Sexy monkeys

Aside from the obvious husbandry aspects of cleaning and feeding, much of what I do here is observation. You watch for behavioral changes, try to unwind the subtleties of the animals to make sure everyone is doing ok. Animals have a tendency to hide injuries or illness out of instinct. If you're less than 100% in the wild, something is going to eat you so its best to hide it.

In watching the 15 species we have, seeing the babies run around, watch the big males vie for dominance I started to wonder what makes a sexy monkey. There are some females that are very obviously preferred by the males. It seems to differ from species to species. Sometimes its availability, smaller groups have less choice. There are some obvious physical characteristics some species look for-- the big puffy ass is a hit in the drills and the chimps. The gorillas seem to go for more personality traits than some of the others. Brighter is the top choice of the males by far. She is big, aggressive and maternal in a "mess with my baby and you will no longer have your head attached to your shoulders" kind of way. She's also a bully when you don't bow down to her dominance. She's a bitch. If she were a person I'd want to take an axe handle to her face just to bring her down a few notches. But the boys seem to love her. I guess if you're lucky enough to get close to her without getting beaten she's a good bet to carry on your genetics.

The rains are starting to come now. They were delayed a bit which seems very African of them, and I was grateful to have had a few nice beach days and to be able to run around with the babies before their play area turned into a mud pit. I hope your summer is going well. We had a fourth of July BBQ here which was nice. Buying chicken here is a little more of an adventure than it is back home as you pick a live one at market and pay them on a sliding scale of how prepared you want it. It worked out in the end.

See you all soon. Stay well.