Darwin, the famous monkey from the Toronto Ikea parking lot incident, is adept at recognizing cameras and evading them. When he catches sight of onlookers from his enclosure, the 13-year-old Japanese macaque swiftly hides under a table, showing his aversion to the limelight.
Discovered as a baby in a North York Ikea parking lot back in 2012, clad in a diaper and shearling coat, Darwin was rescued by animal services and has since resided at the Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Sunderland, Ont. Daina Liepa, the sanctuary’s executive director, vividly remembers Darwin’s arrival as she had just begun volunteering there at the time.
Observing Darwin in online videos, Liepa noticed him walking on two legs, which is unusual for Japanese macaques that typically move on all fours. She speculated that the ill-fitting coat and diaper in the videos might have hindered Darwin’s natural movement. Due to his early interactions with humans, Darwin now displays shyness around strangers, possibly stemming from being compelled to be in human company when he wasn’t inclined to.
Celebrating the 13th anniversary of Darwin’s transition to sanctuary life, Liepa shared that Darwin now revels in swinging indoors and relishing grapes. To foster companionship, Liepa contemplates introducing Darwin to his fellow Japanese macaque resident, Chiquita, residing in the same sanctuary.
Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary, the sole primate sanctuary in Canada accommodating 24 monkeys and lemurs at full capacity, recently had to decline two monkey referrals due to limited space. When new primates are admitted, they often require urgent medical attention upon arrival, having suffered greatly, sometimes near death, during trafficking.
Primates like Darwin are commonly directed to the sanctuary through animal welfare services. Camille Labchuk, an animal rights lawyer and Animal Justice’s executive director, highlighted sanctuaries like Story Book bearing the burden of caring for seized exotic animals from various sources, such as zoos and illegal trades.
Labchuk advocated for stringent provincial laws in Ontario to curb the exotic animal trade, estimating that hundreds of thousands of primates, birds, reptiles, and other species have been trafficked within the province due to lax ownership regulations. The absence of provincial restrictions has facilitated the flourishing of the exotic pet trade, despite strong evidence against keeping monkeys as pets.
To sustain its operations, Story Book heavily relies on fundraising efforts, currently working on a million-dollar campaign to expand facilities for more monkeys. Despite the sanctuary’s dedication, Liepa expressed a poignant wish for sanctuaries like Story Book not to be necessary, emphasizing that captive animals like Darwin and others deserve better, as they often spend their entire lives in such sanctuaries with nowhere else to go.