Tiny Infant Monkey Defeats The Odds After Electrocution

In September 2017, Esmeralda was badly electrocuted when her mother climbed onto an uninsulated power transformer in Playa Guiones.

When infant howlers are badly electrocuted their prognosis isn’t good. It’s very hard for a tiny infant to survive the damage that is caused by electricity. Esmeralda’s mother climbed onto a high voltage transformer with 34,400 volts of deadly electricity flowing through it and was killed instantly. Esmeralda, who was riding on on her mother’s back at the time, was badly burned, but wasn’t killed because her mother absorbed most of the current.

Esmeralda sustained electrical burns to her face, tail, feet, back and hand -with several fingers severely burned to the point that they needed to be amputated. This was a lot for an infant howler, who was only a few months old at the time, to endure, but Esmeralda fought hard and has now fully recovered!

She has been receiving the best medical care in our onsite clinic and is healing very well. Due to the extent of her injures, her prognosis was not great. We did not think she would survive. But thanks to the hard work and dedication of our staff, Esmeralda is thriving! She is still receiving around-the-clock care and will stay with us for almost 3 years before she’s old enough to start our release program.

Esmeralda is a favorite among our staff because she is full of energy and always smiling – if it wasn’t for her missing fingers you wouldn’t even be able to tell she was injured! We are so proud of her!