Not the Monkey Mother of the Year

Today I was with the South group, watching an adult female with a 3-4 month old infant. Towards the end of the day, the monkey mom took off towards a patch of fruiting Cecropia trees and began to eat. Unfortunately, she left her baby behind. At such a young age, the baby could not leap across the tree gaps (of which there were many), so she was pretty much stuck. She cried and screeched for her mom to come and retrieve her, but the mom paid absolutely no attention and just continued on her merry way, eating Cecropia fruit. I stayed with the baby to see what she would do. She tried to go after her mom, but there were just so many gaps and the poor dear was too little to jump. At one particularly large gap, she stood there, looking and looking for a way she could get to the next tree, but there was none. Finally, she shimmied down the trunk and walked on the ground! What a sight that was, to see this itty bitty little monkey just trotting along the forest floor. The intensity of her alarm calls indicated that she was pretty freaked out. She had to go to the ground 2 more times to get to the area where her mother was foraging. Thank goodness there were no dogs around.

When the baby finally reached her mother, she tried to climb on mom’s back, which is the usual mode of transportation for infants this age. But the mom was having none of that. She snapped at her baby and kept shoving her off her back. I was outraged! The mom continued leaping across tree gaps and ravenously consuming her afternoon meal, while the poor baby desperately tried to follow her. This mean monkey mom is certainly not going to win any mother of the year awards!

That’s going to have to be it for now, I’ve got to get myself together for another long day in the forest tomorrow. Thanks for reading!