Apenheul!!

Have you ever wondered about animals in a Zoo? Do they have enough space? Do they have enough food and water? Yesterday when we arrived at the Apenheul, Tam was amazed at the park for these monkeys. This park was located within a forest and each different type of monkey had a huge grass area to run, play, eat and drink. Some of the monkeys were even able to WALK FREELY within the park and because they walk free we needed a MONKEY PROOF BAG. Don't worry they can't run away as there are fences with plastic sheeting at the top and there is 4 meters between the rest of the forest so they monkeys stay within the park. When we first walked into the park we were welcomed by the cutest and tiniest Squirrel Monkeys. After we continued pass the Howler Monkeys which can range in size from 22 to 36 inches. Then we walked to the Lemurs and watched them being fed. Patrick and Tam had a Mama and Baby Lemur only an arm lengths away from us!! All of the lemurs come from Madagascar. It was the most amazing thing ever!! Then we stopped for a bite to eat and went to watch the Gorillas be fed. What a view! There were 14 gorillas in the area and 7 of those were kids; 3 of them being cute adorable babies! The gorillas eat 70kg of vegetable/day. Also a male adult becomes a silver-back after 15 years of age. The males can still double their weight after turning 15. Their silver-back, Jambo, is 18 years old and weights 200kg of pure muscle. So Patrick is going to see if he can eat 5kg of food every day as that is how much each gorilla averages a day. Who thinks he can do it? One of the fascinating stories was one of the females was going to give birth. She was starting her contractions but no baby came out so they rushed her to the Lukas Hospital in Apeldoorn. They grabbed a vacuum to extract the baby out and after the baby was born they named him Lukas. After we continued onto the Orangutans where we learnt that full grown adults can have an arm span of 2.5 meters! Patrick's arm span is 1.85 meters and Tam's is 1.61 meters.

Tam= 1.61m

Patrick=1.85m
We also pretended to be monkeys on the rope outside the Orangutan area. After the Orangutans the Nasenaffen Monkeys came on our path with their big noses. The Barbary Macaques area was closed so we continued to see the Gorillas inside their cave. It was funny to see that Moms just steal food from the babies mouths. Its sad but they have to learn to eat fast! When we got to the Gibbons the park was closing so we were not allowed to see anymore monkeys as there were signs that said "De Apen gaan slapen" (The monkeys are going to sleep.) We stopped at the souvenir shop so Tam could buy a postcard to put in our scrapbook when we get back to Canada. When we came out Adri asked Patrick " Did you bring the right monkey with you?" As Tam gets into the monkey pose and made a monkey noise. Patrick said "I sure did!" After Monique wanted to show Tam the Wild Boars so we walked to the area where the Wild Boars were kept. Tam's first words out of her mouth, "When they're young they look so cute, when they grow up they sure are UGLY." The only thing Patrick thought was that they taste amazing as we tasted wild boar in Faro, Portugal. We continued back to the car where Monique let Tam drive the 21kms back; it was a little rough at the start especially when Tam stalled out at the lights. But once she got going she did an amazing job! What an amazing day! Today's rating 15/10!
Love From,
P&T in Apenheul, Apeldoorn, Holland