Today, we have a special story about Draya, a pitiful baby monkey who is always hungry and tries to steal milk from other mothers.
Draya is around 6 months old, but she is still very dependent on her mom’s milk. Her mom, however, is tired of nursing her and often leaves her with her auntie, who also has her own baby monkey that is around 2 months old. Draya’s auntie is not very fond of her and only cares about her own baby.
One day, Draya was staying with her auntie while her mom was away. She was feeling hungry and saw that her auntie was letting her baby suckle for milk. Draya thought that she could also get some milk from her auntie, so she jumped on to cling to her aunt’s body and tried to sneak her mouth to her aunt’s nipple.
But her auntie was not happy about this and pushed Draya away. Draya was upset and started to scream out loud and throw a tantrum next to her auntie. But her auntie ignored her and continued to nurse her own baby.
Draya did not give up and kept trying to steal milk from the other nursing females in their group. But none of them wanted to share their milk with her because they knew that she was not their own baby and that she was too old to be nursing. They also knew that milk production was costly and risky for them, as it made them heavier and more vulnerable to predators.
Draya did not understand this and thought that they were being mean to her. She did not realise that she was putting herself and the other mothers in danger by being greedy and noisy. She also did not realise that she was missing out on learning important skills and behaviours that would help her survive and gain acceptance from the group in the long run.
Draya is obviously one of those monkeys who is still scared of her surroundings and does not like to play and explore. Her mom needs to teach her that it is okay to be brave and curious and that there are other foods besides milk that she can eat. But her mom can’t teach her anything if the crew is shovelling food down her throat to keep her and Draya around for videos. The more kids and food that her mom has, the bigger her tumour gets. Her mom needs to stop breeding and eating so much and get help for her tumour before it kills her.