History of the Colorado River Reed Monkeys

To most residents of rural California in the early 1900's summertime meant hauling hay, digging ditches, irrigating crops, and tending livestock. Other than the usual dances and town parties there was little diversion from the monotony of farm labor--that is until traveling bands of Gypsies began making appearances and causing stirs of excitement. In parts of Yuma, AZ, and further north in newly blossoming Blythe, CA and other remote communities news of these exotic visitors would spread quickly. Most of the Gypsies were of Balkan, Eastern, and Central European descent and had come to America at the turn of the century. Their nomadic lifestyle took them from ranch house to farm village where they would entertain, beg, and reportedly even steal to survive. The men in their big hats and spangled vests and the women in full skirts, black braided hair, bright scarves, necklaces made of coins, and large earrings would lead their caravan of wagons, horses, dogs, and children through town. They often entertained the townsfolk with trained animals. In Yuma, one resident remembered a band of Gypsies that owned a large black bear that danced; this group also had a monkey, perched atop an organ grinder that caught all the nickels thrown to him. In what is now Riverside County, a Gypsy singer entertained town residents for hours at the city hall with his extensive repertoire. During the Great Depression, people resorted to many desperate things to make money and feed their families. Remembering the little money making organ grinder of his youth, one entrepreneur, Arnold Nivers, purchased two train cars loaded with monkeys from an animal broker in Central America. More on New World Monkeys, courtesy Wikipedia: The Atelidae are one of the four families of New World monkeys now recognised. Formerly they were included in the family Cebidae. Atelids are general larger monkeys, and the family includes the howler, spider and woolly monkeys. Atelidae monkeys have nails on their fingers and toes, enabling them climb. They also have almost hairless prehensile tails with a sensitive tactile pad. These New World monkeys like to eat nuts, berries, and insects In the months prior to the delivery of the shipment, heavy monsoonal rains in the desert north of the Mexican border, caused flash flooding and erosion around a bend in the railway leading to Yuma. The train was loaded mostly with fruit, vegetables and other imported items from Mexico and South American countries, and unfortunately for Mr. Nivers, his load of soon-to-be organ grinder monkeys, purchased with his life savings. In these remote areas of the desert, there was little maintenance of the railways, and any areas in need of repair were reported by engineers when they arrived at their next station, and crews sent in to repair the damaged track. During these financially hard times, there were fewer shipments, less traffic, and correspondingly, less maintenance and repairs. On that fateful day, December 18th 1932, the northbound train hit the bend with a full head of steam, and plunged off the tracks, killing the engineer, two breakmen and a postal employee. Thankfully, this was a freight train, and not a passenger train, or the death toll would have been much higher. While the official manifest listed the contents of the entire load of freight, it also listed 260 "Miscellaneous Animals", as the pre-printed form had no area to list animals other than cattle, pets or horses. These "passengers" are the ancestors of today's modern Colorado River Reed Monkeys. When the train failed to arrive at its next station on schedule a man on horseback was sent to investigate, as it was considered faster than traveling this remote country by car. Upon arriving at the scene, the rider was astonished to see the carnage, destruction, and even more surprised to see the spilled fruit and vegetables covered with scampering and screeching monkeys! It was nearly three days before crews could arrive to begin salvage and repair operations, and nearly six weeks before the track was reopened in early 1933. The arrival of humans and the rapidly decaying fruit, sent the monkeys off in troops or family units that dispersed along the adjacent canal and into the nearby Colorado River Delta and it's steamy reeds, cottonwood trees and swampy backwaters. The creatures quickly adapted to this nearly tropical environment, and nearby agricultural activity provided additional nutrition beyond their regular diet of wild fruit, berries and invertebrates in the region. The monkeys were spotted further and further north along the Colorado River, and on nearby farms and in backwater swamps. Considered an oddity and possibly even a new species yet undocumented, scientists and researchers spent decades trying to trap or capture this allusive creature, and eventually gave up, and considered it either an anomaly, practical joke, or simply an escaped pet. It was not until 1997, that a group of fascinated individuals who had been actively searching for them among the deep backwaters and swamps outside of Blythe, California were able to interview locals who had seen them, were familiar with them, and one who had even claimed to have tamed one. That man, known locally as "Indian Bob' told me about the train wreck and the escaped monkeys. After further investigation, interviews and searches in library and archived county documents, we have chronicled here, the saga, and hopefully the preservation of the Colorado River Reed Monkeys! Today, the Reed Monkeys are in a crisis situation as reduced waterflows, encroaching civilization and depredation efforts have thinned their numbers and actual sightings are becoming more and more rare. Robert Allen (AKA Indian Bob) and his son are squatters on the edge of a farm, near a pump station off Highway 95, about six miles north of Blythe. Bob and his son live in two trailers off in the bushes, with the permission of the farmer, and the "tolerance" of the Palo Verde Irrigation District. Bob fancies himself as a care taker of sorts and would attempt to chase off people who stopped at "his" canal to fish or stretch their legs. If you fail to be scared off by his threats and waving a big stick, you will usually get treated to an hour or two of wild tales of his growing up on the Indian reservation, employed by the rodeo as a child star "the Wild Indian Boy", and a stint in the military as a "Code Talker". For more on "Indian Code Talkers", courtesy Texas State University: Click Here After each hunting or fishing expedition to Blythe, I would always conclude my trip, by stopping off to see Indian Bob, give him the left over contents of our ice chests and hear the local gossip. It was on one of these trips in 1997 that I decided to ask him if he had ever seen one of the monkeys that lived in the reeds way back where only the hard core hunter or fisherman would ever go. "Why of course I have, we used to have one that would come right here to our camp and take an apple out of Sonny's hand." I was astounded! Other than a picture I had taken in 1994 at an irrigation canal in Blythe, I had no proof they existed and I would get increasingly frustrated as I tried to convince my friends (and THEIR friends) that they really existed. Now I had a witness! Unfortunately, he was a ninety year old, toothless squatter, and while a non-drinker, his wild, arm waving stories of their antics were less than credible to my colleagues. That's when my trips to Blythe for doves, quail and fishing, became less frequent, and I became a monkey hunter, only armed with a camera, and a big 4X4 with a boat mounted on top. Click here to see the Reed Monkey Mobile. Stop me if you see me in the Lower Colorado River Area. You can't miss me. Video courtesy: Christer Hansson. I started combing deeper and deeper, often pushing the boat, or dragging it through tangled reeds and brush in search of a reed monkey to photograph. The going is tough, the heat often stifling, so I could only convince one or two friends to join me on one of my trips which my friends had begun to call "Monkey Business-Trips". I even had a friend from Sweden who is an adventurer and photographer accompany me on one trip. He shot the video above. That was before the first truly successful trip we had, and saw a small group in the swampland north of Palo Verde beating a hasty retreat as we came through the stagnant waters! Now I had a convert. My friend Chris Hively and I were ecstatic. While we hadn't had time to get a camera ready, we'd gotten a good look at them, and now knew where at least a few were living. We spent the rest of the day looking for more, but only heard their calls and the thrashing of reeds in the distance. We decided to start asking the local residents if they knew anything about them. One lady told me she had one that would occasionally sneak into her back yard and steal her strawberries. We asked her if we could come back with a motion activated game camera, and try to photograph them. She agreed, and we returned a few weeks later armed with a game-cam, and three baskets of fresh strawberries. We smashed some in a bandana, tied like a bag and hung it from a string in the tree by the camera so the scent would carry down to the weedy shore line, and placed the rest in her flower bed where she usually grew her berries. We returned a week later to check the camera and were delighted to see we had filled the on-board memory with photos! Unfortunately, they were mostly her, her husband, her cats and her dog. Then as I grew increasingly disappointed we found a picture of a raiding reed monkey making off with the bag of crushed berries! Now we had what we needed. I contacted the local warden and began inquiring as to the status of the Reed Monkeys and was told that they were just a myth, and that there was one, maybe two, and that since they were not native they would most likely be shot if seen! That's when I decided we needed more documentation and more witnesses so that we can get the signatures necessary to Save The Reed Monkeys from eradication. I bought two more game cameras and set them up in areas where we had heard or seen them on previous trips. In one case, we ran across a local bait salesman who was out setting crayfish traps, when he told me about another irrigation valve that had a lot of activity. I had trouble finding the right one, but eventually got another picture. Probably the best one yet, because it proves that this is not just one or two monkeys, but in fact a breeding population. As word spread around the Imperial Valley, I started getting calls and e-mails from others who had seen the monkeys and wanted to know more about them. I also had several locals who work for the Bureau of Reclamation that were acting as tipsters, and alerting me to new sightings, and I bought and activated two more game cameras. I was getting reports at least once a month and sometimes more. Then one day, I got a call that a farmer had actually trapped one and had sold it to an exotic animal dealer. Since the legality of this was questionable, I promised not to give too many details, but I was allowed to see the animal and take a picture before it was picked up and taken away. I drove eight hours in one night to get there, snap one picture and get home in time for work the next day. That is the one at the top of this page. We were duped by another Blythe local who PROMISED us he knew locations with heavy Reed Monkey activity, so we moved our cameras in the hopes we'd get more pictures. We had upgraded the last two with additional Flash memory cards and could literally leave them for weeks and record hundreds of images and even video if we chose to. Much to our chagrin, I believe it was a set up, because ALL THREE cameras were stolen. In retrospect, we should have known, as this individual would not leave a return number. This was shortly after the clandestine run to see the captured monkey, so I was still under the assumption that some people were afraid to be connected with that episode, so I didn't worry too much about it. The location was also not as remote as all the other locations, aside from the homeowner on the river bank, so again, I let down my guard and paid dearly for it. Why "Reed Monkeys" and why "Save Them?" First of all, we have seen distinct differences in color, length of hair, and voices, so we believe there is more than one type of monkey living along the reed beds of the lower Colorado River, so it seems logical to consider them a group, rather than a particular species. I'm no expert, and aside from the pictures displayed here, and the couple of hundred people we've talked to who have seen them, we don't know if this is just seasonal differences in coloration or hair length and color or vocalizations of the different sexes. We hope to purchase more game cameras (and do a better job hiding them), and even set up some recording devices to record their screeching and calling. We started this website because you KNOW when someone has seen a Reed Monkey as soon as you mention it to them. Their face lights up, and their eyes get big, and they almost jump up and down screaming, "I've been telling people, and NOBODY BELIEVES ME!" You may be one of those people, and you're doing it right now! We cannot allow them to continue to be trapped. We cannot allow them to be shot, and we cannot allow them to be poisoned. We need to help establish "no wake" zones in known Reed Monkey areas, and we need to fund further studies to understand how big the population is, and how far they range. They deserve our help. Please, spread the word, send me your e-mails and especially photos you have of Reed Monkeys, and I'll add them to this site. We are in the process of getting the necessary paperwork together to start a formal non-profit organization and sell t-shirts and other items to spread awareness and to help purchase more game cameras and even try and work with the DFG. We'll also expand the site with links, more contact information, and a list of the many people who have helped with this project, including agencies, both public and private. Please Save the Reed Monkeys! Send your photos and e-mails to: Ngagi@SaveTheReedMonkeys.Org