SPIDER MONKEY R & R (Rehabilitation and Release)
  • HOME
  • THE MONKEY DIARIES
  • OUR CENTER
  • Spider Monkey Sanctuaries
  • The Monkey Videos
  • Spider Monkey Trivia
  • CHIQUITO
  • LOLITA
  • New Page

The Monkeys Love Their...Blankets?

6/19/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Shortly after arrival, Chiquito wraps himself in a security blanket.
Picture
Chiquito always keeps his blanket away from urine and feces.
     Shortly after Chiquito arrived I gave him bedding to use as a "crate pad" so he wouldn't have to sleep on the hard plastic bottom of the airline crate.  He didn't use it as a mattress...he used it to cover himself.  When I gave him two fuzzy "throws" he would just use one of them at a time.  
     Animal behaviorist David Peiro told us Chiquito needed a "security blanket" which was how he initially used it, and sometimes still does.  What I failed to "see" (since what we see and what we observe are different things) was that he also used it as an actual blanket...which is why I never thought to give one to Lolita.
     Chiquito spent his first two years living like a human child.  He used the toilet and flushed, he drank milk from a sippy cup, and he slept in bed with his surrogate parents.  So given the adage "monkey see, monkey do," it isn't surprising that Chiquito learned to cover himself with a blanket.
Picture
Lolita's "travel playpen" on wheels.
Picture
Lolita improvises a pillow and blanket..
Picture
Big yawn.
     Lolita has two cages now; a large immobile metal dog crate in the great room, and the original (rabbit cage) playpen which I wheel around when I'd be out of sight otherwise.  Lolita was on my arm the other day when I was cleaning the cages, and grabbed a hand towel I had thrown over my shoulder.  Thinking that it would keep her entertained for a while, I tossed it in with her when I put her back in the playpen...and a blanket was born.
     It's possible that, like Chiquito, Lolita is imitating us.  She sleeps in her playpen on my side of the bed at night, and occasionally even snuggles in our bed for a while after lights out.  It's also possible that it's a normal primate behavior to cover the body with something when sleeping (and vulnerable).  So even though a blanket isn't "natural," maybe primates in zoos and laboratories (which aren't natural habitats) would be happier with blankets, too?
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    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. 

    Archives

    April 2015
    December 2014
    August 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    RSS Feed