Friday, January 1, 2010

Squirrel monkey- Bonnet House, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

squirrel monkey

Squirrel monkey
Squirrel monkey- Bonnet House, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Squirrel monkey eating
Tennisball head

Yes, we know it's a bird blog. We went down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a few days to get away from the winter. We planned on doing a little birding, and while reading about places close to our hotel, we discovered that the Bonnet House had Brazilian Squirrel monkeys in addition to being a good place to bird. It was within walking distance from our hotel, so one afternoon we took a stroll over and did the grounds only tour, preferring to stay outside in the warm weather. We had to walk around a few times before we encountered the monkeys. We put our previously learned monkey spotting techniques to work. (We've watched monkeys when on vacation in Brazil and Costa Rica.) When we heard funny noises and things started falling out of the trees around our heads, we knew they were close. When they got really active, it was impossible to miss them, and we spent about an hour observing and photographing their crazy behavior. We even saw one eat a dragonfly. We just couldn't get enough of them.

Mike assumed they were in cages or on a small island, but Chris was right and they roam freely on the 35 acre grounds of the Bonnet House Museum & Gardens. There are plenty of plants and insects to eat here and the little tennis ball heads (as we nicknamed them) seemed to be living the good life.

We took a few too many photos to post here, so if you like squirrel monkeys you can see the rest on Flickr

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