The baby Howlers

I have now spent a week with the baby monkeys and it’s lovely to see the progress that they’ve made in such a short space of time. Elliot, the biggest baby, still has a tendency to be a little rough when he’s playing but Peanut and Sam seem to be handling it pretty well. Peanut is still almost constantly complaining, however, he doesn’t seem too upset as he keeps moving towards Elliot instead of away from him. Sam has been provoking Elliot the past couple of days which shows that he’s gaining confidence and can hold his own in a play wrestle as he’s a little bigger than the other three, although there’s still a gulf between him and Elliot. Polly seems to have lots of energy and confidence at the start of the play session, and is certainly the fastest climber out of the three small babies, but once she gets tired she clings to my hip and won’t let go until it’s dinner time. She is very good at shouting at Elliot and gave him a good telling off yesterday to the point that Zoe could hear her in the office next door! Pebbles is the smallest baby and she is very low on confidence when Elliot is out. She will happily play with the other three when Elliot is in his cage, however, she will either sit on my shoulder with her tail wrapped round my neck or play within jumping distance of me if she’s feeling brave. Yesterday she was curled up relaxing on my knee when Elliot stealthily approached her and started to groom her. She was enjoying it (she did have about half a papaya stuck in her fur!) until she realised that it was Elliot. She jumped up, let out a deafening scream and hopped up onto my shoulder with her tail wrapped so tight around my neck I feared that I might asphyxiate! Hopefully she is due a growth spurt soon which should give her some confidence as there is a huge difference in the size of her versus Eliiot.

Peanut was also tired yesterday and, as he’s starting to trust me a little more, he curled up for a nap on my knee too. At one point I had Polly, Pebbles and Peanut curled up on my knee and Sam had stopped by for a little rest before charging off again – I was a sitting duck and the chances of concussion from Elliot landing on my head were significantly increased for that short period of time! But I survived (just!)!

Elliot has lost two teeth over the past day – it would have been better if he’d done that before biting me the other day but at least it might go some way to explaining his erratic behaviour. And, as Si pointed out, my scar would have been wonky if some of the teeth marks weren't present so I guess Elliot was selflessly thinking about how aesthetically pleasing his bite would look on my skin - thanks Elliot!

If I am the only person in the room, Pebbles and Polly will happily sit on my shoulder and on my hip respectively. However, if a better human comes along (i.e. anyone!) then they will trade me in! There is certainly a hierarchy with Zoe, Paul, Leoma and John all above lowly little me! I try not to take it personally (when they don’t jump off immediately when John comes into the room it feels like a little win!) but I will probably need therapy when I’m back in UK!