Get
To Know
The
Squirrel Monkey weighs up to about 1 kg. They live in primary and
secondary forests and cultivated areas. Disturbed habitats are advantageous
because of their greater supply of preferred food - insects (such as grasshoppers)
and fruit. They rarely travel on the ground and are most active in the
morning and late afternoon. They have large group sizes (40 - 70 individuals)
in continuous forest. They are non-aggressive and egalitarian - neither
males nor females appear to be dominant. Females are usually the ones
who disperse to another troop. The Central American squirrel monkey has
always been restricted to the Pacific lowlands of Costa Rica and Panama.
They have already declined drastically due to clearing of forests. Currently,
deforestation and habitat fragmentation due to agriculture and tourism
development are the major causes of decline. Insecticide spraying, the
pet trade and electrocution from electric power lines have also adversely
affected these squirrel monkeys.
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What were you doing when the last
Bird went by? I was there
On my porch, feet to the rotting balustrade,
In place to see the whole thing -
The misadventure of flight, the tragedy
Of our avian brethren tumbling
Unaware into extinction. I think,
Male or female, that last bird
Was searching for a mate, as it would do
If the skies were filled with birds,
Even if it were sick with suitors.
The mechanics are the same -
The need, the meticulous mating dance,
The recognition of seasons, the appreciation
Of time. Simply at this moment
There is no other. There may yet be
Bats, and other mammals could go
From gliding to flight. Evolution
Does not seem to like unfilled space.
Quiet mornings I think before long
The insects will begin to sing: roaches,
Or whatever species can stomach our society,
Will start by screeching to one another,
By inordinate steps develop its song into
Something we regard as just as pleasing as they
Consider it useful, a cacophony
We will see as a melodious start to morning,
A signal of the day's best wishes.
But I will not be alive in that time.
Ken Poyner has had fiction of late in Corium and Kill Author,
and poetry in Adirondack Review, Medulla Review, Blue Collar
Review, Poet Lore and about forty other places. His wife is a world
class power lifter and the two together live a somewhat strange life in
the right hand bottom corner of Virginia. His book "Constant Animals",
42 unruly fictions, is $4.99 as an e-book and vendor links available at
www.kpoyner.com.
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