Fundació MONA is a charity-run sanctuary for chimpanzees and macaques that have been rescued from the illegal exotic pet trade or the entertainment industry. Located in a picturesque village just an hour from Barcelona, the organisation provides a permanent home for rescued primates, while offering day tours to educate the public about their work.
I visited the Fundació MONA sanctuary on a sunny morning in January. As I reached the end of the long gravelled drive, I was greeted by Alba, the head-keeper and volunteer coordinator, who took me to chat with her 3 long-term volunteers and trainee keepers- Sally Lamprell and Sarah Sheldon from England, and John Yeoman from Scotland . We made ourselves comfortable as we sat around an outdoor coffee table behind the centre, and with the hoots of the chimpanzees echoing through the complex they told me about their experiences.
Hi guys, thanks for meeting me to share your experiences about volunteering with Fundació MONA. First up, tell me- did you have previous animal keeping experience before you came to volunteer at Fundació MONA? Or did you have a different background?
Sarah: I studied Conservation Biology and Ecology at university so I knew that this was what I wanted to keep doing. I’ve done previous primate work at Wild Futures [link] and I’ve worked with different animals like seals and dolphins, so I’ve got quite an animal-based background. So this experience is fuelling towards my career.
Sally: I studied animal behaviour and welfare at university and I worked for over a year with primates at Wild Futures, as well as a few other things in environmental sustainability as well. I think I do want to specialise with primates, so this was a really good opportunity and I think I’m going to carry on looking at this kind of work afterwards as well. So same as Sarah, volunteering here is a career step for me.
John: I studied software design, so absolutely not related at all! I had decided that’s not the route I was wanting to go down, and I that I was wanting to become a keeper. So I’ve spent about a year and a half volunteering in Brazil where I was doing a lot of public speaking, and I’ve also spent 3 months in Argentina volunteering as a keeper at a “Proyecto Carayá” monkey rescue sanctuary there. And coming here, this is more experience as well, hopefully to make a career of.
Do you think volunteering at the centre offers a good opportunity for someone who hasn’t got a strong keeping background?
Sally: Yeah definitely. A lot of the other volunteers here haven’t had any experience with primates or other animals, it can just be an interest and they may just want a new experience. You don’t need any prior knowledge- although it is always useful, it’s a lot of on-the-job learning. Even for us, we’ve worked with different species so we are always learning about species-specific behaviours and the care that they need.
Alba: We also have the opportunity for students who are studying biology, [veterinary medicine and similar careers] to do their internships here. We require 250 hrs of work for an internship, which is about a month and a half. The longer they can stay is the better for us.
Can you talk me through a typical day of work at the sanctuary? What kind of tasks do you perform?
Sarah: So for the morning, you either work in the kitchen or you work cleaning. If you’re in the kitchen, its preparing [the primates’ breakfast] which is vegetables, fruits, bread and juice before we give that to them. Then trying to prepare as much of lunch and other meals as well. It’s a lot of chopping up fruit! Or, if you’re cleaning, you go out into the exterior and clean up poo, enrichment, as well as any old fruit that they didn’t eat. [For the macaques its similar], its cleaning the interior and exterior enclosures and providing them with their breakfast.
Sally: We give the food in exciting ways, we try to make something different every day to make [the primate’s lives] more enriching and stimulating. Being in captivity, they don’t have the opportunity to face the same challenges that wild primates do every day, so enrichment can help to encourage them to work as a group, or just help challenge them physically and mentally. So it is a lot of cleaning and preparing food, but it can also be challenging for us to think of new novel ways to keep them excited and entertained. If there’s maintenance, we’re here to fix things and improve them as well.
Other jobs could be, helping with the guided talks in the summer, help with the research, jobs in the office. Or it could be your own needs, so for me I knew that I wanted to get more experience collecting research and performing maintenance, so if any of these jobs come up I really jump on them. So its really whatever you want to get from this experience, you can really focus your time on that.
So I understand that you want to make the environment as natural as possible for the animals here. Do humans have any direct interaction with the primates?
Sarah: No, we never touch them. Its not a ‘baby bottle’ experience, as that’s not going to help them [to adjust to a natural environment].
Sally: Its a hands-off approach, some of these animals have only lived with humans before they were brought here so they are very habituated with people. Sometimes before they really create their alliances within their social group, especially with their conflicts, they might come over looking for our help and support. The best thing we can do for that is actually to ignore that. We have to encourage them to socialise and find these friendships within their own group, as it benefits them in the long run.
What’s your favourite part of your day here?
Sarah: All of it! [Laughing]
Alba: Maybe the coffee break? [All laughing] But really, it is quite physical.
Sally: Yes, its a good work-out. The layout of the day- we have a morning coffee break, then a lunch break. In summer, because its quite hot we get a nice long lunch break when we spend time playing games and resting. It really spreads the day out nicely, and you don’t feel overworked.
John: I think the days go by really quickly here. And it is nicely broken up.
Sarah: I never find that I’m watching the clock. For me, I enjoy that I’m always multi-tasking, there are lots of different things you can be doing, new enrichment to try and make. And even once you’ve done all of your jobs, observing the animals is another important part. Its good to know how they are socialising with one another, and obviously its enjoyable for you as a volunteer to watch them.
What’s a typical weekly schedule for you?
Sally: We work 4 days a week. Because we have quite long working days, there are only a specific amount of hours that the EVS (The European Volunteer Service) allows you to work. They basically have an agreement to make sure that the workload is fair on both parties.
John: We do work 4 days a week here, but we are expected to use one day as a language day.
Sally: Through EVS, you are given an online platform to learn Spanish. So that allows you to work on your Spanish on your days off.
Sarah: But even though the days are quite routine, I’ve been here 4 months now, and its never felt monotonous. There’s always something different, even if its the weather changing the routine, or someone having a vet check. Its always different, so it keeps it enriching for ourselves as well. But I think, for me, my favourite part of the day is always with the animals. When you spend time creating them something for them, it can be really fun. Then you see their reaction and they are so excited, they’re all really vocal, screaming and hugging each other- that is the best.
Is it often that you need to have a vet here? Do you have your own vets, or just local vets here that you use?
Alba: We have an external vet that comes when needed. The head keepers act as their assistants because we know the animals. We do check the animals with anaesthesia [at regular intervals] and we do a general health check for them. But we are lucky that we don’t need to have a vet everyday. Part of the head-keeper job is to clean wounds, and the primates are trained to show cuts and teeth, so they are happy to collaborate. They always do this through the bars, so the keepers can see that. Volunteers are not allowed to get that close, because you need that experience and you have to know all the risks that are involved.
Sally: The volunteers can do visual health checks, you know, signs of ill health, checking faeces, [looking at hair, blood], in winter we look for indications the animals are cold- if so we provide access to a bedroom with hot tea. The more experienced you are, the more you kind of pick up on these things naturally. But always when we are around the animals, we’re just visually health checking them, seeing if behaviour is normal, things like that.
Alba: This program is not so much for veterinary volunteers, its more that you have to be a keeper first to learn about the animals, to learn the social dynamics of the group. Its not that you’ll be working as a vet because its not needed, and also because you’re not going to learn [the medical side of things- but you may get a good idea of what’s normal and what’s healthy].
Sally: And there’s always a lot of communication with the responsible team and the keepers, we know if an animals is on antibiotics and what course of treatment they are on. We keep a daily record on the computer of all these things, so we share information as well. There’s some days that we see more of their behaviour that the head-keepers so its important for us to share our knowledge as well.
Do you have a favourite animal that you care for here?
Sarah: I love them all.
Sally: I think when you look after animals, its impossible to have a favourite as they are all amazing in their own way. They all have different personalities. You see them interacting with each other and supporting each other in different things. And also, its good not to have a favourite as you have to look after them all equally. When you start talking about it, you end up just naming all of them. [Laughing].
Alba: Come on, tell the truth! [Laughing] For John- its Tico! Sally- Cheetah or Bea? Sarah?
Sarah: I do love Waty, she’s beautiful.
Sally: Mine’s Pipa. One of the macaques.
Alba: They are like a person, so of course we love all of them. As Sally said, they all have their own personality
What kind of preparation did you need to do for this role? Was there any training, or did you need to learn any new skills?
Sally: When you start your EVS, within the first month you have your on-arrival EVS training. It doesn’t matter which EVS project you’re doing, its for everyone and gives you the tools for your project. They talk about the health insurance that you receive, what your rights are as an EVS volunteer, cultural things, welcome you to Spain and give you information about Spain. And you get to meet other volunteers, we all keep in touch with people we met on our trainings.
Sally: It was lots of fun group games, again learning a lot about different cultures and languages.
John: There was a real mix of nationalities on our one.
Alba: So this is the European Volunteer Service, under the Erasmus program in the EU. Part of the philosophy is to give young people the chance to take a volunteer opportunity abroad, and develop, achieve or improve competencies as a person- no matter what you’re going to do. And to be more European.
Sally: We also have a mid-term evaluation halfway through the project. And its an evaluation of your time so far, so you talk about things you’ve learnt, things your not so happy with. So if you need some help or advice, its an opportunity to get that in before its too late and they want you to get the most you can from this experience.
You’ve had to move to Spain to take on this role. Are you enjoying it here? Are there any unexpected challenges you’ve faced?
Sally: The language can be a challenge for sure. I didn’t know Spanish before, so I’ve definitely been learning more since I’ve been here. I’m definitely not fluent so that can be a challenge. I went and got my hair cut the other day and they didn’t speak English, so we had to use Google translate.
Sarah: We love the weather, the beach. There’s a lot of good things. And the food! I think there hasn’t been too much of a culture clash from the UK, its quite easy to adapt to the diet, its all very similar. The parties are good, fiestas, celebrations are really nice. Sometimes I look back at the UK, and think we’ve sort of lost that family togetherness community thing. That’s something I love about Spain, is their sense of community and family. Its an amazing culture.
It sounds like you do get the opportunity to go and explore a bit on the weekend
Sally: Yes, you get an Erasmus card too that gets you discounts on things
Sarah: There’s also an app that can tell you about local events, and transport.
Sally: We’ve learnt about the politics of Catalonia as well, being here at this time. One of the things about EVS and Erasmus is that its not just about going to a project, but experiencing a different culture and a different country by immersion.
John: Yes, Spain is a bit warmer [than Scotland].
Sarah: There’s no marmite. [Laughing]
Alba: You like marmite? You can have it, from Lidl.
Sarah: Well there you go, I’ve overcome that problem now.
Do you think this is a role that anyone can do? If not, what kind of skills or personality traits are required?
Sarah: You must be lovely people. [All laughing] Really, you must love animals absolutely, social skills, team work, communication skills definitely. I guess if you are giving the talks, confidence in that helps, but you certainly build that up being here. I think mostly its just enthusiasm
Sally: Enthusiasm. Everything else you kind of learn on the job- if you can be motivated and enthusiastic, everything else will come to you. Because we work with potentially highly dangerous animals, you must be someone who can work to a strict protocol. We do have rules here, all for good reasons. And having respect for the animals is very important.
Do you feel like you’ve made an impact on the lives of the animals while working here? How?
Sarah: Simply by caring for them, that’s a big thing. Bringing new original enrichment ideas, any new person coming here has new ideas for new fun things for them. And when you get to see them opening it for the first time, you can see the joy on their faces.
Sally: I definitely try to share my skills and knowledge with the team. And I have quite a high standard for myself with my work, so I know these animals are getting really good care.
Sarah: Sometimes you can think [the enrichment] isn’t going to affect them that much, but they always enjoy it so its always worth it. Unfortunately these animals can’t be released into the wild and so this is their home. And by making it more exciting- different foods and surroundings, it’s a big thing for them, it is really rewarding. And obviously we all respect and appreciate each other as well. We do feel really appreciated for the work we do.
John: I think for our species as a whole, there’s a conservation side as well, the educational side with the visits. I think people who do come here learn a lot about the different problems and different issues these animals have in the wild, and also the other circumstances- being used in the entertainment industry, or as pets. So we help in that regard as well.
Sarah: And each volunteer that comes here has been able to talk about these issues with their friends and family, so all the different countries that people come from to volunteer here- its spreading the knowledge to them as well. Often people do ask me “Can’t [the chimpanzees] be pets?”, and I can explain to them and they trust that I do know what I’m talking about through my experience and knowledge. And we can change their mind for the positive.
Sally: When we go on our (EVS) training sessions, people always want to talk to us, as we do have the best project! [All laugh] Everyone loves it! Its good because its a chance to get to talk to more people, and they often come and visits. So it gets the word out.
What kind of impact has this role had on you? Do you think the skills you’ve learnt here will be useful in your future career?
Sarah: Yes, its improved so many of my skills- like confidence, teamwork, knowledge about the chimps and macaques, and just expanded on all of it.
John: For me, its given me a bit more direction as well. I don’t have the education in animal welfare or anything- to be able to be here volunteering is a great experience just to build up my own skills working with primates And it will be great for my future prospects as well.
Sally: Developing skills. And its another year of experience towards my career.
Thanks so much for your time guys! You all do an amazing job and its wonderful to see how much passion you have in caring for theses primates! Best of luck in your future careers.
Further Information
If you’d like to read more about Fundació MONA and how you can get involved with them, you can check out the Fundació MONA Volunteer Profile, or visit their website or facebook page here.
If you’re interested in hearing more about the European Volunteer Service, you can find information and opportunities on the European Solidarity Corps website.
Also a huge thankyou to Sarah Sheldon and Fundacio MONA for sharing their images for use in this article too!
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