Most everyone can look at their windows in a residential area and watch squirrells and birds play. I watch monkeys and iguanas. I know its merely the locale, but I'm still amazed that I watch monkeys frolic in the trees from my front porch. It's still hard to wrap my head around this notion.
Howler monkeys are only about 3-4 feet tall as an adult and live in families of 5 to 20 in number. The "howler" comes from the adult males, who make an undescribable sound something like the deep croak of a frog, fierce roar of a lion, and bark of a dog - all at the same time. They sound off at dawn and dusk and move within about a mile range. I've been following a group we call "Wayne's kids." There are 2 adults, 2 youth and a baby. During the dry season (December through April), they are high up in the mountains, but as soon as the rainy season starts, they move lowland.
Wow! I would LOVE to see monkeys walking around as a native species.
ReplyDeleteI did see the invasive rhesus monkeys who live along the Silver River in Florida, but they're not native. Hundreds strong now, the State of Florida did a study and decided that introduced monkeys do not pose any environmental problems as with other introduced species.