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Me and my monkey.


When I was a teenager, I lived with a brown capuchin monkey capuchin monkey

one of the New World monkeys used commonly as a laboratory primate. Gregarious, arboreal and diurnal, they are popular pets and weigh up to 10 lb. Called also Cebus spp., ringtail or organ-grinder monkey.
 ("Monkey Business: Do the quirks of capuchins Capuchins (kăp`ychĭnz) [Ital.,=hooded ones], Roman Catholic religious order of friars, one of the independent orders of Franciscans, officially the Friars Minor Capuchin [Lat. abbr.  make them creatures with culture?" SN: 4/3/04, p. 218). Among other games, we enjoyed trading: his poker chips for my food. When he was out of poker chips, he would improvise by finding pebbles, paper, toys, and other household detritus detritus /de·tri·tus/ (de-tri´tus) particulate matter produced by or remaining after the wearing away or disintegration of a substance or tissue.

de·tri·tus
n. pl.
 to trade. When all was traded into my pile, he would give me his tail, feet, and hands by placing them, one by one, in my mouth. These pieces of him were mine to keep until I chose to release them. while a part was in my mouth, his focus was diffuse and disconnected from me and from himself (perhaps similar to the "trancelike state" mentioned in the article). After I released him, he would refocus on me and begin to negotiate the next exchange. He was an acutely intelligent individual, and I am very grateful for Susan Perry's field study of capuchins.

ANN GUTHRIE, FAIRBORN, OHIO Fairborn is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States, near Dayton and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The population of 32,052 at the 2000 census. It is the only city in the world with the name of Fairborn,[1]  
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Title Annotation:Letters
Author:Guthrie, Ann
Publication:Science News
Article Type:Letter to the Editor
Date:Jun 5, 2004
Words:168
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