SPIDER MONKEY R & R (Rehabilitation and Release)
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YUM! Lettuce...

2/20/2013

2 Comments

 
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Chiquito with a head of red leaf lettuce.
     Both monkeys occasionally "prune" and eat the Thunbergia vines trellised around the cage.
     "Leaves and flowers make up a relatively small portion (10% to 20%) of the overall diet of well-studied spider monkey popula-tions."  [Spider Monkeys; Behavior, Ecology and Evolution of the Genus Ateles.  Edited by Christina J. Campbell]  
    Although our monkeys pick and eat leaves when they're loose, I was shocked by how eagerly Chiquito gobbled up  an aging head of red-leaf lettuce I  planned to compost.  We'll offer leaf lettuce to both Chiquito and Lolita on a daily basis from now on. 
     I just wish that I could muster up the same  enthusiasm for salad   greens without dressing. I'd be noticeably thinner if I only ate what the monkeys eat.
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Chiquito finishes the lettuce quickly.
     Chiquito devours plain lettuce like I would a piece of corn-on-the-cob slathered with butter and salt. 
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Two Heads Sticking Out of One Shirt...

2/16/2013

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    Some mornings Chiquito is cheekier than others, but the cage has to be cleaned regardless of his mood.  Today he decided to wear Paul's shirt...with Paul.
    Ideally Chiquito would only have contact with other spider monkeys at his age, but the juvenile cage isn't set up for that.
    The solution?  A  cage designed for adolescent monkeys, followed by construction of a large pre-release area later this year.
   
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Construction in progress for a new cage!
     The new cage will be on top of Paul's bodega (storage shed) which is perfect because 1) spider monkeys love height, and 2) people can't walk up to it without permission.
     There are stairs inside the gate, and there will be double entry doors on the back side.  There will also be a door between the two sides of the cage that can be opened from the outside.  This will permit someone to 1) move monkeys between the two sides of the cage, and 2) enter one side of the cage at a time for cleaning. 
     Stay turned for pictures of the finished cage next week!

2 Comments
    Picture
    In the jungle with the monkeys.

    Michele Gawenka 

       Jane Goodall has always been my hero, and working with primates an aspiration.  Africa wasn't in the cards the summer I turned 16, when my parents offered to send me to volunteer,  and there was only one class (in physical anthro-pology) when I wanted to study primatology in college.  
         Decades later my husband and I retired in Costa Rica, and this is our journey with spider (and howler) monkeys. 

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