[RLS] Primate Releases

Vet Check | 1240 words 
Iliana sighed softly as she drummed her fingers on her desk, her long dark hair lay in a single braid over her shoulder as she leaned back in her chair. The thirty one year old woman had dark circles under her light brown eyes, a face becoming riddled with stress. Even though it was the off season for the preserve, aside from the scheduled tours and visits here and there, Iliana was still busy. She had her own veterinarian business in Wolf Hallow that she ran and she helped out at Wolf Hallow Preserve for their veterinary needs. She was married to Ares Darkmyr who owned and managed the preserve with his twin brother Perses. The preserve had recently begun to branch out and assist in exotic animal rescues, which had started partially due to Iliana being needed for her veterinary expertise and expanded from there.

Iliana had just gotten off the phone from someone needing help with some primates that had been rescued and were in bad condition. Though the preserve had mainly focused on canids, they were opening their doors to more and more species. Plus these animals would only be staying here until they were ready to be released back into the wild, none would be staying at the preserve as permanent members. And though she was already stretched rather thin she had agreed to taking on four animals that had been rescued. She hadn’t talked it over with her husband yet, but she was sure he wouldn’t disagree, he loved helping animals as much as her.

Iliana sat for a moment longer before she stood from her desk and left her office in her home on the preserve in search of her husband. It was late in the evening and Ares would be in the house by now. There were currently no animals in the front viewing pens as all the canids were in what was called Crescent Canyon, a section of the park dedicated to the canids. They were all allowed to roam free here in their various dynamics. But that didn’t mean Ares wasn’t busy, there was more to managing the preserve than taking care of the animals, especially since they hunted for themselves in the preserve and didn’t need to be fed.

“There you are darling.” Iliana said when she found Ares in the kitchen cooking supper. “I have something to tell you.” She said coily, raising her brows in a grin as her husband turned to look at her, arching one of his in return.
“And what pray might this surprise be?” Ares asked from where he was preparing a cheesy chicken, potato and kale casserole. 
“There were some primates rescued that needed housing and worked with to be released. I’ve agreed to take on four of them.” Iliana said, watching Ares' face, hoping he would not be mad.
Ares just nodded and asked, “When will they be arriving?”, before he went back to preparing the casserole.
“They’ll be here tomorrow, they’re currently being brought this way now from across the states.” Iliana said. 
“That sounds good.” Ares nodded. “I wish there was a little more time, but after supper is in the oven I’ll work on some things and get the pens ready. We’ll make this work.” He said turning and walking over to his wife, wrapping his arms around her waist and giving her a peck on the cheek. “The canines are doing wonderfully also. Killian’s pack has taken in Hati and Tapioca. I do hope Tapioca and Skoll pair up, they’ve already taken to each other rather nicely due to their ages.”

And with that they continued their conversation while Ares went back to making supper. Soon enough he was putting it in the oven and telling Iliana the time to take it out. Then he went outside to prepare the pens for their new arrivals tomorrow.

The following day in the early afternoon a truck pulling a large enclosed trailer came pulling up the lane to Wolf Hallow Preserve and parked. Ares, Iliana and Perses met the driver and brought their crate rollers over, moving the animals from the trailer onto the rollers and then bringing them inside the quarantine building. Once the animals were unloaded the man with the truck left.

While the animals were still out from the tranquilizer given for their travel Iliana assessed them the best she could from the crates. They were all severely underweight with injuries to their paws. The Mandrill had a nasty deep cut on her shoulder which had already been stitched up and cleaned. The Blue eyed black lemur had no serious wounds nor did the Alaotran gentle lemur nor the young giant panda. 

As the animals slept off their tranquilizer Iliana had gone to the feed barn to get some food mixed together for the primates. She had spent that morning going to various towns in search of the foliage required as well even heading out to a couple other zoos in the area to see if they had any of the harder to find foods. For the giant panda Iliana mixed together some bamboo shoots, carrots, apples, pumpkin chunks and some specialized leaf eater biscuits. The alaotran gentle lemur got a mixture of water lilies, papyrus grass, apples, pumpkin chunks and the biscuits. The blue eyed black lemur got a mixture of apples, pears, various berries, plums, some mushrooms, sweet potato chunks and the biscuits. Lastly the Mandrill, similar to the others, was given a mixture of fruit and vegetables along with the biscuits and some young monocot plants full from the roots to the leaves. Once their meals had been made Iliana brought them to the pens and placed them inside, hoping some food would entice the creatures from their crates once they awoke.

In the days following Iliana would work on cleaning their wounds and patching them up, as well as making sure they always had access to plenty of food to help them gain weight. She had also begun to add in supplements and vitamins to help. These guys would definitely take more time than the last ones but Iliana had just as much hope for them. They were already beginning to show improvement and putting on weight just in the first week following their arrival. The wounds on their paws were healing nicely and the large wound on the Mandrill was also healing well, she’d only picked at the stitches a few times before she realized they were to help. Iliana stitched her back up each time the mandrill pulled them out, never growing angry with the animal only hoping that she would soon learn the stitches were there to help heal her arm and nothing bad. It had taken a couple times, but eventually she did learn and Iliana was quite grateful when she did. 

Once a week Iliana would weigh the animals, checking their growth and within a few months they had gained enough weight and healed from their wounds that the four were moved from their individual quarantine pens into a much larger pen all together. They were one step closer to being released now that they were healthier. Though they still had weight to gain before they were to where they should be and plenty more months to go, Iliana was still proud of how far they had come in the short time they had been at the preserve.

Finding Food | 839 words
Now all four primates were healthy enough to move out from their individual quarantine pens into the much larger and more open viewing pen all together. It was the middle of fall and the more off season for Wolf Hallow Preserve, which was busier in the spring and summer months. This meant there weren’t many people walking around the preserve to see what limited animals the preserve had, only a few scheduled groups here and there. Wolf Hallow Preserve was still fairly small with the main attraction of it being the drive through part where the wolf packs were. There was a couple viewing pens at the moment where animals not ready for the preserve or going into the preserve were held and could be viewed even closer. There were plans to expand and put up new buildings, but they were slow going.

Before the primates had been let loose into the pen, Iliana, Ares and Perses had came in placing bundles of bamboo shoots, sections of papyrus grass and even water lilies in the little pond. As well as branches of various fruit trees and other plants to imitate the natural diet of the various primates. They would also offer food at scheduled times while slowly decreasing the offered foods in hope that the animals would search for their food more rather than relying on the humans to bring them food. It was another step in preparing them for release, finding their own food.

It had been a couple weeks now since the primates had been put in the new pen and they were doing quite well getting along with each other. There hadn’t been any issues so far, not even over food. The primates tended to keep to themselves at first but slowly grew used to each other and began coming closer, often grooming each other and even eating together, sharing food one had found with the other. Iliana was quite proud of the progress they had been making with the primates and getting them ready for release. They had decided to start decreasing the offered food since the animals already began to find the various foods around the enclosure which were restocked when they noticed them getting low. 

Winter had come and gone and now it was spring. The primates were now fed once a day a fruit and specialized grass eaters pellet mixture with most of their diet coming from eating the various plants and branches of fruit placed around their exhibit. People were also starting to come back to the preserve to see the animals and were excited to see the new primates in the viewing pen. Though with the progress they were making, they would most likely be gone by the summer to be released back to their native lands. Everyone would be sad to see them gone, but it would be for the best. The goal was to get them back into the wild anyways, not for them to remain at the preserve for the rest of their time.

Nero, the Giant Panda male lumbered towards the climbing tree which held a bundle of bamboo. He climbed up it, huffing as he went and once at the resting spot on top he sat down and looked around. Nero then turned to the bundle of bamboo sitting vertically on the resting spot and began to pull at the leaves and shoots, munching on them happily. He watched the other primates as they searched for their own food that warm spring morning. The preserve was not yet busy with only a few humans here and there, he paid them no mind though, more focused on the bamboo than anything.

The two lemurs, Kysin and Braun had taken to each other quite nicely despite Kysin being a Blue Eyed Black Lemur and Braun an Alaotran Gentle Lemur. The two were currently leaping from the trees where Perses had climbed up to place various branches of fruit in them to simulate what it would be like foraging in the wild. The two sat atop one of the branches by where some plums had been placed. Kysin was the first to reach up and grab a plum offering it to Braun who was currently eating some of the leaves from the branch. Braun shook his head, before going back to the leaves. Kysin watched him a moment before eating the plum himself and grabbing another. He much preferred to eat the fruit, but also liked the leaves and grasses that were provided.

Manny the Mandrill was currently walking around the enclosure in search of some monocot plants that had been planted in the ground. He loved eating almost every part of the plant, though the fruit that was placed around the enclosure was certainly refreshing, the monocot plant was certainly his favorite. Soon enough he came upon a clump of them and sat down, beginning to pull at the plants and eat them. The warm spring sun shone down on the primate, warming him as he ate.

The Release | 940 words
After months and months of preparation the primates were finally ready for release. It was mid summer now meaning the preserve was in full swing of visitors and the perfect time for the primates to be removed from the zoo before they got too used to humans being around them. The preserve was small and not well known anyways so the visitors were few, nothing like what a larger zoo might see, but still more human interaction than an animal should see. Thankfully though the viewing pens were rather spacious and gave the primates plenty of hiding places in the trees where they tended to like to be.

Soon enough the animals had been loaded into crates and left Wolf Hallow Preserve to be released in their own environments. The crew at Wolf Hallow Preserve were both sad and happy to see them go. Glad to have helped in releasing some more animals to the wild and preserving species that desperately need it.

Nero the Giant Panda male was brought to the mountain ranges of China to a protected preserve where several other pandas lived. After being released from his crate he quickly left to the dense forest of bamboo and coniferous trees. He would be safe here from poachers and would hopefully find a female to mate with and help with the population of Giant Pandas which were considered Endangered. There were high hopes riding on this male's release, though giant pandas were mainly solitary creatures, only meeting up with females to mate usually.

Nero traversed the thick forest, soon coming to a stop once he felt he had gone far enough. He looked around, sniffing the air and listening before sitting down and starting to pull at the bamboo shoots and eat them. There was bamboo all around him, he was in heaven. He sat there for a while just eating and enjoying the rays of sunshine which made its way to the forest floor. Once Nero had gotten his fill he decided to explore a bit, lumbering through the bamboo and trees, soon stumbling upon another panda. He watched the other panda for awhile, he hadn’t seen another animal like himself since he was young. The male was curious and huffed towards the panda, which turned out to be a female. 

Kysin the blue eyed black lemur was taken to Madagascar to be released. He was brought to an area where multiple groups of blue eyed black lemurs lived. There were also four other lemurs being released at the same time as Kysin, three females and another male. Which the conservationists had planned. They hoped the lemurs would stay close to each other and start their own group, two of the females were sisters and were the most likely to start the group as blue eyed black lemurs lived a female dominant social life.

The lemurs were all released at the same time and left their crates rather quickly, taking off for the trees and climbing high to get a better look at their new surroundings. It would take a couple days of exploring but soon enough the lemurs were starting to join groups and make their own. Kysin and the sister lemurs had made their own group while the other two had left to join already established groups. It was the middle of summer and unfortunately the lemurs were seasonal breeders meaning this group would not have any babies this year, however there was always next year. The lemurs were critically endangered and desperately needed to get their population up in the wild.

Braun the alaotran gentle lemur was also taken to Madagascar to be released, more specifically in an area around the largest lake of Madagascar, Lake Alaotra, where the lemurs get their names from. These primates live in the wetlands of dense marshes and reeds around the lake, making them the only primate to live exclusively over water. These lemurs also live in female dominated social groups, though they tend to be smaller groups than the blue eyed black lemurs. He was also released with a few other lemurs of both genders, he and the others too had quickly left their crates once released and took for the marshes either out of memory or instinct. 

Braun was a little older, he had originally come from the wild, but had been taken from his home and brought to the states as a young lemur intended to be an expensive pet. He hadn’t spent much time in the wild, but the scents and memories came flooding back once he had realised where he was. He wondered if he would find his family again now that he was home, but the lake was massive and they could be anywhere, there were almost three thousand square miles of wetlands around the three hundred and fifty square mile lake.

Finally Manny the mandrill was released in the tropical forests of Gabon, Africa. The mandrills lived in much much larger groups compared to the other three primates he had lived with. The mandrill groups, often called hordes or harems usually had more than twenty individuals in a group, with them being female dominant like the lemurs. Manny was quickly taken into a smaller group looking for males.

All four primates ended up having successful releases that the staff of Wolf Hallow Preserve were proud to have taken a part of. Iliana had ended up being contacted a month after the primates' releases to be updated on their progress. She was excited to hear that they had all been doing well. She had even received some pictures of some of them.