Monkey see, monkey do: Sundown Zoo’s Mangalisa the Colobus monkey regains eyesight

A Colobus monkey at Sundown Zoo was given the present of sight after going blind from cataracts, due to veterinarians at Kansas State and the workers at Sundown Zoo.

Mangalisa is deaf and shortly grew to become blind over a 12 months in the past. Melissa Kirkwood, advertising and marketing and improvement officer for Sundown Zoo, stated Mangalisa’s coach began to note that she was operating into objects and spending extra time on the bottom — odd for a Colobus monkey whose instincts are to spend nearly all of its time within the timber.

Colobus monkeys are recognized for his or her black and white coats with lengthy bushy tails. They’re native to Africa and are essentially the most arboreal (tree-living) of all African monkeys.

“We knew that one thing was not regular,” Kirkwood stated. “Then we contacted Okay-State Vet providers. We have now a longstanding relationship. They decided that she had cataracts that are regular for people as they age. For Mangalisa, it developed as she aged, nevertheless it developed in a short time, so it was virtually rapid for her.”

Okay-State’s Faculty of Veterinary Medication then carried out cataract surgical procedure on Mangalisa. After that, she was put into quarantine to assist with the therapeutic course of. Kirkwood stated that Mangalisa’s coach, Rob Chase, was instrumental in her care.

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“He was superb in her care and created considerably of a little bit affected person room for her,” Kirkwood stated. “A room the place she had a laying cot the place she might see the opposite primates of her troop they usually might see her. I do know that when that separation occurred, the entire troop was involved about why she was not there — that to us additionally helped ease her therapeutic.”

Chase, primate keeper at Sundown Zoo, let Mangalisa out into the solar for the primary time after being blind for 2 years.

“I didn’t get a complete lot accomplished when she first got here out,” Chase stated. “I simply got here on the market and watched her and took photos and movies. Going from seeing her the way in which she was to the place she is meant to be, to what their pure instincts are, I can’t clarify it. It’s unimaginable.”

Chase stated the Colobus monkey is now “again to being Mangalisa.”

Kirkwood stated she attributes Mangalisa’s success to Sundown Zoo’s exhausting work to care for his or her animals. The zoo additionally cares for Suzie, the oldest residing chimpanzee in human care.

Guests can see Mangalisa at Sundown Zoo within the Colobus monkey enclosure, open from 9:30 a.m. to five p.m. every day.