News is just coming out from Iran that they launched a Kavoshgar-4 rocket into orbit last week, and the rocket capsule contained a monkey doll for testing purposes. There’s currently no word on whether or not the monkey survived the test intact, but obviously we hope that it did.
Read more at YNetNews
Frisky’s Wildlife and Primate Sanctuary outside Baltimore is under fire for violating zoning laws, all for having a primates on their property that have nowhere else to go. Frisky’s has been taking in animals for almost 20 years, and has built up an impressive rosters of not only primates but pygmy goats, minks, chinchilla, parrots, squirrels, even a bald eagle. Staffed mainly by volunteers, the animals are cared for until a suitable adoption is available, however long that may take.
Unfortunately, one set of neighbors is now fighting with Frisky’s over zoning laws, in an attempt to force them to get rid of monkeys. Here at MonkeyADay we’d prefer if the neighbors would move instead. The monkeys were there first!
Read more about the fight at the Washington Post
Paris Hilton had her 30th birthday party on Wednesday night, and at her party she had a special petting zoo, complete with a lynx, porcupine, squirrel monkey and sloth. According to insiders, the petting zoo was her first stop when she arrived at 11 pm.
Those poor animals must have been tired, I would have been exhausted. But I guess that’s the life of a socialite squirrel monkey.
Read more at The Vancouver Sun
Apparently New Delhi has eight teams of monkey catchers that travel around New Delhi capturing problem monkeys, and the city has paid them Rs 400 RMD ($8 USD). They want more monkey catchers, so they are raising the payments to Rs 600 per monkey, because they need more catchers.
Apparently monkeys are a HUGE problem in New Delhi, with some companies employing Langurs to ward off the small, numbers Rhesus macaques. It’s a crazy problem that I almost wish we had here in the U.S. If nothing else, I could always get a job as a monkey catcher in New Delhi.
Read more at the New Delhi Times
Alfie the Ape was a swinging toy monkey who graced the window of Gordon Scott’s shoe shop in Northampton, UK for many years. But ever since the store closed in 2007 due to Mr. Scott’s retirement, Alfie has been gracing the clothing store Circus. It was announced this week by the owners of Circus that Alfie is now moving to his new home at the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery. Deanna Holloway of Circus says “The museum is a wonderful place full of exciting things and we are very happy it is to be Alfie’s new home.”
It is unclear from the article or picture how large Alfie is, but I imagine that he’s 20-30 meters tall.
Read more at BBC.co.uk
I ran across this article about monkeys in cartoons, with some very interesting pictures. Some are overtly racist, some are just downright fascinating. Monkeys have been awesome for many, many years.
And now for something completely different, a new, irregularly updated feature here at monkeyaday.com:
Wildlife officials in India plan to build a special school to improve the behaviour of delinquent monkeys. I can just see these monkeys, hanging around, smoking cigarettes, getting in to trouble… But not anymore!
