Monday, March 30, 2009

Erik the invader.



There has been a change in the living arrangements for the three girls MonaLisa, Emma and Nancy. They have been joined by Erik and Chilin. This has not been organized by me. This was an internal revolution lead by Erik. I should explain that the two enclosures are side by side. They are almost identical in facilities. Both have a section with living quarters in the corridor of our house and both have a doorway into an outside garden. There is an interconnecting doorway inside the corridor. Erik has been attacking this doorway and on a number of occasions succeeded in breeching it. This time we decided to leave Erik and Chilin in contact with the three girls. Our picture tells the story. On the left you see Nancy. The pair of bright eyes in the middle is Erik for the rest who knows. MonaLisa and Emma are certainly there. There have been some minor arguments, particularly about who sits with whom. Chilin is not willing to give up his close friendship with Erik although Erik wants to play with Nancy and to be mothered by MonaLisa. As with all monkey relationships, the situation is dynamic and is developing. They have all spent a busy day. Both parties have spent considerable time investigating the facilities of the adjoining enclosure. They are sleeping together in the girls house both at night and midday. It is impossible to say whether they want this as a perminent arrangement or are just experimenting. But I believe they want it this way. After all they engineered it. I regard this as a good move. The three girls have always been suspicious of male company. Indeed on the occasions when I have tried to marry them to various males, their reaction has been aggressive and the match making attempts have failed. Clearly they are prepared to allow younger males. Erik they would consider to be a baby and Chilin is big for his age but also very young. Time will tell.

1 comment:

Gabriela de Olivieri said...

Philip, me gusta esa foto con todos los monos juntos descansando en su casita.

Saludos

Gabriela.