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Having had two children, Colombian woman Martha Silva has taken on the role of mother again. However, this time she is not raising human infants. She acts as a surrogate mother to night monkeys. She acts as a substitute mother until the monkey can be released into the wild.

The Huffington Post reports that night monkeys are so named because of their nocturnal lifestyles. Like humans, the monkeys live in a family unit, with a mother, father and any siblings. At the beginning of their lives, they live for months hanging to the back of their parents while they fly through the trees. So, if a monkey is orphaned at the beginning of its life, it cannot be released into the wild. It also cannot form a new family or be adopted by another one.

That's where Ms. Silva comes in. Like a surrogate mother, she carries the babies around in a wool pouch. He is with her for 24 hours a day, nestled inside her coat or lying beside her while she sleeps. Every three hours, she feeds the monkey with a syringe, filled with milk and vitamins.

Silva has nurtured another animals before. A worker for the neonatal unit of the Bogota Wildlife Reception Center, she's looked after birds, turtles and primates. Her current ward is her third one, and she never names them, because she does not want to give the impression that they are pets. He was found about five days after his birth on the side of the road. The person who found him said that he could not bear to let him die.

After the baby monkey grows, the conservatory will place him in a cage with another monkey of the same species. If they are all right staying in the same cage, the next step will be to introduce them in the wild with a monkey group.

Silva says that, after she lets her monkeys go, she never hears from them again. She is okay with that though. She compares it to human children - when you release them, they are in their natural habitat.