Monkey business

We met Kellie and Dawson today at the zoo for the first Stroller Safari of the season. The theme for this program, which is geared toward children under 4, was primates. They called it "Monkey Business" but we have been to the zoo a few times and I have never seen any monkeys. I didn't think they had them at this zoo, so I was curious about what animals we would see and which primate would be the live animal "encounter" . The last time we we were there, we got to feed the penguins. I figured if we were going to feed the animal bananas I might have a fight on my hands as bananas are still Grace's favorite fruit!

The zoo educator taught about a few of the things that makes an animal a primate - they are mammals, have both eyes in the front like humans, and they have pretty big brains. She showed stuffed animals of different primates and asked the kids if they looked like any of their family members....hmmmm, I can think of a few!We also got to meet Chole - a Kinkajou. She is a 4-year old primate native to rainforests. Kinkajous even live in Guatemala! Some people keep them as pets, which is hard to do since they sleep during the day and are most active from 7Pm-midnight. I wonder how they tell time?Chloe likes to climb using her tail that is considered to be a "5th hand"!And she has a long tongue so she can get honey from bee hives. Her fur is really thick which is helpful when bees sting her. Kinkajous eat all kinds of food, but they prefer sweet things like fruit and honey. That is why they have the nickname "Honey Bears".Grace enjoyed exploring the classroom. She colored, made a monkey project, played with puzzles, and discovered fur from a tiger on a table that she tried to pull down!

(Check out those jeans, Nana!)

When we went for our guided tour of the zoo we saw condors, a snow leopard, the jaguar, bats, a 40-pound snake, and some other primates. We learned that lemurs are primates and that they have been around since before monkeys and apes. But they remain more primitive than other primates as their brains are not as well developed. We stopped by to see:

some female black and white ruffed lemurs andtheir cousins the ring-tailed lemurs. One of these came home with us! A toy, of course!