At the Belen Market we ran into several animals from the rainforest being held in captivity. One of those animals was a baby woolly monkey. The owner told us that her brother had recently hunted the mother woolly monkey for food for their family, and that left the baby with no where to go. The baby would be killed in the wild without the protection of its mother. The woman was trying to sell the baby monkey as a pet. When I held the baby, it immediately wrapped its prehensile tail around my arm. The word prehensile means that it is used like a hand: to grip things. Since it can be used much like an arm or leg, the tail helps the monkey swing from tree to tree in the wild.

Woolly monkeys, like most monkeys, are very loud. Until it got comfortable in my arms, the baby was screaming much like a baby. In the wild, the woollys move around in large noisy troops, reminding the entire rainforest that they are present with their barks and whoops. Most adult woolly monkeys grow to about one and a half feet long and have a tail that is usually longer than their body. They can weigh over 22 pounds. Woolly monkeys feed on fruits, seeds, leaves, and the occasional insect.

Woolly monkeys are commonly hunted for their meat, which locals have claimed is the best tasting monkey meat in the rainforest. Because females only give birth to a baby every other year, and because the monkey is commonly hunted, the woolly monkey is at risk of becoming endangered.

The baby woolly monkey that we saw seemed quite bothered by its new caged home. Not only had it lost its mother, but it lost its home in the rainforest. Yet at the same time, its mother was a food source for a hungry family living in the Amazon. As we travel through the rainforest, we might come across several situations like this. Regardless, the woolly monkey is definitely a beautiful and intelligent creature, deserving of a good life. Hopefully we will see more woollys in the wild as we continue our journey through the flooded forest.

May the forest be with you,

Anna