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So, I Bought Chiquito a Hammock...

5/3/2012

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      I'm always trying to find ways to enrich Chiquito's cage experience.  Last week I spotted a large wooden spool for sale on the sidewalk outside an electrical store and thought it would make a great "table" for Chiquito to sit on.  Chiquito thought it would be fun to turn on its side and roll around the cage.  Which would have been fine...except that it weighs 52 pounds and we were afraid he'd break the door with it.  (Yes, Chiquito weighs 12 pounds.  The spool weighs 52 pounds.  And Chiquito can do a hanging one arm deadlift with it, for anyone familiar with power-lifting.)
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52 pound wooden spool.
      So today when I was driving home from Sanctuario Lapas el Manantial [see May 4th diary entry] and saw a small wooden sign by the road that said "Hamacas 500 meters" I thought "Hey, I'll get Chiquito a hammock!"  I slowed down and pulled in.
     Hamaca does indeed translate to hammock, and they had three sizes.  Double, single - and baby!   So I bought Chiquito a baby-sized hammock (Goldilocks would approve) for $16 and couldn't wait to hang it.  I even made a trip back to town to get galvanized clips at Jorcel's. 
     In retrospect, two questions come to mind.
     1) Who would buy a hammock for a baby (or even a child)?  It's hard enough for an adult not to flip one and do a face plant.
     2) Who would buy a hammock for a monkey?  Did I expect Chiquito to recline on his back with his hands behind his head?
     Fortunately, Chiquito is enjoying the hammock.  In his own way.

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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. 

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