The Work on Cayo

Since the two trucks (one almost brand new) on Cayo Santiago were destroyed during Hurricane Maria the island had no working truck. PMI assisted in delivering a truck onto Cayo with the aid of these new dock pieces, which Project Monkey Island helped to purchase.During the first trip the team had collected a huge amount of debris. Having the truck on the second trip meant we could clear it out! Since then even more debris has been collected and is awaiting removal, which we’ll do on our return trip #4 in January! Join us? Volunteer or Donate! There’s still so much to do.

PMI Presents “The Isthmus,” a four-part speed-history of Cayo Santiago’s isthmus, including it’s key features, Hurricane Maria’s wrath on the land strip and some out of the box thinking by CPRC staff to help temporarily help the monkeys that dare to cross the 300 foot stretch of water between the island’s two sections.

See all 4 parts of this series on our Facebook page!

Progress Report! 2 days spent removing Hurricane Maria debris from Cayo Santiago. Wednesday a volunteer group of 10 traveled to Cayo to load the barge (monkey’s supervising of course,) the barge was towed over to the Punta beach. All the volunteers on the beach helped unload it for disposal, finally! ??????
On Thursday, a group of 7 helped load the barge – and all helped unload again. Great job everyone, much gratitude for all the hard work!

In late August 2018, a team of six volunteers from four different National Primate Research Center (NPRC) facilities arrived in Punta Santiago to assist the Caribbean Primate Research Center (CPRC). They expanded and enclosed two of the water collection roofs. Project Monkey Island would like to thank these six individuals, Robert J., Ron W., Stephen Y., Ted J., Justin S. and Garrett F. for their hard work and non-stop energy with these construction projects.

In addition to relieving some of the constant day to day pressures on the CPRC staff, this hard working group of volunteers helped shorten the long list of challenging “to-dos” still needed on Cayo Santiago.  These efforts help bring “Monkey Island” steps closer to restoring the regular daily routines that are, in themselves, so important.  Collecting the invaluable data each day is what establishes one of the most extensive and informative databases of primate behavioral and anthropological research in the world.

The CPRC Colony Manager Giselle Caraballo reminds us, “It’s the small victories, so things don’t seem so overwhelming.”

So, thank you to the NPRC team for getting Cayo closer to the goal of “business as usual” and preserving what has taken almost eighty years to create.

Please visit the video page to see our tribute video to the NPRC Volunteers!