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Are Spider Monkeys Sexist?

12/12/2012

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Lolita can't get enough of Steve Mandel.
     To all of the women whose feelings have been hurt by Chiquito and Lolita...it's nothing personal. It's just your gender.
    Chiquito is openly aggressive toward  women, but Lolita will  simply ignore you (unless you're holding a bottle of formula).
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Just hanging out with her latest crush.
     This isn't something you can search on Google.  And our sample of two is obviously statistically insignificant.  But I did find ONE line in the ONLY book written about spider monkeys that says:  "In the Amazonian city of Iquitos in lowland Peru, many locals believe that spider monkeys behave differently toward women than to men (D. Urdaneta, personal communications)." [Spider Monkeys; Behavior, Ecology and Evolution of the Genus Ateles.  Edited by Christina J. Campbell.]
      Initially I thought Lolita liked older men with facial hair, and that still appears to be her preference.  But Norman's son Jose switched seats with him and was able to lure Lolita with a pair of sunglasses, after which she warmed right up.  Norman's wife Any was relegated to snapping pictures...just like all of the other wives before her.  (That's you, Lee Ann, Jennifer, Gloria, Carol, and Dianne.)
     I'm fortunate that both monkeys consider me "mom" ...and don't treat me like a woman.
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Norman has a moustache.
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Jose lucked out with sunglasses.
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Steve has a beard AND moustache.
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    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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