A Trip to Monkey World

The second year BSc(hons) Zoological Management & Conservation students completed a four-day course at the Jim Cronin Memorial Fund, visiting Monkey World regularly. The first day was all about team building and a history of Monkey World. Students visited Monkey World in time to watch the primate's bed down for the evening and ate in the café before returning to Helfton House.  

Day two was spent creating a wide range of enrichment including papier Mache balloons, treat boxes, hose pipe feeders and bamboo puzzle boxes – to name a few. There were also a range of lectures on primate enrichment and behaviour.  

The highlight for the week was when the students spent a day on section where they shadow a keeper for the day. Each student was assigned a different section and were able to work with chimps, orangutans, small monkeys, gibbons, woolly monkeys or capuchins. This highlights the expectations of working within a rescue centre and all students shone. It was also an opportunity to put in the enrichment and observe it being taken apart! We were taken out to dinner in Wareham which was a lovely treat after a hard day's work.

The final day was the completion of lectures – considering health, husbandry and operant conditioning and the final talk on how to get a job in the industry. We then spent the rest of the day at Monkey World before heading back to Bristol.  

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‘’This was a particularly good trip, the students worked hard, and we were able to complete all elements of the course and it was enjoyed by all. ‘’ - Kathryn Baskerville, Lecturer

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