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Trading Places

9/30/2012

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     On August 23rd, the day Lolita's first adult tooth poked through, I decided it was time for her to start playing in the outside cage.  We had constructed a "meeting room" within the large cage where she could be safe from Chiquito's teeth, but the problem was that he could still pester her through the chainlink with his long arms and tail.  And he did.  Lolita spent the afternoon wailing to be saved, and it was nerve-wracking for everyone...except, apparently, Chiquito.
     I figured I'd wait until Lolita had more teeth to defend herself with, and life continued as it had with Lolita in the house full time. 

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     Two weeks later on September 9th, with Lolita well on her way to a full set of adult teeth, I tried again.  This time I put her playpen into the cage-within-the-cage to give her a sense of security and familiarity. The problem was that Chiquito could reach it, and he yanked it over to the common chainlink wall.  Lolita screamed like she was being killed. 
     Unwilling to be outwitted by a monkey, I secured Lolita's playpen to the outside wall.  But the psychological damage had been done, and I succumbed to the wailing sooner than the first time.

     It took me three weeks to come up with Plan C, but the third time was a charm.  I put Chiquito in the small cage, and Lolita in the big cage.  Chiquito objected for a few minutes, but not loudly.  And since we haven't found anything he won't do for a raisin, Chiquito entered the small cage again this morning for Day Two of trading places.
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Chirping for someone to save her.
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Hanging out and getting some exercise.
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Safe from Chiquito's long arms and tail.
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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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