Starry's Job

Workin with Wildlife!!!

Well I thought puttin up a page about my work would be just another way of annoyin my friends. *S* With people runnin around calling my work "cruel", "unnecessary", and "inhumane" without knowing what my work is about, I felt it was necessary to do. Thus I also put up links to the Animal Rights groups as I do believe in some of the causes.

My job is an Animal Lab Tech at a university's Primate Research Center . Now you can get it out of your head that we do "animal experiments" at this place, *stern look*, because we don't, all though some people tend to think otherwise. Yes I love animals, but I personally couldn't work in a place that does harm to animals.

Anyways, my job as of Aug '01 has changed. I used to care for aobut 400 Squirrel Monkeys but now I'm in charge of 300 Owl Monkeys. I feed them, clean cages, and help with medical care. Yes the monkeys are cute, but, *warning look* let me tell you, when they want they can give you a nasty bite.

Why do we breed squirrel and owl monkeys? So medical research centers won't wipe out the wild populations of these animals. Our monkeys belong to the CDC and NIH. These two groups then tell us who wants what and how many. While we have the monkeys we study their breeding habits. It sounds bad, breeding monkeys to send them to other places for experimentation, but I love these animals and they have the best life I can provide them while they are living under my care.

There are 3 types of squirrel monkeys at the center. The Bolivian, which is yellow in color. The Peruvian, which is green in color. Then there is the Guyanese also green in color. The Peruvian and Guyanese are the prettier ones I think, because their fur is so thick and green it almost looks like they have scales and not fur. Since these two look so much alike the only way to tell them apart is by looking at their white faces and seeing "arches" over the eyes. A co-worker says the Peruvian ones also have "Vulcan" type ears. *ggls* The first picture on this page is a Peruvian, the second is a Bolivian. The pic above is a Guyanese all though he looks more yellow in this picture.

I'd like to thank the University of Wisconsin for their Primate web page. The university and photographer supporters of them is where I found the pics you see on my page of the squirrel monkey.

Right now, like I said, I'm carring for 300 Owl Monkeys. Owl Monkeys are also called "Night Monkeys" for they are nocturnal creatures. (They come out only at night *G*) They get their name from their large round eyes and the fact they only come out at night. They also don't make the same kind of sounds other monkeys make. "Hooting", hissing, purring and growling, only chirping when "talking" to a mate or child. Owl monkeys are also monogomus, they pick one mate and stick with them.

The weirdest thing about them is that even though the female gives birth, it's the dad that carries the newborn. Mom does carry the baby, while it's nursing the first few weeks of it's life, but after that dad takes over. That makes for some fun tryin to decide who is who when catchin one of them. The male and female are very similar in every aspect so just looking at them doesnt' tell you who is male and who is female.

Since the Aotus (scientific name) are night creatures my job is pretty easy. While we are there it's "night time" for them, regular "white" lights are on for the humans. The aotus are quiet and sleepy, thus they aren't very active. Then towards the end of the human work day, "red" lights come on and it's the aotus "daytime", human nighttime. THEN it gets a bit noisy and the aotus are active. It's pretty weird walking around in the red lights, I can see all right but the monkeys see better than me. *G*

Thanks to the Primate Refuge and Sanctuary of Panama for the Aotus pictures.