Far from the rifle cracks that occasionally rip through the rainforest as local tribesmen hunt mature primates for their meat and soft pelts, a sanctuary in a corner of the Colombian Amazon is offering new life to the orphaned monkeys left behind.
The refuge run by a local leader, Jhon Jairo Vasquez, is giving them a second chance — while gradually changing attitudes in the area — in the indigenous settlement of Mocagua on the banks of the Amazon.
Vasquez has proved to be a father figure for one of the orphans, a three-month-old female woolly monkey, or Lagothrix, he’s named Maruja.
The pair have become inseparable on his hikes through the rainforest, carrying the little…
Keep on reading: Saving the Amazon’s orphan monkeys