every day.
We wanted to make sure that those cuts and bruises
weren't gonna get infected.
- You're not gonna like this bit.
- There you go!
She was very quiet for those first two days.
But once the pain kind of went away,
she got to meet a couple more monkeys.
The other babies really inspired Jerry
to get better quickly.
And she'll just be like, "Okay, you know.
This isn't so bad. I'm safe here.
It's gonna be okay."
Jerry's bandage stayed on
for about two and a half weeks.
And she was really desperate to get out there
and play with the other monkeys.
But having that bandage slowed her down
and she couldn't keep up with them.
So we decided to take it off, and to see how she'd go.
It was just such an awesome moment.
I put her down and immediately she started walking.
I knew that everything was gonna be fine.
You could see it in her little face
that she was just super-excited.
These animals, even though they've had a really rough start in life,
we're able to provide that second chance
to be out and bouncing around
with no sort of bandage and no medication
after about two and a half weeks
is just incredible.
It was more important to her to make friends
than it was to worry about her foot.
Jerry's two favorite things in the world
are mangoes and blankets.
I think if she could have her way
she'd want to be burritoed in a blanket
with a never-ending supply of mangoes
just all day, every day.
We really saw her personality come out.
She's just the sweetest little monkey ever.
She took it upon herself to be a little nurse
to all the other monkeys, and Jerry will be
the first one over there, giving them a big hug
and just kind of sitting with them.
And be like, "You know what, buddy?"
"If you need it, I'm here."
When we're raising these babies
we can look after them to a point.
- At six weeks old, we'll move the baby
to put them with a foster Mom for the first time.
- Jerry's about to meet her foster Mom.
Although we're almost confident that it's gonna be fine,
there is that little bit of fear.
Is she a hundred percent ready?
Jerry's a little bit nervous.
- I don't think Jerry knows what to do.
- We've got one Mom called Mrs. Gold.
She's been a foster Mom for a few years in a row now.
And so we wanted to try her first.
Mrs. Gold used to be really nervous,
but since she started meeting the babies,
she now loves it, and she's just an amazing Mom.
Mrs. Gold came in and she just gave Jerry a great big hug.
I couldn't be more proud.
But to see Mrs. Gold just accept Jerry
so unconditionally, and immediately love her
was just the most rewarding experience.
Jerry developed a really strong bond with her Mom.
She's helped to nurture Jerry's personality.
Mrs. Gold's just a fantastic mom.
She's there for Jerry when she needs
those cuddles and those mom moments,
but she's also very good at pushing Jerry,
and growing that confident side of Jerry's personality.
It's taken her time to be like, "Okay,
these monkeys are gonna look after me."
She's connecting with the monkeys that are gonna be her family.
The three-month mark is when the mothers
can carry their babies out into the group.
Jerry, who had such a rough start,
to be able to see her go out is just gonna be pretty amazing.
- You--are you on the doors?
[Door rattling sounds] - Jerry!
♫
Now that they're out in the troop with the rest of the monkeys,
I think Mrs. Gold has her work cut out for her.
Jerry is all over the place.
She's up on the tree,
she's running around with all the other monkeys.
Every time I walk past the troop and I see
Mrs. Gold and Jerry hanging out in the tree,
it just makes me smile.
Mrs. Gold gives Jerry so much confidence
that she's gonna grow up to have
the very best life that she possibly could.
A life where she knows who she is,
and that she's an integral part of that monkey troop.
From the moment she arrived, Jerry's been a real little fighter.
Overcome some pretty horrible stuff
to become the wonderful, well-adjusted monkey that we see today.
She's got such a bright future ahead of her.