While I was on a vacation in Thailand last week, I stumbled upon a man who has been keeping Capuchin monkey and a Chimpanzee as pets (I guess it's illegal). Of course, there are other species of monkey which he has been keeping and being used to pluck coconuts for his business (I'm not sure if he meant it, language barrier) but it seems these two are his favourite, he kept them close to him everywhere he went. We know that in certain conditions, monkeys can pose an incredible danger to humans but sometimes, they can be a great companion if they were treated right. Chimpanzees, for example, can be quite opportunistic if we consider what they normally eat as their meals but if they were treated and trained well by the owner, they can do a lot of things which resembles the capabilities of a human child. They can understand sign language, they can pick some items for you, probably cook a simple meal and if you were having a heart attack, it can be the one who will call 911 and activate the emergency medical services (EMS); I won't trust them with CPR, of course.
Last month, I've written an article about the propensity of a chimpanzee to suck the brain out of a dead monkey, treating them as a delicious, probably luxurious meal which means they were, sometimes, show cannibalistic behaviour. They would eat anything that they can get their hands on including carcasses which are not usually seen in primates' behaviour. What if, when the owner of the chimpanzee died? Do you think they would try to find anything that can be used to crack open your skull and eat your brain? Despite all of the scary facts about chimpanzees, it was one of the most popular primates which have been frequently adopted by people as pets including the late King of Pop, Michaels Jackson and Hugh Heffner, the founder of Playboy. They are considered as one of the most entertaining companions among animals as they can really interact with you (the owner) like a real-life child.
However, if they got bored, they have the tendency to go amok, sometimes attacking their owner and if we consider the fact that an average chimpanzee can be twice or thrice as strong as humans, well the owner would be done by then. You need to modify your house or at least leave them in a room with a lot of ropes or anything they can hang on to which might be expensive than you can imagine. Oh yeah, talk about expensive, don't forget the fact that some species of monkeys require a strict diet, supplement and probably a few appointments with veterinarians which can be costly (ka-ching!!). It's like having a child, you have to think a lot about it; you need to make a few adjustments to your routine, make some rearrangement to your furniture and the most difficult things of all, to tolerate with all of their shortcomings as primates. Other pets might seem submissive to their owner but if a primate feels irritated, they would probably bite you. Imagine you have to live with them for 20 to 40 years depending on their lifespan knowing that any moment you can get bitten.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't adopt a monkey as a pet but taking care of them can be quite frustrating. Even if you have enough time to tame your pet monkey, they're still a wild animal which loves to assert their dominance when they realise they were living with other people in the same area. You can bring your monkey anywhere you want, or make them do whatever you desire (with training) but when it comes to their position in their perceived community, they won't become anything less than a leader of a group. I mean you can try to control their action by giving a lot of encouragement probably by giving rewards to any behaviour which you perceived as good, but giving a negative reinforcement for a bad behaviour can harm you in an unimaginable way. You need to give them your utmost attention which might result in you being withdrawn from a normal social interaction with your friends. It's like caring for someone who stays a toddler for the rest of his/her life.
Well, I can take it. They will just scratch or bite. They will never kill me. Now, what's the problem with biting and scratching? It would create an open wound which can be a favourable condition for infections to set in. Moreover, we would not know what kind of bacteria would be introduced into your blood circulation when you were bitten by monkeys. Zoonosis has been a popular topic for various medical conferences nowadays and it would be kinda unfortunate if you were infected by them. Sometimes, a bacteria which can be harmful to humans laid dormant in the primates. In 1999, there were a lot of studies which have pointed out some similarities between the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) which can be found in an infected monkey. It can be due to mutations which resulted in some kind of biological adaptations of SIV making it capable to infect humans. Just how prone are we to get infected by a monkey's bite assuming that the monkey is infectious?
Did you know that in order to provide you with a fresh batch of monkeys to be kept as pets, one of the ways of getting them is to rely on fellow poachers ripping off infant monkeys from its mother? It would be a lot stressful for the primates to deal with the fact that every time they gave birth to a beautiful primate's baby, they need to give it up so that a human can keep their child as a pet. Sometimes, supporting the decision that monkeys should be kept as pets means that we were supporting poachers to get as many monkeys as they could get for business. Oh yeah, can you think in any way, how adopting monkeys could be traumatic for the newborn? Primates imprint quite quickly and if they were transferred from a poacher to an adopter then they (primates) would be having a difficult time to adapt to the changes in the environment. It would lead to a stressful condition which can result in attitude problems among primates making it difficult for people to live with such monkeys.
4 Types Of Monkeys Which Were Usually Kept By Humans As Pets
I'm not objecting or supporting any decisions made by people whether they want to adopt monkeys as pets or not but I would say that sometimes, having a monkey as a pet could be the best decision ever made by a specific individual. People were lonely and sometimes having a well-trained primate in the house could be much entertaining. Of course, there were some risks, but it would be worth it if you can be committed with such endeavour. Now, let's talk about 4 kinds of primates which were usually taken as pets.
I think this kind of primates have been popularised quite frequently in many TV shows and movies. People seem to like taking a Capuchin monkey as pets but in reality, it is quite difficult to take care of one. Capuchin monkeys usually live in a group of 20 which means it would take you much efforts to entertain them since they were highly social, intelligent and not to mention, aggressive. Keeping one, especially, if it is already an adult can pose a problem for the adopter since they were highly territorial and love to swing around since their natural habitat was the rainforest (keeping it in the human's settlement might become a problem). Like an infant, a capuchin monkey has a weak immune system which means it can get infected quite easily. Oh yeah, by the way, some of them harbour microbial agents which can cause various diseases such as rabies and hepatitis. The most common issue for a capuchin monkey is diabetes. They were often fed with human's food due to some difficulties for the owner to try and mimic its food which can be found in natural habitat.
Like a capuchin monkey, chimpanzees are social, territorial and quite intelligent. They would be able to communicate with their owners if they were taught American sign language making it relatively easy for people to train them. One look at it, you would think it is cute but when they reach 13 years of age, they were considered an adult which make it relevant for them to exert some sort of physical superiority even towards its owner. It would be hard for people to deal with a chimpanzee once they've reached that particular age. Financially speaking, they were quite expensive to be kept as pets especially when we consider their medical care. They were usually referred to a veterinarian due to diabetes, heart problems and sometimes, problems related to dental (tooth decay). Like any other active primates, you will have to consider the arrangement of your furniture to fit in a chimpanzee in the inside of your house. They are rather difficult to be dealt with and in the United State, most of the adult chimpanzees were sent to various sanctuaries after they were abandoned by their respective owner.
Have you ever seen a picture of a macaque took a selfie? What seems to be particularly interesting about this species of monkey is that they were carriers to one of the most fatal Herpes viri to humans called the Herpes B virus. Even though a great number of people were adopting macaque as a pet, they were usually raised to be used in clinical trials especially when the study involved the neurological and visual function. In Vietnam, macaque can be a delicious treat to the native people making it easier for them to become affected by viri carried by the macaque such as Herpes and HIV. Unlike the two species of monkey which has been mentioned previously, the social structure of a macaque can be divided into either a high ranking macaque and low ranking macaque. It is a complicated social structure but basically, a low ranking macaque should reserve some foods for the high ranking macaque, or else, there would be some form of aggression between them.
This particular monkey might seem small but they can be quite destructive if they were treated wrong. People who own tamarins will usually keep at least two of them so that they would have some form of companionship. Even if, like any other primates, they were quite difficult to be dealt with, they were usually satisfied and would not make a fuss if the owner spends at least 5 hours of their time per day with them. if you were thinking of putting them in a cage, you need to ensure the cage has an ample space for them to climb on or swing about. They might be cute and compared to the other species of monkey, they might be small, but they are still unsuitable to be kept by children. Some tamarins were carriers of HIV, parasites and rare strains of Ebola virus which could have to affect humans but remain dormant in them. The thing about treating a diseased monkey is, not every veterinarian were well-equipped to treat them hence finding a specialist can be costly. Tamarins are prone to be affected by pox, flu etc. which make it reasonable for the owner to bring their monkeys for an annual medical checkup.
Conclusion
It's actually up to your preferences regarding the species of monkey you want to adopt but remember, even though most of them possess the same characteristic as primates, they were unique in a certain behaviour or even when we consider them as the host of microbial agents. Various factors should be considered especially time and money when you feel tempted to get a pet monkey. Raising a pet monkey and then later, send them to a sanctuary just because you weren't able to handle it any longer can inflict a serious psychological damage to the monkey which would make it difficult to tame them. When you make a decision to take a monkey as a pet, you were committing your time and money towards raising a permanent toddler who doesn't know any better than to play around every day, throwing tantrums if their demands were not met and probably throwing off faeces at you if they were annoyed by the idea of toilet training. Anyway, good luck and may the "monkey" be with you.
References and further reading materials
- 10 Reasons Monkeys Should Never Be Pets. Retrieved By June 20th, 2018.
- 7 Kinds of Monkeys That Are Kept as Pets. Retrieved By June 20th, 2018.
- Problems With Pet Monkeys. Retrieved By June 20th, 2018.
- Origin Of HIV & AIDS. Retrieved By June 20th, 2018.
- Celebrities and their unusual pets. Retrieved By June 20th, 2018.
- Capuchin Monkeys: Good as Pets?. Retrieved By June 20th, 2018.
- Do Chimpanzees Make Good Pets?. Retrieved By June 20th, 2018.
- Macaque. Retrieved By June 20th, 2018.
- The Tamarin Monkey. Retrieved By June 20th, 2018.
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