Click here for more art

New(s) Room archives for Nov./Dec. 07

Art for Feb. 5, 2008

Colorful sea scene done by Pauline Comanor in 1990. The media is tempra and pastel done on aged newsprint.

Click on the image for a larger photo, use your "back" button to get back to this page.

Here's the place to check on events and happenings of interest to Chunky Monkey and crew. We'll also be posting cartooning tips, features and sketches each week. Stay tuned...

2/5/08 - International Primate Protection League update
Also, click here to learn how to draw one of the IPPL gibbons or click here to learn how to draw some rainforest flowers.

Woman wins royal honor
for primate protection work

By Diane Knich
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Now, royalty has noticed McGreal, a native of England who has been running the sanctuary since 1977.

Queen Elizabeth II has bestowed on her the Order of the British Empire for her international efforts to protect primates.

McGreal was named on the prestigious 2008 British New Year Honours list, released Saturday. Honorees are recognized for different levels of service, and McGreal's award is one of the highest honors the Queen can bestow on an individual.

When she learned about the award, McGreal said, "I was very thrilled. I almost dropped backward." Sometime this year, though she's not yet sure when, she'll travel to England for an "inauguration" with the Queen.

"I'll have to learn to curtsy," she said.

Patricia Carter, Daughters of the British Empire's state president for South Carolina, said The Order of the British Empire is a civilian award given to people who have given "important and worthy service to the community or country."

McGreal, who earned a doctoral degree in education in the 1960s, said she founded her group, the International Primate Protection League, in 1973 in Thailand. She was appalled by the way animals were treated in the illegal wildlife trade, she said.

McGreal pulled together seven friends to try to take some action to change things. "It changed the direction of my life," she said.

Her organization now raises money to assist groups trying to stop the illegal wildlife trade in South America, Africa and Asia. It also publishes a magazine about primate protection.

And the group runs a primate sanctuary in Summerville that currently cares for 38 gibbons. The animals include former laboratory primates, discarded pets and exhibit animals from substandard zoos.

As McGreal walked through the sanctuary Monday, it was clear that's where she feels at home. She greeted each of her gibbons. She knows all their names, their ages and where they came from. She remembers what was happening the day they arrived.

Gibby, who's about 40 years old, came from a troubled sanctuary in Texas on March 31, 2007, along with 11 other animals, McGreal said, as Gibby reached through an opening in his cage and held her hand.

McGreal knows which animals to get close to, which ones to give space to and which are most likely to reach down from overhead walkways and pull hair.

She's committed to continuing her work, she said, even though it poses some challenges. One of the biggest is raising money to keep the organization going.

But she'll keep at it.

"That's what I do," she said. "I beg."

********************************************

Chunkymonkey.com site redesign
You may notice some pages look different than others. That's because we are giving chunkymonkey.com a much needed redesign. If you land on an 'old' page, just use the top link to return to our home page. Hope you like the new look! Want to see our building permit?

If you have a drawing or poem you would like to send us, just put your FIRST name, age and place in the world you live (not your address, just town or city and state or country) on the back, and send it to Chunky Monkey, P.O. Box 64, Absecon, NJ 08201. Your art cannot be returned, so please don't send originals of anything you want to keep.