Along the Garden Route there seem to be lots of animal sanctuaries. We went to one elephant park and I think there are other places like it. There are parks that are home to cheetahs, leopards, lions and other cats. We went to one park that had many of South Africa’s cat species such as the caracal, the African wild cat (it looked like a house cat) and of course leopards and cheetahs. It’s hard to see many of these species in the wild (or on a safari) because they are quite elusive so it was neat that we were able to see them. However, it was not the same - it was like going to the zoo. We did go into the pen where the cheetahs were and got within feet of the animals which was pretty neat (and rather scary).
We also went to a monkey sanctuary called Monkeyland. This was a huge fenced in area that holds around 10 species of monkeys including Ring-tailed Lemurs (they have the second largest population outside of Madagascar), Black and White Ruffed Lemurs, Black Howler Monkey, Bolivian Squirrel Monkeys, Spectacled Langur, White-Handed/Gar Gibbon and the Brown Capuchin. The area that was enclosed was huge so we could walk around without seeing a fence and just looked for monkeys. We also learned a little bit about the differences between monkeys and apes. The easy difference is that apes don't have tails. Then we learned the difference between Old World and New World monkeys. Old World monkeys came from Africa and Asia while New World monkeys came from Central and South Africa. Many of the monkeys in the sanctuary were pets that then became to “wild” for their owners. Others were injured and nursed back to health by Monkeyland. I'm pretty sure that the monkeys are not rereleased back into the wild, but they may be. I remember asked the question, but I can't remember the answer and I can't find it on their website. Anyway, I decided that it would be really cool to be a monkey.
I found that I didn't have very many really clear pictures so here are a handful of the better ones.
The tiny yellow monkey in the middle is a Bolivian Squirrel Monkey (I think - it may also be a Common Squirrel Monkey)
Black Howler Monkey (Fun fact - except for the Blue Whale, Howler Monkeys are known to make the loudest sound on earth)
Black and White Ruffed Lemurs
Ring-Tail Lemurs
White-Handed/Gar Gibbon
Brown Capuchin
Spectacled Langur
Maribou Stork
Chacma Baboon
Cheetahs!!
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