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We Just THINK We Know What the Monkeys Are Thinking...

4/3/2012

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     There are times when we think we know what the monkeys are thinking.  And we're so wrong.
     Like when Paul thought Lolita was giving him an adoring look, and she reached up and yanked off his eyeglasses.
     Or when I thought Chiquito was giving me an appreciative whinny because I was bringing him a manzana de agua (water apple) and some green beans, and he reached out and took the half-eaten pretzel from my left hand.
     And then there was this morning, when Chiquito held his hand up.  Paul put his hand against Chiquito's in a "high five" of sorts, except that Paul has five and Chiquito only has four.  Paul wondered if Chiquito noticed the difference.  So when Chiquito put his foot up, which DOES have five digits including a thumb, and Paul put his hand against Chiquito's foot, he felt they were communicating without words.  Chiquito stared intently.  And then he reached past Paul's hand and swatted the fly he was staring at.

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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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