The Fear of Monkeys - The Best E-Zine on the Web for Politically Conscious WritingThe White-Thighed Sirili - Issue Thirty-Six
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The White-Thighed Sirili  from Christiano Artuso The White-Thighed Sirili is arboreal and lives amongst the sub-montane forests and swamp areas of the Thai-Malay Peninsula, the Riau Archipelago and Sumatra. Their diet consists of seeds, fruits and leaf shoots. They have also been seen consuming flowers. They are characterized by the white patches located on the outside of their legs--which is what gives them their name-and they range from 41-69 cm tall and weighting 5-6.7 kg. They have a brown-grey fur coat on their backs, with white fur covering their bellies and dark fur on their head. Their tails--typically covered in dark fur--can extend roughly 58-85 cm. Compared to adults, infants are born with very light fur with crosses of dark fur along their arms and back. They live in small unimale-multifemale groups. After mating, females give birth to single infants to which the group of females care for. Due to their arboreal lifestyle, reliance on detection of predators is vital. Male group members are able to call or display a distraction for predators to protect group members. Their current status is near threatened. They are mainly affected by agriculture, harvesting of wood, as well as hunting. In regards to logging, the production of access roads into forests has increased the deforestation rate by 8% which reduces their habitat and creates a huge reduction of seeds, leaves and fruit available. To compensate for their lost food supply, they have been found to raid crops on the plantations--for instance, leaves of the oil palm--which increases reports of capturing and killing the primates. As well, they are sometimes kept as pets or used in the entertainment industry and that has led to their decimation in some regions of their domain.

   


Choose Life, Choose Homelessness

by

Amanda Steel

They choose to be homeless
Her words still replay in my head

Did they choose to sleep in shop doorways?
Giving up heat for icy streets in winter
Preferring the cold floor
Over a nice warm bed

Did anyone ever choose to beg for food?
Any food they could get
Foregoing the luxury of a trip to the supermarket
Musing over what they fancy for dinner tonight

Would anyone pick humiliation?
Sleeping on show for the world to see
And their worldly possessions
Fitting into one bag for life

Is this the easy life?
Homeless women facing rape
No walls or doors to protect
And she chose this, right?

Who wants to wake up
To a drunk urinating on them?
Or worse, in flames
Fair game to be set on fire.

Did they really choose this life?
Or does it make you feel better
To tell yourself this, to sleep at night
In your bed, with your walls
And your ceiling, your doors
And your cupboard stocked with food?

It's a last resort
Not a lifestyle choice


Amanda Steel is the author of the collection "Pieces of Me" which this poem is part of. She is also the author of YA novel First Charge and horror fiction "After the Zombies" and "Not Human." Her website is www.amandasteelwriter.com
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