Smaller sums can make big differences to little lives.
GOOD THINGS GUY – Garden Route, South Africa (11 April 2026) – This week Delilah the vervet monkey took a nervous trip to the Still Bay Animal Clinic for a surgical procedure on what was suspected to be a large and potentially threatening abdominal hernia.
Homed and cared for at the Wild Rescue nature reserve in the Gouritz cluster biosphere near Riversdale, her external medical care was solely possible with the generous financial assistance of a few private donors supporting the NPO.
When the veterinarian Dr. D Taylor examined Delilah under anaesthesia it was discovered that the soft mass was in fact a large lipoma – a fatty tumor – confirmed to be benign by a biopsy. This came as an enormous relief as the risks, trauma and pain of an invasive surgery would be distressing to the animal and require a significant healing period. The kind Dr. Taylor made a decision not to remove the lipoma as it doesn’t pose any danger and wouldn’t inhibit her movement beyond carrying a little extra weight. With the added bonus of a full dental cleaning, Delilah is recovering well under the compassionate vigilance of her volunteer caretakers at the Wild Rescue sanctuary.
Vervet monkeys are native to Africa, can live up to around 30 years or more, and have been depicted in works of art as far back as ancient Egypt. They have been noted for having human-like characteristics, and are even known to have raised feral human children on multiple occasions. Infants are cherished in vervet society – built on complex but stable social groups – and they possess a sophisticated system of vocal communication which includes unique warnings for different predators, like leopards or snakes. These monkeys are a protected species in South Africa under the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act.
Vervets are largely vegetarian and are unfortunately sometimes regarded as pests or vermin due to their proclivity for raiding crops when in the vicinity of farmlands, as natural habitats are increasingly lost due to agricultural development. This makes them targets for poisoning, traps and culling via firearms. Delilah was rescued from a petting zoo in Nelspruit, where she was believed to have been frequently taunted – thus suffering an anxious sensitivity to people, especially in groups. Wild animals, no matter how human-like in their behavior, are ill-suited to being kept as household pets.
The Speciesism of Philanthropy
Though the costs of Delilah’s procedure in this instance were not exorbitant, the relatively small but vital sum was also not readily available or easy to raise.
Larger, more emblematic species such as rhinos, lions and elephants are usually the beneficiaries of millions if not hundreds of millions in annual global donations thanks to their general popularity and extensive publicity. While being completely worthy and necessary causes; fundraising fortunes often come by the kilogram as smaller species can be neglected – erroneously – as less important, inconsequential or simply less favoured.
The reality is that smaller fauna, commonly taken for granted, play a vital and outsized role within complex ecosystems. Their numbers are not inexhaustible. By comparison to big game, there is a paucity of grant money flowing towards protection for and research regarding mini-fauna like small mammals – disproportionately perceived as being of lower value. CapeNature has warned that even small to medium antelope are coming under threat in the Western Cape region, vulnerable to the loss of habitat, increased farming operations, population development and by being hunted for food due to economic scarcity.
In a thought-provoking essay published earlier this year it was argued that conservation traditionally ignores smaller life forms, right down to endangered microbes which sustain all living things on Earth.
Says Gill Simpson, Executive Director of Wild Rescue, “Good conservation begins to take action long before a species is highly at risk. All animals, regardless of their size, have a role to play in nature. Ecology is highly complicated and it’s a mistake to bring our own personal biases into conservation. With the global loss of biodiversity accelerating, we need to act preventatively before having to add another name to the endangered list, even if we may not immediately have a sense of its true importance.”
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