The Fear of Monkeys - The Best E-Zine on the Web for Politically Conscious WritingThe Large-Headed Capuchin - Issue Thirty-Eight
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The Lar Gibbon  from Christiano Artuso The Large-Headed Capuchin is a highly intelligent New World monkey species found in the South American countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, living in the Amazon lowland and submontane habitats. In Colombia they live in deciduous and evergreen forests, but they prefer habitats with an abundance of palm trees where they eat the fruit. They are primarily frugivorous and insectivorous. They also eat invertebrates-and even eat small vertebrates, like frogs or small mammals. Most of their food consists of fruits, leaves, stems, flowers, and seeds. Their fur is coarse and thick. As far as coloration goes, they are mostly dark: their limbs and tail are a dark brown, while the hair about their backs and shoulders is a lighter shade of brown, erring toward tan, and lighter still on their stomachs. Their faces are rimmed with white hair, with black around the eyes and snout, almost resembling a raccoon. They have long, strong thick prehensile tails which can be used like an additional limb. Males are generally larger than females. A typical adult male large-headed capuchin weighs about 3 kg, though they can be as small as 1.35 kg and as large as 4.8 kg. Adult females range from 1.76-3.4 kg, but on average weigh about 2.4 kg. The body length of these monkeys is typically about 55.9 cm, and their tails equal their bodies in length. They are diurnal and arboreal. They leave the trees to forage for their food, and are known as extractive foragers-they look for their food embedded in the ground, and take the necessary measures to obtain it. Capuchins are the only monkeys other than chimpanzees that have been observed using tools to extract their food from the ground in the wild. When it's time to eat, the dominant male gets first dibs, and those who he's closest with-females or younger monkeys-are allowed to eat while the lower-ranked monkeys must wait their turn. The typical size for a group of large-headed capuchins is around 18 monkeys, though populations in Brazil have been noted to be as small as 7 individuals and as many as 21. Groups consist of more females than males. Large-headed capuchins are preyed upon by large birds, and keep a look-out for threats from above. They are so wary of birds, they fear them all indiscriminately. They attract mates by urinating on their hands and then rubbing them together-a common practice among tufted capuchins. They use various vocalizations, including alarm calls and calls to reorganize the group, while foraging. They also utilize facial expressions. High-ranking individuals will bare their teeth at lower ranking individuals as a sign of approval; lower-ranking individuals will bare their teeth at each other as a sign of friendship. Tufted capuchins (of which the large-headed capuchin is a subspecies) have a gestation period of 180 days. Infants are born one at a time, and are extremely small-typically around 0.25 kg. Because of their small size, they are heavily reliant on their mothers, who feed their young for nine months and carry them around on their backs. As of 2015, the species was listed as Least Concern (IUCN, 2020). Their population is declining, however, which is a result of degradation of their habitat. Also, where their habitat coincides with human habitation, they're hunted heavily, sometimes for food. It has been reported that in some areas of Peru the large-headed capuchin has been hunted so heavily that they no longer occur in that portion of their range. There is also an illegal market for these monkeys, and they are sold for anywhere between 20 and 50 dollars apiece.

   


Still Life at the Beach

by

Holly Day


The world became flat and dead, a still photograph
of awfulness that could not be erased
they could not put her body back in the water
and have her emerge, minutes later
smiling and happy and perfectly alive. She would not

ever move again, there would be no
CPR miracle, no random prayer
settling in just the right place
to bring her back to life. I watched
from the beach, afraid to join the crowd gathered
around the dead little girl, my sandwich half-eaten
on the towel beside me. There was nothing I could do.



Holly Day has taught writing classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minnesota, since 2000. Her poetry has recently appeared in Oyez Review, SLAB, and Gargoyle, while her recently published books include Music Theory for Dummies (3rd edition), Piano All-in-One for Dummies, The Book Of, and Nordeast Minneapolis: A History.

 

 
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