(no subject)

[prog]

Looked at a bunch of apartments today. The winningest one was that sunken place, I think, since its size, location, and price can't be beat. It's really big, a minute (literally) from the Davis T, and less expensive than my first apartment here. Not sure about the view, since the view out every window is dirt. cthulhia suggests the possibility of setting up action-figure dioramas in the dirt outside, but we'll see what happens.

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Speaking of food-eating battle monkeys, I like this story about the candy-eating knife monkey.

Comments

As a former zoo docent

[cthulhia]

I would agree that the story is probably apocryphal. Or dates back to at least the 1970s.

I don't know if it's a federal law against having animals in food prep areas, but it is against the rules of accreditation, required for any federal funding and most grants. So, in most cases, these events would effectively shut the place down. If a primate with a Zoo's dental plan, so to speak, still managed to have bad teeth, the zoo would already be mushing up his food for him, and taking care not to give him anything that would worsen his teeth, like processed sugar. Any privately funded place that didn't show an interest in caring for the animals' health would get picketed by even the more-rational-than-PETA ecologists. (It always depresses me when I hear about privately-owned exotic/rare animals, since their caretakers aren't being held accountable in the same ways as a Zoo, and often don't have the educational network to keep them from harming the animals. You're already suffering under the artificial environment problem. Many have no alternative now, since their natural habitats are being bulldozed.)

Since the zoo where I volunteered ( http://uticazoo.org/ ) was small, without enough funding to keep such facilities fully updated, we couldn't have large primates. Some zoos might consider arrangements with psych/cognitive learning folks who work with primates, as a way of combining funds to get better facilities. In a situation like that, if there is one, it's possible the animals would be allowed in the kitchen.

I know that our zoo almost lost it's accreditation when we weren't able to completely solve the rodent problem, and the golden lion tamarins ( http://uticazoo.org/animals/index.cfm?skip=1&start=7 ) figured out how to trap (and eat) them in their cage.

Primates, especially teeny little orange ones, are more clever than you realize until you have to find ways of keeping them entertained in a zoo.