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 New Troop

1/19/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
     We are a troop of four. 
     Lolita and Chiquito were together briefly for the photo but he's never been around small infants,  and she's too fragile and he's too strong for us to make a mistake.  Technically though, they're both considered infants.  We'll keep them apart for a while, although within sight of each other on occasion, and then introduce them to each other on neutral ground.
     There are long periods of infant dependency of up to three years in wild populations of spider monkeys (van Roosmalen, 1985; Di Fiore and Campbell, 2007).  Age classifications are infant < 2 years; juvenile 2 - 5 years; subadult 5 - 8 years; and adult > 8 years.  Juveniles are distinguished from subadults as those always traveling with their mother.  (Spider Monkeys:  Behavior, Ecology and Evolution of the Genus Ateles, ed. Christina J. Campbell, 2008)  
     For now, both monkeys want to cling 24 x 7 to a warm body, and we're giving them that sense of security.  Paul and Dave will alternate nights sleeping in the cage with Chiquito until the moving truck arrives on Saturday, and I'll wear Lolita in the house we're renting.

0 Comments



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