I first heard of Smit's work in the excellent & entertaining "Street Monkeys" (2009) reality series about vervet monkeys gangs. Highly recommend! All 5 episodes are archived on YouTube:
I'm uploading old issues of my zine. In one case, I replaced the file I uploaded with a corrected version but instead of replacing the original PDF, I seem to have added the new version to the other, resulting in a file double the length. (see https://archive.org/details/stay-free-21 )
How do I fix? Should I delete everything and reupload? (tho I thought that's what I had done before)
In 1993, scientists conducted an experiment in which they housed young rhesus macaques with slightly older stump-tail macaques. Rhesus are known for being pretty aggressive, whereas stump-tails are relatively chill -- they ignore minor slights & reconcile after conflicts.
The experiment tested whether the stumpies’ pacifism would rub off on the rhesus monkeys.
At first, the 2 species avoided each other, but over time that self-segregation diminished. By the end of 5 months, all of the monkeys were grooming each other & sleeping in a single huddle.
Moreover, the rhesus macaques adopted their older cousins’ friendly nature & reconciled after conflicts as often as the stump-tails. The rhesus didn't exactly copy other behaviors; they continued acting like rhesus, just with a friendly disposition.
(See Frans de Waal, Good Natured, 1996, pp 179-180.)
Can anyone recommend restaurants near the ASU Phoenix campus that have decent vegan options? Doesn't need to be an all-vegan spot. (Look for lunch/dinner, not sweet treats.)
In the 1960s, a monkey caged with a hippo at Mesker Zoo in Indiana developed a nightly habit of picking Hippy’s teeth for food scraps. Local photographer Sonny Brown spent over a year trying to capture the routine, which ran in the Evansville Courier in 1961 and was reproduced in LIFE. (Photo by Sonny Brown)
A study recently published in Primates surveys examples of primates’ cross-species relationships, both in the wild and in captivity. Most of these relationships were with other primates (with whom they share a habitat), but dogs, cats, and other mammals were also fairly common.
The most common interactions found were play and grooming. The young tended to seek out play with other species and adult females tend to groom, picking off bugs and debris off of other animals. Adult males were less likely to interact with other species. When they did, they were more likely to be abusive than the others, but their encounters were more often friendly than not.
See:
Grueter, C.C., Roncin, F., Nekaris, K.AI. et al. Heterospecific social behavior in primates: insights into the evolutionary roots of pet-keeping. Primates (2026).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-026-01281-0
Just want to share these important, research-based resources for helping monkeys.
Both of these key sources recommend AGAINST sharing videos and images of monkeys and apes with humans. Even in cases where the sharing is well-intended and critical, it ends up unwittingly fueling the primate pet trade. The SMAC guidelines, additionally, say to NOT engage with or share troubling social media content online -- instead, REPORT it without otherwise drawing attention to it, and encourage others to do the same.
The IUCN guidelines on best practices for responsible images of nonhuman primates: https://human-primate-interactions.org/best-practice-guidelines-responsible-images-of-non-human-primates/
The Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMAC)
https://www.endcrueltyonline.com/macaque-report
The IUCN publishes the Red List for Endangered Species.
SMAC is a coalition of many international animal groups, including the RSPCA, the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance, and the International Primate Protection League, among many others.
Full story paywalled at https://www.newspapers.com/image/605654315
Global Data From Great Ape Zoo Populations Confirm a High Prevalence of Overweight Individuals (American Journal of Primatology, July 2026)
by João Pedro Meireles, Sarah Byrne, Paul W. Dierkes, Miriam Göbel, Max Hahn-Klimroth, Arun Idoe, Dennis W. H. Müller, Zjef Pereboom, Jana Pluháčková, Sandra Reichler...
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajp.70185
Obesity has been a problem for captive great apes for decades, but zoos as a whole have yet to move the needle much. Some clear remedies are discussed in this study. Most importantly, a change is diet is needed: more fiber and leafy edibles and less — or, better yet, no — cultivated fruit. Yep, no more bananas.
The authors speculate that some zoos may be motivated to address the problem less out of concern for obesity than to reduce apes’ unsightly habit of regurgitating food and eating it again. This tends to happen more with cultivated fruit, which also tends to prompt more hoarding & fighting.
Male bonobos are the outlier, the only demographic who tend NOT to be obese — maybe because all of the females take the fruit from them?
Spotted this graphical abstract from the latest _American Journal of Primatology_ and thought, "hey, this looks interesting," only to check out the written abstract and find it almost comically laden with jargon and passive verbiage. Even a lay reader familiar with these words (see second screenshot) mean finds the written description puzzling.
Dear scientists: Please keep in mind that some non-scientists may actually be interested in your work!
Solly Zuckerman’s Functional Affinities of Man, Monkeys, and Apes (1933) includes this single photo to represent all chimpanzees.
Zuckerman is mostly known for The Social Life of Monkeys and Apes (1932), a book that somehow became an earlier primatology classic, despite getting a lot wrong. Mind-boggingly dense about animal emotions, Zuckerman likely landed on a photo that poetically captured the experience of captive chimps without actually realizing it.
Chapter header from Barbara Smuts' _Sex & Friendship in Baboons_ (1985)
In 1930, many US newspapers reported that Joe Doaks (pictured) won the International Monkey Balloon derby, a promotional events for the coconut trade. What most news coverage didn’t mention is that Joe won because all 3 of his competitors climbed the ropes and tried to puncture the balloons, presumably to ground them.
The Fresno Bee, California, included this detail in their September 28, 1930, story.
Scanned this page from _ Man and Monkey_ (1968) by Leonard Williams, who ran a proto-wildlife sanctuary in 1960s Cornwall and grew weary of visitors saying that all woolly monkeys look alike.
Just sharing my personal experience in trying to avoid taking prednisone after surgery in case it helps someone else.
I was feeling surprisingly good a couple of days after sinus surgery #2, which was geared to removing the scar tissue resulting from surgery #1, about 20+ years ago. (No septoplasty needed this time, no turbanite removal.)
I read a couple of recent studies concluding that oral steroids after ESS don’t help for CRS (chronic rhinosinusitis) without polyps and asked my doctor if I could skip those meds. He said sure, if I wanted to, as they are prescribed largely for comfort.
But by 5 days after surgery, the headache pain was so unbelievable intense, I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, could barely move or talk. Started on prednisone and almost immediately my appetite returned and I have what feels like a normal, manageable headache rather than something that feels like it’ll kill me. Doctor prescribed 10 mg 3x day for 3 days, then tapering down one pill in 3-day intervals.
I don’t love taking steroids, as they have side effects. But, man, they sure beat the alternative!
Many infant captive apes develop a sort of Stockholm Syndrome with their captors. Not this little gorilla, who eyes researcher Geoffrey Bourne warily as Bourne grips him tightly in a forced embrace. The photo is from the back cover of Bourne's book _The Ape People_ (1971).
This 1920 photo of John Daniel with his 3-year playmate was circulated widely in the 1920s. According to his caregiver, Alysa Cunningham, John Daniel loved to play games with children. For example, he’d shut his eyes tightly, then move about the room, bumping into tables and chairs, grinning all along.
A few months after this photo was taken, Cunningham sold John Daniel to Ringling Brothers. He died shortly thereafter, in April 1921.
I'm trying to keep this plant alive but it's been struggling. The leaves all have yellowed speckles and some have purple specks as well. Zone 7a, it's in full sun, and I've been watering daily. Previously, I watered every 2-3 days but my plant app told me to water more... it also keeps telling me to feed it epsom salts, which I've done twice in a month, and it didn't seem to help. I have a commercial 10-10-10 fertilizer and a "bloom booster" 10-30-20 I could try. Or maybe I should move it to a less hot spot? Advice welcome!