The image was heartbreaking: a newborn monkey, abandoned and shivering, its eyes still sealed shut, lying alone on the cold ground. Its faint, raspy cries were barely audible. I DON’T KNOW WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED if those cries had gone unanswered just a few hours longer. The scenarios are grim and certain.
Without rescue, the first enemy would have been hypothermia. Its tiny body, with no mother to provide warmth, would have lost heat rapidly in the night. Its systems would have slowed into a fatal shutdown. Next would have been starvation and dehydration. With no milk, its energy would have drained within a day, its organs beginning to fail. It was too weak to even crawl for shelter.
Within 24 hours, predators would have found it—ants, birds of prey, or snakes. It had no defense. If by some miracle it survived the first day, infection would have set in from the umbilical stump or any small scratch, leading to a painful, systemic decline.
But this is not what happened. BECAUSE IT WAS RESCUED, everything changed. A kind person heard its cries, scooped it up, and rushed it to safety. It received emergency warmth in an incubator, life-saving fluids for dehydration, and specialized formula fed every two hours. Its umbilical cord was treated to prevent infection. It was given a soft toy to cling to for comfort.
Today, that same baby monkey is warm, fed, and gaining weight. It is learning to trust human caregivers who simulate its mother’s grooming. Its desperate cries have turned into contented squeaks after a meal. I DON’T KNOW WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED… but I do know what is happening now: it is safe, it is thriving, and it has a future—all because someone chose to act in that critical moment. This is the powerful, life-altering difference that rescue makes.
