A Sad Day for the Monkeys

A little over a week ago, I got a really sad email. It said that there had been a roadkill along Hindhede Drive, and that one of the monkeys I study was killed. There were pictures of the roadkill, and I was very sad to see that it was Nad, the alpha female of the group.

The queenly Nad, with her infant and others from the Hindhede group

Nad was a cool monkey. She was somewhat hilariously overweight, and kind of lumbered around slowly. She was mellow. She was a good mom (although she sometimes got distracted), and I'd seen her raise three healthy infants since I started watching the monkeys in 2009. She had personality. I always enjoyed pointing her out to people on the Monkey Walks. I'll really miss having her around.

Nad and Sunny. Obviously Nad could sometimes be a distracted mom!

Nad was a favorite of the researchers that have studied her, and we were all really saddened by the news of her death. But something kind of good came out of her death - The Straits Times did a story on it (check out the photo credit!). The story was even picked up by the Jakarta Globe and the India Times. I hope that the story will help people to realize that the monkeys are each unique, and the death of one can affect the group overall. And maybe it will remind people to DRIVE CAREFULLY around nature reserves.

(The Straits Times link is a snippet of the article. Read it in full on Wild Singapore).