Tonight I saw one of the most astounding behaviors. I have been watching owl monkeys on and off for five years on various projects. Tonight, on the fifth year, on the first day that the temperature has dipped into the low 40's this year I observed cold owl monkeys and then IT happened. Austin is part of one of our newer pairs, with Wookie as a mate - he came from Texas - hence the name. Tonight, they were huddled together for warmth and Austin was sitting on his wooden open box and he brought his hands together and rubbed them in a circular motion around each other and brought them up to his mouth just like people do to warm their hands!! It's audacious because no one has ever seen on documented this behavior before in an owl monkey...or maybe in New World primates period. It was amazing, but of course I can't blame him - it was freezing!
Wookie (left), Austin (right). In October.
I went out tonight for the mere fact that it was cold, and I wanted to see the change in behavior and hormone levels on such a night. I was expecting to see correlations, but that blew my mind. By the way, collecting owl monkey urine is one of the hardest things I've had to do. They are the only anthropoid that soils their nest box - so they urinate throughout the day (even though they are nocturnal)! Alas though, with the help of marshmallows we are trying to employ a reward system for urination. Oh the lengths you go to in research. However, this has to be by far one of the most rewarding and enjoyable projects I've had the pleasure to be a part of.
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