A full day in France, Part Deux - Barbary Monkey Refuge

The second leg of our day in Alsace was most enjoyably - we got to hand-feed monkeys...

popcorn...?

Montagne des Singes (Barbary Macaque Refuge), a sanctuary founded in 1986 dedicated to the rescue of monkeys that have been illegally imported (mostly from Morocco). The animals are well cared for and live a privileged lifestyle in northeast France. The monkeys are not reintroduced to their environment because they are well accustomed to human interactions with volunteers, employees, and tourists. Upon our admittance to the facility we were each provided a handful of popcorn - exactly six kernels. Surprisingly, the distributor has the six-kernel allotment down to an exact science. Julie inquired about getting more popcorn, however; to her dismay, the employee answered, "the monkeys are on a balanced diet." I sincerely doubt a "balanced diet" of fruits and popcorn exists, nonetheless; we continued onto the grounds and were instantaneously infatuated with the amount of Barbary Macaques freely roaming about.

There is a trail throughout the grounds flanked by thigh-high guardrails - allowing monkeys to pass through without hindrance. The association of visitors and popcorn is ingrained in the majority of the monkeys and several adults sit along the guardrails waiting to be fed their "balanced diet." We went picture crazy here, in total, 302 pictures were snapped - mostly because we were desperate to get a good picture of one of the ever-evasive three babies. We walked the trail twice, witnessing adolescent monkeys playing, babies feeding, a monkey sleeping on a bench, and even a few territorial disputes.

I have a general indifference towards humans, well, until I see popcorn

Motherly instincts

To ensure the longevity of our limited popcorn stash, we broke the kernels into smaller pieces. While most macaques gladly hand-selected the puffiest of pieces from our hands - the closer we got to scraps, the less interesting we became. There was even a monkey that knocked the scraps out of my hand as if I was serving rubbish to royalty. Once we exhausted our popcorn resources, we dedicated our time to finding the youngest baby - three weeks old and particularly difficult to locate. The best we could do was get within 30 meters - the mother was overtly protective, maintaining a safe distance from both monkeys and humans. We were pleased to have found an area sparsely populated and observed the mother and baby for a few minutes before they relocated when a loud tour group approached. Our first visit to the Barbary Monkey Refuge came to an end. Fortunately, Kintzheim is only an hour's drive away from Homburg. We will absolutely be returning and we may even bring our own supply of this so-called "balanced diet."