Monkey Sanctuary, near Wool

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Having had an experience of rescuing chimpanzees and monkeys who had been used and abused in laboratories or as exotic pets, photographers’ props, and circus acts, and giving them rehabilitation, Jim Cronin established the monkey sanctuary in the heart of Dorset near Wool and started running there with Alison in 1987.

Having read the obituary of Jim Cronin’s death earlier in 2007, we got interested in the monkey sanctuary and decided to visit there while we were in Wareham.

As it was not the half term holiday, there weren’t direct buses between Wool and Monkey Sanctuary. We walked to the destination. Approaching the destination, we could hear apes crying or moving amidst the bushes and dense foliage of the trees.

As expected, there were different types of apes, e.g. gibbons, orang-utans, stump-tailed macaques, woolly monkeys, squirrel monkeys, capuchin monkeys, and ring tailed lemurs kept in a 65 acre of Wildlife Park. All of them looked comfortable and relaxed, and were either playing in the wooden gyms which had been specially constructed in a similar way to their homes or eating leaves and nuts. According to the information boards, chimpanzees and monkeys originated from tropical to sub-tropical countries like rainforest zone, Borneo, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand, but confiscated in the countries like Russia, Israel, China, Spain, and France etc and abused by cruel and ignorant pet owners. Jim Cronin’s specialist keepers have given them plenty of food, and provided friendly and warm environment, and a series of rehabilitation programmes, e.g. letting them play in the gymnastic tools freely as a home, and encouraged females to breed and raise families. Each of the monkeys and chimpanzees has been given the original English name. And the family trees of different species of chimpanzees and monkeys have continued increasing. The keepers admitted that they had offered a bigger portion of food to animals and recently found it necessary to change the diet. Animals were given leaves and nuts rather than lumps of meat.

The Monkey Sanctuary has become one of the most popular family destinations in England. The site has several types of catering facilities, playground areas, an excellent souvenir shop selling numerous types of stationary goods with pictures of apes kept in the Monkey Sanctuary, accessories and clothes, and a huge parking area.

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