Do monkeys really fling crap at each other?
Which fraternity…?
You said that many of the monkeys have psychological problems when they first arrive at the sanctuary. Have you seen these troubles improve after they’ve been at the sanctuary for a while?
That was fascinating - thanks for the link! I loved the monkey throwing the cucumber back at the researcher.
That link tends to prove what Arthur C. Clarke said: “The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion”.
Most of them do; some more easily than others.
Putting on my armchair behavioral psychologist cap for a minute, I would say the conditions here make it particularly easy for the monkeys to improve psychologically. Generally their old unhealthy patterns of behavior are triggered by things in their old environments. - isolation, bare walls, small spaces, etc. In the new environment, they have more options for engaging in healthy behavior. For example, the habitats are living - live grass and trees, bushes, etc, so the monkeys can forage and chew bamboo or whatever it is they feel like doing. I think this in addition to the social engagement really makes it possible to see the radical transformations that we do see.
And yeah, the transformation can be pretty radical. The monkey’s personalities are all different, so of course we have residents who are still cranky/aggressive or what have you, but their behavior is significantly improved over how it was prior to arrival here.
We were in the news last night! Check it out. The older lady with white hair is our founder & my boss. She is pretty great. Everyone here is pretty great.
Yeah, it seems like I’ve seen Jungle Friends in the news several times lately. I had never even heard of them until a couple years ago when my brother worked there temporarily (he’s a construction worker).