Memories: notes from the field in Suriname

[jenarael]

This recent peanut butter recall brought to mind today how unlucky peanut butter has been to me in the past. Not that I'd stop eating it (especially now that I grind my own organic butter at the food co-operative), but sometimes seeing a jar full of the gloppy brown stuff sends me into post-traumatic stress paroxysms

Comments

[jourdannex]

holy cow that is scary! I decided a while back I sure never wanted a monkey, they are just too ....scary....

I love them and respect them and will stay faaaar away from them.

That man who was attacked by two chimps lives near me and it's so sad how he looks now and how disabled he is. They never found his chimp, I think I told you this story though...his chimp was in a sanctuary and he was bringing him a birthday cake or something and 2 males were jealous and escaped and attacked his wife and when he pushed her aside, they went after him and they removed most of his face and hands and I believe his feet and genitals :(

Chimps..WTF are people thinking having them as pets? My cat is 22 lbs and unpredictable, if she were 200 I would run for the hills...but not any hills where monkeys lived.

P.S. Capuchins are my favourite too :(

I am pretty sure my Amazon parrot would kill me for food too. He gave me a black eye.

[jenarael]

Oh scary, though I can totally believe it! I heard in my primatology classes that when a new male takes over a chimpanzee group, he often kills (and often eats) the females' offspring by other males, so that only his genes are passed along. Stories like these are why I laugh when non-anthropologists tell me things like "only humans fight wars" and "humans are the only tool-users" ...well, no.

[jourdannex]

OMG, that is horrible. And true, they always go for these same areas, those attacks are brutal. Although the only time I feel good about them is when mistreated circus and zoo/performing animals seek revenge on their abusers.

Sadly in this case it was just people who were trying to help them...but the guy left the cage unlocked.

I did see a docu once about these men in Africa who were lost and these escaped sanctuary chimps attacked and killed 2 out of the 3 men in exactly the same way. They said they hunted them all as a group and stalked them. And there it is again, it's the mistreated chimps, not as much the wild ones who are going after the people. It's like they are paying us back and I can't really blame them.

I too have seen those attacks from chimps to rival groups and they are brutal. So I really believe they do plan these attacks.

[jenarael]

It seems primates are fine until they hit maturity, then they go absolutely batshit crazy and become hypersexualised and violent.

And oh my gosh, I didn't realize you lived so close to the chimp-mauling guy!!! How horrible. They probably thought they could oust him as "alpha male" and tried to kill him.

I am pretty sure my Amazon parrot would kill me for food too. He gave me a black eye. This is why our dog is fourteen pounds. Any bigger, and I'd have to fight for food. And Amazons can be bullies. Feathered bullies.

[jourdannex]

I saw this really disturbing news piece on people who use monkeys as surrogate children and it reminded me of the parrot owners I encounter who make parrots their children and in the process, really screw them up. I have three parrots that *know* they are parrots and one really screwed up one that had previous owners who tried to make him into their child. He is sort of lost between their mangled idea of a child and being a bird and so he throws tantrums and screams and rocks back and forth and seeing him really made me realize I would rather no one had exotic animals as pets at all