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Hunt Slonem (American, 1951), Squirrel Monkeys, 2024. Oil on canvas, 44 × 76 in.
Have you seen the squirrel monkeys (Genus: Saimiri)?
I have now
Yes, in photos/videos
Yes, irl
I'm not sure
A squirrel monkey from Monkey Haven experiencing a fruit and nut oatmeal ball treat.
Large as Life: Daytime Animals. Written by Joanna Cole. Illustrated by Kenneth Lilly. 1985.
Common Squirrel Monkey, Monkey Jungle, Miami, Florida
As reports of other incidents are beginning to come in, I thought I’d make a thread on all the crazy break-ins going on in the zoo world since the beginning of 2023.
On January 13th, Dallas Zoo closed due to a loose clouded leopard. Within hours she was discovered close to her home and safely returned to her enclosure with her sister, who had not left. Her wire mesh fence was discovered to have been intentionally cut open.
The next day, January 14th, it was announced that another cut had been discovered in the Dallas Zoo’s spectacled langur exhibit. However, the monkeys did not leave their enclosure and all were reportedly accounted for and uninjured.
On January 22nd, a highly endangered lappet-faced vulture at the Dallas Zoo was found dead in his enclosure with a “suspicious wound.” The wound appeared to be unnatural and is suspected of being a stab wound.
On January 29th keepers at Zoosiana discovered that 12 of their squirrel monkeys were stolen in the night. The remaining monkeys were uninjured but stressed.
On January 30th, attention was back on the Dallas Zoo as it reported that two of its emperor tamarins were missing after their enclosure had been cut into. As Dallas was in the middle of a freeze, it was doubtful the monkeys would have left their heated enclosure willingly. They were believed to have been taken.
On January 31st, Dallas police released photos and a video of a person of interest who may be connected to the theft of the tamarins.
Later that day, the tamarins were found in an abandoned home following a tip from the owners of the neighboring church. The monkeys were in a closet filled with bird feces and moldy clothes. Police also found cats, cat feces, pigeons, and a water jug containing dead fish in the home.
The tamarins were reportedly very happy to return to their warm home, but had lost weight. The zoo currently has them in quarantine to get their weight back up and monitor them for any illnesses they could have caught from the other animals in the abandoned house.
On February 2nd, 24-year-old Davion Dwight Irvin was arrested after an employee of the Dallas World Aquarium recognized him from the “person of interest” photos. He was reportedly scoping out mesh enclosures at the aquarium and approached the employee to ask questions about the animals’ care.
Apparently there had been unreported thefts in early January of feeder fish and fish supplies as well as training supplies taken from the behind the scenes otter area at the Dallas Zoo.
Meanwhile, also on February 2nd, someone cut open the stainless steel mesh of the Central Park Zoo’s Eurasian eagle owl exhibit. The owl, Flaco, has been under zoo surveillance since he was located on the 3rd and the hope is to lure him back with food once he gets hungry. As of today, February 8th, he has not eaten or drank, as he does not know how to in the wild.
Back to Texas, and despite zoos in the area doubling security, on February 6th keepers found a 4-inch cut in the Houston Zoo’s brown pelican enclosure. The birds are reportedly all accounted for and unharmed.
On February 7th, it was reported that Davion had not only confessed to stealing the Dallas Zoo’s monkeys, but also stated that, if released, he would go right back to stealing animals.
Davion confessed that he had attempted to take Nova, the clouded leopard, but he was only able to pet her before she climbed out of reach. He was also linked to cutting the langurs’ enclosure, but not charged since the langurs did not escape.
It was also revealed that Davion had been a person of interest after staff recognized the zoo regular as someone who often asked a lot of abnormal questions (such as how to shift the tamarins in and out of their various spaces) and had been previously been caught sneaking into staff only areas.
So far the vulture, Pin’s, death is still under investigation. Pin’s enclosure was on the other side of the zoo from the area Davion had been targeting.
As for Zoosiana’s squirrel monkeys, an arrest has been made in connection to the theft. 61-year-old Joseph Randell has been taken in for questioning. The 12 monkeys remain missing.
As it stands, we still have one dead vulture who’s killer may still be at large, 12 missing squirrel monkeys, and an owl in danger of starvation or injury in New York City.
I will reblog with updates to ongoing cases as they become available, or if more zoo sabotage happens (God forbid). Please feel free to correct me if I’ve gotten any dates or information wrong and I will edit or update this post.
(Also, I am on mobile and won’t be able to add a readmore until I can access a computer, sorry) Update: I was finally able to add a readmore and also turned all news links into hyperlinks.
On a more serious note though, squirrel monkeys actually have yellow hands and feet naturally! No pee necessary.
I mean, they DO pee on their hands and rub it all over their bodies, which is a behavior known as “urine washing”, also found in capuchin monkeys. They do that so that other monkeys can find out information about them more easily, such as whether they’re sехuаlly mature or not. Kind of the same purpose behind when cats just randomly pee on things. A little more gross though.
But that’s not why they’re yellow! They just are. Monkeys come in many cool colors.
