The Rage Diaries

Why couldn't this have been perching on OUR fence?

Because the cats would have eaten it, that's why. But there was a MARMOSET on the loose in East Palo Alto! Nobody knows where he came from, but he's about to head out to Primarily Primates in Texas. ("Tiny Monkey Found in Peninsula Yard," SFChron, Jun 30, 06)

That facility deserves mention: it's a nonprofit, 75-acre outpost that cares for surplus zoo animals, lab experiment refugees (like chimps used in Air Force experiments), unwanted pets and rejected animal acts. They do a LOT of last-minute rescues of huge primate colonies. Unfortunately, Primarily Primates does not take online donations right now, but there is an address at the bottom of every page. Please check it out.

The awesome monkey photo to end all awesome monkey photos

Does it get any better than a monkey petting a cat? Does it?

This photo comes from Kazzie*'s photo stream on Flickr, and I got there thanks to the almost unbearably adorable entry "Best Friend Rendezvous" on Cute Overload. Yes, I regularly visit Cute Overload. Yes, I may e-mail Erin e-mails like "HAUNCH ROLLS! I CAN'T STAND IT! I MAY EXPLODE!" And yes, I may have just looked at a photo of a bunny in a sweater (a sweater!) and nearly pulled a muscle suppressing the involuntary squeal.

It is all worth it for photos of monkeys petting cats.

Should you be so moved ...

My dad was a huge fan of elephants and of the Green Bay Packers, so it's practically written in my DNA that I too will pledge allegiance to the pachyderms and the Packers. Although he seemed to like African elephants more, I prefer their Asian counterparts.

The photo at left is from the National Geographic, from the Feb 14, 06, article, "Elephants Make a Love Connection." It's not an awesome monkey photo, but it is a pretty awesome animal photo, so I'm including it in that moribund monkey category.

In any event, if you too are a fan of elephants, the Wildlife Conservation Society runs an Asian Elephant Conservation Program. The program works because it focuses on protecting the elephant population and figuring out ways the great animals can coexist with humans nearby.  If you're looking for someplace to donate a little extra cash, please consider donating to the WCS's elephant conservation efforts.

The return of Awesome Monkey Photo

Because, really, how could I not include this? The caption also slays me:

A monkey holds her child during snowfall at a zoo in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province, January 18, 2006. Heavy snow hit Zhengzhou on Wednesday, bringing surprise and coldness to the animals, local zoo keepers said.

Bringing surprise and coldness, you say? I like to imagine the monkeys being all, "Damn! The Weather Channel said it would be in the 40s this weekend. I didn't plan for this."

That said, there is a goofy, soft-hearted part of me that wonders why, in a world where people routinely dress their dogs in sweaters, rain slickers and other goofy gear, nobody's developed a line of Zoo Wear precisely for these surprise snowfalls. Huddling monkeys are all well and good for photos, but who will recognize the people's demand for photos of monkeys in little earmuffs and down puffer vests?

Awesome penguin trailer

Yes, yes, I know -- normally it's all primates all the time*, but I'm telling you, you absolutely have to see the trailer for March of the Penguins. I nearly exploded from glee several times. Were it not for the fact that penguins are a) wild animals, and b) accustomed to cold climates, I would be agitating for a living room full of them right now. The trailer is that awesome.

And I'm thinking I'm going to hunt down local showings of the movie too. It starts June 24, 05.

Geeky tech note: just make sure you have QuickTime installed on your computer. You will need it to witness the awesome, marching penguins. I'm off to go look at the photo gallery of penguins on the Warner Indepedent Pictures official site.

Awesome monkeys, photos endangered

This plaintive primate is a douc langur (Pygathrix namaeus), a vegetarian monkey that makes its home in Viet Nam. Although different subspecies of douc langurs have different population densities, some doucs are doing so well:

The golden-headed langur of Vietnam and China's Hainan gibbon number only in the dozens. The Horton Plains slender loris of Sri Lanka has been seen just four times since 1937. Perrier's sifaka of Madagascar and the Tana River red colobus of Kenya are now restricted to tiny patches of tropical forest, leaving them vulnerable to rapid eradication, [a report by the World Conservation Union, the International Primatological Society and Conservation International] said.

-- "Primate Species Face Extinction Due to Hunting & Logging, Report Says," Canadian Press, April 7, 05.

After the jump, I've listed the 25 primate species that are most threatened by extinction. Where I was able, I included hyperlinks to conservation organizations. Please check some of these out. Without awesome monkeys, there are no awesome monkey photos. And if you've got other primate conservation links, please share below.

My readers are awesome VI

Back when I still lived in D.C., I went to the National Zoo during the middle of a snowstorm (hey ... it was open) and spent the better part of an hour in front of the pygmy marmoset exhibit, going absolutely ape (as it were) for these little guys.

The Callithrix pygmaea is one of the smallest living monkeys around, with adults reaching the grand height of six inches. It lives in the upper Amazon basin -- Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil -- and it subscribes to the "it takes a village" philosophy of child-rearing, with one female in an extended family breeding and the rest of the adults chipping in to help with child-rearing. Also, the pygmy marmoset bears a resemblance to Roddy McDowell in Planet of the Apes.

Is this not an awesome photo? Thank alert reader Emily, who sent it to me.

My readers are awesome V

And you are all awesome, really, but today's awesome monkey photo comes courtesy of me, because I saw this Philippine Tarsier (Tarsius syrichta) and nearly plotzed from it. It's like anime come to life! This little prosimian is believed to be the smallest primate in existence; the nocturnal insectivore was once believed to eat charcoal, but actually eats the bugs escaping burning wood.

And because it cannot be overstated, check this thing out again! Does it not look like it's escaped from Super Jumdan Drive IV: The Legend of Fairycross? Like so many other awesome primates, these guys are endangered. As this site explains: "Although it is a protected species, and the practice of catching them and then selling them as stuffed tarsiers to tourists has stopped, the species is still threatened by the destruction of his natural forest habitat. Many years of both legal and illegal logging and slash-and-burn agriculture have greatly reduced these forests, and reduced the tarsier population to a dangerously small size. If no action is taken now, the Philippine tarsier can soon be added to the list of extinct species."

If you're inspired to take action to make sure we don't live in a world where anime-looking prosimians are wiped out, The Philippine Tarsier Foundation asks that you get in touch with them. For U.S. citizens, your best bet for doing that is to contact:

Philippine Consulate general
3660 Wilshire Boulevard 900, Suite 825
Los Angeles, CA 90010
USA
Tel. (1-213) 487-4527
Fax: (1-213) 386-4063

Another thing you can do is to donate to the Haribon Foundation, which is focused on preserving Philippine biodiversity -- and they take online donations.

My readers are awesome IV

Credit for today's awesome monkey shot goes to Molly, who thought outside the box and convinced me that prosimians should certainly count for purposes of awesome monkey photos.

So here we see the pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus), which, as befits anything with "pygmy" in the name, is tiny, and fond of biting on people (those are gloved fingers he's attempting to gnaw), and possessed of poisonous elbows.

No, I am not making this up. To quote the equally awesome page Molly pointed me to:

The lorises are actually toxic! On the inside of their elbows, sebaceous tissue secretes a toxin (like sweat pores, which is rather fitting since the toxic mixture smells remarkably like sweaty socks). The lorises take it into their mouth and deliver it in the bite. It is not the upper and lower jaw vampire like canine teeth that deliver this toxin. It is the innocuously small teeth in the front of the lower jaw which slope forward and help conduct the saliva into the wound.

Note: this page is also worth going to for its pictures of topless scientists. (There's a phrase guaranteed to turn up all sorts of Google traffic, huh?) It's fascinating reading, especially when you get to the part explaining what role the toxin plays.

Note II: Another reason you guys are awesome? Because your comments on the Gap entry rock.

My readers are awesome III

These lanky cuties are Langur monkeys -- I'd tell you more, but there are 15 subspecies of them.These were snapped in Pushkar, which is known for having a lot of these diurnal, groundbased guys. Pushkar itself is known as a holy Hindu city, and it's somewhat famous for its annual camel fair.

Today's awesome monkey photo comes to us courtesy of Terri. Everyone give her a hand! And give yourselves a hand too -- there are future awesome monkey photo posts, all thanks to you. Coming up: poisonous prosimians, the world's tiniest Roddy McDowell imitators, and the most intense-looking monkeys yet.