The Wild Side

Ringtailed Lemurs Enjoying the Sun
Originally uploaded by john_and_erin_rogers.

Erin’s favorite part of the zoo is always the primates. Who doesn’t like watching the monkeys interact so relationally with each other? It just so happens that there is an entire zoo in the Netherlands (about an hour away near Apeldoorn) dedicated entirely to monkeys! It’s called Apenheul, which means “monkey something or other” (practically the entire website is in Dutch and neither of us as ever heard of the word “heul”). In many areas of the park the monkeys are not in cages, so they roam around, swinging in the trees right over your head or skittering across the walking paths right in front of you. The staff of the zoo give everybody a “monkey-proof” bag to carry all their stuff around in since apparently the monkeys have gotten pretty smart about unzipping bags and reaching into coat pockets looking for treats. This was all pretty cool until one tiny tamarin monkey decided to step onto the walking path right in front of Erin, scaring her to death. She almost accidentally stepped on the little animal and then had thoughts of the tamarin baring his teeth and attaching himself to her leg. Thankfully no animals (or people!) were hurt in this incident. Hmmm…monkey bites, danger, fear…vaguely reminiscent of “Outbreak” perhaps.

Anyway, minus the brief scare of a monkey with sharp teeth being less than an inch away from Erin’s leg, it was an incredibly fun afternoon. One of the funniest sights was watching the huge group of ring-tailed lemurs all take up a yoga-like pose whenever the sun emerged from behind the clouds. Apparently this position is the best way to soak up as many rays of warmth as possible on a cool October day. The scenery in the park is beautiful, too.

While we’re on the subject of animals it might interest our readers to know that one morning this week, the day after our monthly window-washer had come no less, Erin awoke to find a huge, greasy imprint of a bird in flight right smack dab in the middle of our big front window! (No, not the actual bird, just a greasy imprint.) This proves all the more that pigeons are not only disgusting, dirty animals, but also utterly bereft of brains. After all, our apartment is the middle of a huge building. Where exactly did this pigeon think he was going?