Monday May 5, 2013

By Stephanie Fox -


Today I was practicing learning to identify monkeys.  We identify monkeys based on variation in the shape of the eye brows, furry black caps and tails. I think it is really hard - my assistant Charles says I have no eyes. Sometimes I can’t even see the monkeys when he points them out – when they are so far away and all you can see is part of a body and a white tail hanging down – and somehow he spots them and can tell who they are, all without binoculars. Monkey master, that man.  I am finding it a bit ironic how the stranger, uglier, or haggered looking monkeys – those typically picked on in any social species, including our own - are becoming my favourites. I can tell them apart from the crowd. Budging eyes, balding or crooked tails, missing chunks of hair and silly looking hairdos now classify as desirable attributes in my books.  Thank goodness for funny looking monkeys – FLMs.

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