I’ve learned to speak some spider monkey over the years. As a conservationist working out of the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, I’ve spent years of my life in the jungle. I sleep outdoors more nights than I do inside, so I see spider monkeys nearly every day. They come and shake branches at me when I walk the jungle trails. They taunt me when I climb the trees with them. I watch them with wonder as they glide, swing, and nearly fly through the canopy, that incredible, big black tail—a prehensile fifth limb—grasping and flinging them with expert ease through the overstory of the Amazon. Their tails are always anchored on a branch, lashed tight—the center of any spider monkey’s high-altitude security system. A mother Peruvian spider monkey and her baby in the Amazon Rainforest. Photo by Stephane Thomas But I’ve also gotten to know spider monkeys up close and personal. The people in this region of the Amazon eat monkeys. So, more times than I care to count, I’ve had to rescue baby spider monkeys from loggers or gold miners who killed their mothers for food. These little creatures—these adorable orphans with obsidian eyes—are suddenly alone in the world. Many times, I convince the hunters to let me take the orphan, so I can bring them to experts who can rehabilitate them. When they agree, I take them to my friend Magali Salinas, who runs the only reputable animal rehabilitation center in the region, Amazon Shelter, which specializes in rewilding…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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