Who said new romance was only for the young ones….? Mam and Willem get together

After a week of updates from the Tiger Temple its time to start sharing some of last weeks news from the WFFT Wildlife Rescue Centre.

Firstly, we have a new romance between two of our elderly long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis). Mam, who was rescued in January this year, and Willem who has been with us for 14 years after coming to us in 2002.

Willem was one of the first animals rescued by WFFT, he was rescued from a zoo in Bangkok. He has spent most of his years at WFFT in a large open field enclosure with many other macaques, but a few months ago he was taken ill and we brought him to the WFFT Quarantine Facility to be observed by our vet team, he soon regained strength and his health improved. Mam went through a quarantine period before being slowly introduced to Willem, first being housed in an enclosure next to him so they could get to know each other, after weeks of positive interactions we decided to allow them to have full contact by opening the door between their enclosures. They instantly became very close friends and are constantly following each other around the enclosure, grooming one another for most of the day and happily sitting down at meals times and sharing their food. Who said romance is dead in our twilight years? Mam spent 12 years in chains prior to coming to us, never seeing another macaque during this period, so to see her so happy with her new friend is vey special for us all here at WFFT. See Mams rescue story here http://bit.ly/1WBqjf0