Marlboro Monkey

A 26-year-old chimpanzee enjoys a cigarette at the zoo in Xian, China in August 2005. Xiku the chain-smoking chimpanzee has almost kicked his deadly habit thanks to the efforts of zoo keepers in China, but it has taken a beer or two to help get him through detox

Look To the Sky, Mr. Monkey

Weather-wise monkeys are first to the fruit
24 June 2006

TO SNAFFLE ripe fruit before the competition, grey-cheeked mangabeys keep their eye on the weather. Not only can the monkeys remember how to find the trees where their favourite figs were ripening, they can also monitor the weather and return just as the figs are ready.
Karline Janmaat at the University of St Andrews, UK, made the discovery after tracking a group of between 18 and 26 mangabeys (Lophocebus albigena johnstonii) for 120 days in the Kibale Forest of Uganda. She found that whenever individual monkeys tested the ripeness of figs by squeezing and smelling them, they were more likely to revisit the tree if the weather warmed, accelerating ripening (Current Biology, vol 16, p 1212).
"It's very competitive in the rainforest, so you would expect it would pay to be able to predict when fruit ripens so you can get there first," says Janmaat.

Live Fast, Die Young Mr. Monkey!

Beer helps chimp to quit smoking
From: Agence France-Presse
June 26, 2006
XIKU the chain-smoking chimpanzee has almost kicked his deadly habit thanks to the efforts of zoo keepers in China, but it has taken a beer or two to help get him through detox.

Xiku became addicted to smoking while mimicking the habits of humans during a career as a circus performer, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

By the time he was sent to a zoo in Urumqi, the capital of China's northwest Xinjiang region, in 2002, Xiku was already smoking 10 cigarettes a day.

That number doubled as visitors threw him cigarettes for amusement, but he is now down to smoking four a day after some unorthodox efforts from zoo keepers, Xinhua said.

``At the beginning, he became irascible when he wanted to smoke, jolting windows and doors,'' Xinhua quoted one of the keepers as saying.

``We sometimes gave him some sunflower seeds or a bottle of beer to help him shake off the addiction and visitors are no longer allowed to throw him cigarettes.''

Bustin' Out Dead Or Alive!

Black market for monkeys turns zoos into crime zones
By Jeffrey Stinson, USA TODAY
LONDON — Thieves who broke into the Drusillas Park Zoo on England's southeast coast last week weren't monkeying around.

They went straight for rare species of small monkeys and stole five animals: a pair of silvery marmosets and their 2-month-old baby, and a pair of Geoffrey marmosets.

"To break into a monkey house in the dead of night is dangerous and requires skill," says John Haywood, coordinator of the National Theft Register for Exotic Animals in the United Kingdom. "This is a specialist form of criminality and well-organized."

The break-in early June 18 was the most recent in a string of thefts of monkeys from British zoos and the latest in an alarmingly high number of thefts of exotic and even endangered animal species from zoos in Europe. Behind the thefts, Haywood says, is black-market demand from private collectors around the globe.

"It seems that we live in a designer world," Haywood says. "Anything that is increasingly rare in the wild is very sought-after."

Haywood, who works with zoos and police to combat theft and illegal trafficking in animals, says small monkeys were stolen in recent weeks from two other zoos in England. In the past five years, he estimates, more than 50 have been stolen. The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums lists 75 members — from bird and animal parks to public zoos.

Monkeys aren't the only target of thieves. In December, burglars stole Toga, a baby South African Jackass penguin, from a zoo on the Isle of Wight off England's southern coast. The film March of the Penguins was showing in theaters at the time.

Martign Los, who monitors zoo thefts for the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria in Amsterdam, says about 600 animals were stolen from about 80 of the association's zoos in Europe from 2000 to 2004. Monkeys, birds and reptiles — some of them endangered — are among the most popular targets. "It's quite a big problem," Los says. "Only a small amount is ever found again."

Karen Eggert, spokeswoman at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, says no primate thefts were reported in the USA last year. She notes that American zoos are not obligated to report thefts.

Haywood suspects that because the monkeys stolen last week included pairs, they are headed to black-market breeders who will try to deal their offspring to private collectors.

He won't say how much the monkeys could be sold for. He fears putting a price on the animals would only spur more thefts. Claire Peters, a spokeswoman for the Drusillas Zoo, will say only that they are priceless.

While Haywood won't put a dollar amount on the animals, he notes that the black market is lucrative enough to break into a zoo at night and "risk getting a nasty bite."

Good Rumor

Give That Back, You Cheeky Monkey!

Baboons make a monkey out of England
Wed Jun 21, 9:26 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - Baboons at a British safari park are making a monkey of England World Cup fans by stealing the flags from their cars.
The animals have amassed a huge collection of the red-on-white Saint George's cross flags at Knowsley Safari Park near Liverpool, northwest England.
Keepers said the 120-strong troop have been known to make off with windscreen wipers but are now going bananas about the England flags festooning many vehicles.
"Many people are wisely removing the flags before they set off on the safari drive," said David Ross, the park's general manager.
"However, if they forget, the baboons usually take them and they've now built up quite a collection.
"Visitors are certainly enjoying their antics with the flags as it does look like they are showing their support for the efforts of the England team in Germany."
He added: "The baboons have always been great fun but they are the vandals of the animal world."

...And Your Name Will Be, "The One Who Flings Poo!"

Rwanda holds baby gorilla naming ceremony
Sat Jun 17, 11:00 AM ET
KIGALI (Reuters) - Twelve baby gorillas were given names by Western officials on Saturday in a ceremony aimed at attracting more foreign tourists to the tiny central African nation.
Dubbed "the land of a thousand hills", Rwanda is home to nearly 400 mountain gorillas, one of the world's most endangered species, which attracted over half of the country's 22,000 tourists in 2005.
Tourism officials face an uphill battle to lure visitors to Rwanda, where around 800,000 people were massacred in the 1994 civil war.
Representatives from the United States, Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands -- where most of Rwanda's tourists come from -- participated in the baby gorillas naming ceremony, normally reserved for newborn children.
The UK ambassador to Rwanda Jeremy Macadie called one of the gorillas "Big Ben" after London's famous landmark.
"Like the way 'Big Ben' is a major tourist spot in London, this young baby gorilla will be a centre attraction for tourist to this beautiful nation," Macadie said.
Rwanda earned over $25 million (14 million pounds) from the tourism sector in 2005 but hopes to make close to $100 million by 2010.
The first public naming ceremony was held last year when 30 baby gorillas were given local names.
Conservationists and researchers have traditionally named the gorillas they track using the patterns formed by wrinkles on the primate's faces as identifiers.
A 1988 film, "Gorillas in the Mist", based on the work of primate researcher Dian Fossey, who studied the animals in the 1960s, has put the tiny nation on the world map.

MO Monkey Business

Monkey business stirs up neighborhood
Sikeston, MO - More than 50 signed a petition asking the Sikeston City Council to look into monkey attacks on their street. The petitioners claim the monkey is a danger to adults and children.
Phyllis Gates thinks otherwise.
" He is usually pretty calm. People make him nervous," Gates said. Gates says she bought the monkey in Kansas City five years ago for $5,000. The monkey's name is Alex.
"I wouldn't say he attacks people, but if he is provoked, he is like other exotic animals, they will attack," Gates said.
Her neighbors say it does not matter if the monkey is provoked, he will attack anyway.
"She cannot control her monkey," Peggy Bearden said. "It attacked my grandson. Part of the material is gone in his shirt." Bearden lives across the street from Gates.
Next door, Gayla Schearf says Alex attacked her.
"They came over to my yard, and the monkey got away. He attacked me after that," Schearf said.
Sikeston City Manager Doug Friend tells Heartland News that it is illegal for someone to own a monkey in Sikeston, but there is an exception in Gates' case, because she owned the monkey before the law was put in place. Friend says the city will look into recent allegations.

Well I am just a monkey man...I'm glad you are a monkey, monkey woman!

Tailing a monkey man in search of healing powers

KOLKATA (Reuters) - Thousands of people are flocking to an impoverished Indian village in eastern West Bengal state to worship a man they believe possesses divine powers because he climbs up trees in seconds, gobbles up bananas and has a "tail."

Devotees say 27-year-old villager Chandre Oraon is an incarnation of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman -- worshipped by millions as a symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion.

"He climbs up trees, behaves like a monkey and is a strict vegetarian, but he is no god and his condition is just a congenital defect," says Bhushan Chakraborty, the local medical officer.

Tucked away in a hamlet in Banarhat, over 400 miles north of Kolkata, the state capital, devotees wait for hours to see or touch Oraon's 13-inch tail, believing that it has healing powers.

Doctors said the "tail" -- made up of some flesh but mostly of dark hair -- was simply a rare physical attribute.

"It is a congenital anomaly, but very rarely do we find such cases," B. Ramana, a Kolkata-based surgeon, told Reuters.

"Mr. Monkey, poo flinger, a monkey barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him, we have the technology. We have the capability to make the worlds first Bionic Chimp. Mr. Monkey will be that chimp. Better than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster."

Pucker Up!

Give Mr. Monkey A Kiss!