A Samango Gets A Second Chance

This month, Elia (formerly Rafiki) arrived to Riverside. He was rescued, however his rescuers did not have the ability to keep him in wild conditions, or have other Samangos to keep him with, so he was brought to Riverside.

Elia has been co-habitating with Ziggy, our large male Samango in the intro enclosure. Ziggy has been recovering from a tendon injury in the intro, so the two were paired up. Ziggy is not known to be aggressive, but it would normally be more ideal to put this new youngster with an adult female or one of our other youngsters, Holly and Rory. But since Ziggy is nt ready to be moved from the intro yet, we decided so see how the two boys would get along.

Ziggy is a funny, quirky boy, and it's difficult to tell where he's coming from. When Elia was first introduced, Ziggy seemed to not even notice his presence. Elia instead sat at the fence to groom and play with Rosie (a sub-adult male - yes male), and Rory, one of our youngsters. He happily ate in the food pile, and roamed the intro as he pleased. Sometimes Ziggy would go to join the grooming with Rosie and the two seemed to give eachother a fright and they would run in opposite directions.

By the end of the first day together, Ziggy seemed to take a bit of notice of Elia - a wild Vervet came near to steal some food and Zigy body-blocked Elia from the intruder. That night, Ziggy and Elia were seen huddled up together on the branches.

In the days to follow, the two seem like quite good buddies. They share food and sit near eachother, but Ziggy being an old man, keeps mostly to himself, while Elia plays with Rory and Rosie. Soon Elia will be able to join his new friends in the main camp, and Rory withh finally have the bromance he seems to be dying for!