Blog Archives

My Right Arm...for a Tail???

7/27/2012

When a contorted arm reach falls short...

Try your tail.

      Lolita has "discovered" her tail. She's always had it of course, but it's been more in control of her than she has of it. The tail would still be holding on when the body tried to jump...pulling her up short. Or the tail would  coil like a snake charmer was hypnotizing it, just asking to be bitten.
     Now Lolita is working the tail. A green glass vase on the fireplace - which has always been there - came crashing to the floor the other day, a victim of "The Tail" reaching through the bars of the playpen. And our new puppy, a street rescue, is being teased by "The Tail" (a game of roulette that I've tried to discourage).
     The tail is a multipurpose appendage.  It's good for reaching with, and for hanging by, and for wrapping around your body when you curl up to sleep.
     All of which has given me tail envy. I wouldn't actually give my right arm for a tail. But maybe my left...

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The Monkeys Want A Celebrity Moniker

7/13/2012

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     The monkeys want a celebrity moniker. Brangelina is already taken, but they're thinking Chiquilita?

     Friday the 13th continues to be an auspicious date for our spider monkey rehabilitation.  The Costa Rica Star published an article today which not only gave the monkeys great exposure in Costa Rica, but moved Spider Monkey R & R waaaay up in a Google search on spider monkey rehabilitation:
     http://news.co.cr/spider-monkey-rehabilitation-and-release-in-san-ramon-costa-rica/10367/

     Other recent news includes a wonderful article by Gloria Yeatman in RetireForLessInCostaRica.com:
     http://retireforlessincostarica.com/2012/07/monkey-love-and-monkey-yoga/

     Scott Oliver continues to support us with articles in WeLoveCostaRica.com, as well as donations from Scott and his VIP members:
     http://www.welovecostarica.com/members/3251.cfm

    Next? An interview and article in CRhoy.com (Costa Rica Today.com), an online Spanish language newspaper, by Daniela Araya.

    And hopefully, to be continued...

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A Meeting Room for the Monkeys

7/8/2012

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Uriel and Emer at work.

Ten hours of togetherness.

The new digs.

      I decided Chiquito's cage needed a meeting room where Lolita, or a newcomer, could spend a few hours or even a few days. A minimal "barrier" where both parties could be within sight, sound, smell and even reach of each other...in a bite-free zone.
     The construction logistics were challenging. Uriel and Emer had already worked 55 hour weeks at their regular jobs when they showed up at 7:00 AM on Sunday to start a project that had to be finished by sundown...or not until the following Sunday.  Paul, subsequently known as St. Paul, entertained Chiquito for ten straight hours with just a brief lunch break.  And I obsessed and compulsed (it's a new verb and I take full credit) about where to put the door, whether it should open in or out, etc.
     Long story short, the cage was constructed and painted by 5:00 PM. The door opens out. Chiquito had a blissful day hanging out with "dad" at the river; in the upper lot; and finally, on the front patio.  And although he was a bit squeaky for a day or two about having things rearranged, he now actually has more surface area. (A dog trainer once told me never to build a square cage...that an animal will sit in the middle of a square, but will exercise in a rectangle.  Chiquito now has several rectangular areas within a large square, as well as the flat top of the new interior cage to climb on.)
     And last but not least, appreciation to the following donors for the money to build the monkey meeting room! Allan Miller (Hollywood, USA); Scott Oliver, founder of welovecostarica.com (San Jose, CR); Axel and Francina via welovecostaria.com (Vancouver, Canada); and James Peacock via welovecostarica.com (San Jose, CR).

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Doesn't Everyone Have a Monkey Sitter?

7/6/2012

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Chiquito tries to give Carmen guff...

But Carmen explains the situation.

       There are advantages to having monkeys. Really. One being that you never have to lock your doors, because the monkeys can't be left home alone.
       Lolita would be safe inside the house in her cage or playpen, but she panics if she can’t see anyone, just as she would in the wild. And there’s nothing quite as pitiful as a “lost monkey” call.
     Chiquito would probably be safe in his cage in the backyard, but we’re at the edge of the jungle. An unwelcome fer-de-lance, or boa constrictor, could slither right through the chain link. (A rehabilitator in Nosara had a horrific experience with a boa that had no trouble getting into the cage, but was too fat to get out after swallowing one of the occupants.) And while a jaguarundi or hawk couldn’t do anything except scare Chiquito, he doesn’t know that. So someone has to be here to respond if he gives an alarm call. He’s only done it once, in the middle of the night, but we knew exactly what it was even though we'd never heard anything like it.  Of course, Paul and I didn’t want to put our Golden Retriever at risk, so WE ran out in the dark to protect Chiquito. (It’s too late for Darwin awards…we’ve already reproduced.) Fortunately we didn’t see anything, perhaps because we looked scary enough ourselves that whatever-it-was didn’t want to be seen. But Chiquito was still staring intently into the dark fifteen minutes later, so it wasn’t just a bad dream.
    Hence the need for a monkey sitter if we go to town together during the day, or out socially at night. And they don’t come any better than our housekeeper, Carmen. Lolita and our Golden Retriever, Evie, adore her. She takes no guff from Chiquito; if he grabs her clothing, she holds both of his hands and shakes them…and he’s yet to refuse a mango when she brings him one. But best of all? She can wield a machete with abandon.

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Our Shortcomings as Surrogate Parents

7/5/2012

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Monkey Yoga, Chiquito Style

      I worry about our shortcomings as surrogate spider monkey parents.
     There's locomotion, for one thing.  Chiquito's position in the photo (referred to as a "tail-hindlimb assisted posture" in academic circles) is impossible if you don't have a tail and/or opposable thumbs on your feet.  But not only are Paul and I challenged in the trees...we have trouble maintaining our own natural upright bipedal balance when we're walking around the jungle floor. [See the March 13th diary entry "Telling Monkey Tales."] Fortunately, Chiquito seems to come by his spider monkey moves instinctively.
     Then there's communication. We can mimic Lolita's "eh eh eh eh eh" giggling sound, and the contented little exhaling noises she makes when she's snuggling (which are even more endearing when they're accompanied by her breath in my ear). But the quintessential spider monkey "whinny" vocalization eludes me. I know this because I attempted it once, and the dumfounded expression on Chiquito's face was...mortifying.
     A happy spider monkey makes a noise that's called a whinny, presumably because the sound is reminiscent of a (squeaky) horse neighing. In more technical terms, "whinnies consist of a series of 2-12 rapid rises and falls in pitch, about 100 ms from peak to peak, with a fundamental frequency moving from about 1000 Hz to about 2300 Hz and back" [Gabriel Ramos-Fernandez].   And I discovered something about the whinny that I haven't read in any scientific literature.   It's a developmental milestone, like a human baby's first steps.   Chiquito has whinnied since we got him at twenty-two months of age, but Lolita made her first - and subsequent - whinnies this week at nine months of age! (Even more notable is that most of her whinnies are in response to rock music from the 70's on Pandora, when a new song starts - whereas Chiquito's are almost always in response to food.)
      So (getting back on topic), I'm confident that duplicating spider monkey locomotion and communication aren't prerequisites for successful surrogate parenting, even if I still feel inadequate. But what about environment? From the beginning I was convinced that rehabilitation was dependent on the monkeys spending time exploring and playing in the jungle, and thankfully they've done just that...disproving advice that it was impossible for a spider monkey to be alternately free-ranging and caged. But the cage is still a cage, which makes me feel badly enough. And then I read a well-intentioned sentence in Gloria Yeatman's wonderful article yesterday that said: "Lolita is an adorable female, about eight months old, who currently lives inside the house with Michele and Paul until she is old enough to share the monkey cage with Chiquito."  http://retireforlessincostarica.com/2012/07/monkey-love-and-monkey-yoga/
     LIVES INSIDE THE HOUSE??? Those words aren't found in any North American wildlife rehabilitation book or training manual. In fact, that literature stresses how critical it is not to allow wildlife to become habituated to humans and pets. Habituated animals have no fear of people or dogs in general...which is almost a guarantee that they'll be killed after they're released.
      If Lolita was living in the house, was "I" living in denial?
     I've spent a restless 24 hours, but the soul-searching was enlightening. I'm not in North America. And orphaned primates require physical contact with a surrogate mother or they become psychotic. Like numerous orangutans, and howler monkeys, and spider monkeys, and other primates before them - successfully released after being rehabilitated by human surrogates who didn't sleep in trees - Chiquito and Lolita can be, too.

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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.