Volunteering Abroad in Peru - Help Save the Monkeys

Every year people from around the world look towards sunnier lands to get some rest and spend their holiday somewhere different to home. Time and time again, many choose the same holiday resort, with the same people and the same experience. It might be time for a change and time to meet the monkeys of Peru through a volunteer experience.

Volunteering in Peru is a type of holiday you will never forget. You will not miss the beach, or that man trying to sell you a watch while you’re tanning, or regret not spending a tenner a day renting a plastic bed in the sand.

Volunteering is becoming increasingly popular and gives you the opportunity to learn something as well as meeting new people and seeing new places. Going to Peru to meet the endangered monkeys living in the Amazon could be the holiday of your life.

One of the monkeys you would get to work with is the Red Ukarai monkey. It has been nicknamed the ‘Bald Uakari’ due to its bald, scarlet colored head. It’s face is particularly flat and broad. With its long fingers it swings itself from tree to tree, limbs flailing around, as it only have a short tail. The cat-sized creature lives in the wettest parts of the Amazon forest.

Malaria is a common disease in some parts of the Peruvian Amazon rain forest. It is thought that the bright red face of the monkey is to signal good health, as monkeys infected by deceases often are significantly paler. It is currently threatened by hunting and habitat disturbance. As a volunteer you could see how it lives, moves and help preserve its habitat.

Another monkey present in the Peruvian jungle is the Black Spider monkey. During the day it keeps in groups of 24 to 40 animals. In the night these groups split themselves into smaller groups. They mostly eat nuts, fruits, leaves, eggs and spiders.

The spider monkeys have long, lanky arms, but also use their long gripping tail a lot when moving elegantly from tree to tree. These little creatures will rarely come down to the grown. They can be a very noisy animal, often communicating with other from its tribe through screams, screeches and other loud sounds.

The spider monkey is often hunted by indigenous people in the area and this combined with logging and deforestation is diminishing its numbers.

Saving these monkeys’ habitat is a full time job, and by being a volunteer in Peru and the Amazon rain forest you can help ensure that these monkeys will be around for future generations. Why not take a holiday with meaning this year?