Three Important Monkey Rules. How to behave in the company of a monkey in Costa Rica!
Chiquito continued to act depressed when he was left alone, so I decided to take him out of the cage in the hopes that it would cheer him up.
Since he doesn’t belong in a house (and would be too destructive), that meant “going outside to play.”
Unfortunately Paul had visions of Chiquito disappearing into the jungle never to be seen again, so I agreed to take full responsibility.
I felt it was necessary and here’s why I wasn’t worried:
- Chiquito craves physical contact with us, so why would he run?
- Chiquito would still be dependent on his mother in the wild, so where would he turn for food, shelter and protection without us? He’s an intelligent primate who was raised by caring humans.
- Chiquito has to spend time in the wild to “learn the ropes” or we won’t be able to release him successfully when he is mature.
Paul carried Chiquito up into the half acre above the house where we plan to build a large pre-release area. And then he tried to scrape him off. But Chiquito was afraid to be free.
When Chiquito did eventually climb down, it was to scurry for the house. He doesn’t know he was born to be wild.
We decided to take Chiquito down to the river for his next outing so he would be too far from the house to run home. Our property borders the river and hundreds of hectares of secondary rainforest, where we often see or hear wild capuchin (white faced) and howler monkeys.
Sadly, nobody has seen spider monkeys for perhaps twenty years (one of our young Tica neighbors said her grandfather used to shoot all three species of monkeys), and our dream is to reintroduce them.
After some initial hesitation Chiquito explored for about a half hour, encouraged by Paul. I took photos and videos until my camera was full. It was an exhilarating experience for all of us except baby Lolita… who looked overwhelmed and clung to my ankle as though her life depended on it.
Chiquito approached her twice, but I didn’t feel the time was right for them to interact so I covered her with my hands and he was easily distracted by the myriad of new sights and sounds surrounding him.
One of the fundamental rules of animal training – be it a dog, a bird, or a child, all of which I had experience with – is to end with success, so I called it a day when everyone (with the exception of Lolita) still wanted more. As we headed back up the trail Chiquito hitched a ride on Paul, who is his preferred mode of transportation.
Unfortunately, trying to get Chiquito back in his cage was a harrowing experience. He decided he’d rather be in the house. And since none of the doors were locked, he soon was. He helped himself to a banana and some peanuts in the shell while we tried to adhere to our growing list of Monkey Rules:
Three Important Monkey Rules.
- Never restrain a monkey unless you want to be bitten. In the wild, nothing holds onto a monkey unless it’s eating it.
- Never take anything away from a monkey unless you want to be bitten. Monkeys ascribe to the philosophy: “What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine!”
- Never touch or reach for a person holding a monkey or that person will get bitten. (see Rule # 2)
Nobody was bitten.
The workers are busy walling off Chiquito’s access to the garage, and thereby the house, as I type… and welding the second of the metal “double escape doors” for the hallway outside his enclosure.
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Written by Michele Gawenka. Michele explains that: “Jane Goodall has always been my hero, and primates have always been my passion. But Africa wasn’t in the cards when my parents offered to send me to volunteer the summer I turned 16, and there was only one class (in physical anthropology) when I wanted to study primatology in college. The pieces of the puzzle fell into place decades later when my husband and I retired early in Costa Rica, and this is our journey with spider monkeys.”
Please Help Michele Rescue Monkeys Like Lolita and Angel!
It’s clear that Monkey Mom Michele and Monkey Dad Paul Gawenka are doing this for the love these incredible monkeys – it certainly is not for the money which they have been spending to try and provide an environment where they can rest and recover before they are released…
After we published our first article in this series, I and a few other VIP Members paid some money into Paul Gawenka’s PayPal account (pgawenka@yahoo.com) to help with the costs for a new enclosure…
Michele and Paul don’t have some fancy ‘charity’ that you can contribute to but they’ve given us their personal guarantee that every penny that you may give goes towards helping the animals – they don’t want a dime for themselves – so please log into your PayPal account and follow my lead and send them a US$100 to pgawenka@yahoo.com
Andrew Makarik
to@welovecostarica.comAndrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.
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