The monkeys at Jungle Friends use every reason to celebrate and Halloween is no exception! Even though we were a day late with the festivities, the monkeys were too busy trick-or-treating to notice! Our carestaff had a blast putting together bags of vegan, monkey-friendly treats: bananas, grapes, sugar cane, hard shelled nuts, raisins, dried papaya, and even limes ( Udi's favorite, of course). Some of our monkey groups even got pumpkins in their habitats, expertly carved by members of our care team. Watch as our carestaff prepares our monkey goodie bags!
We couldn't forget our diabetic capuchins! Today, many of our diabetic monkeys (like Tessa and her friend Mario) enjoyed sugar-free Halloween bags with pumpkin, cashews, peanuts, sunflower seeds and almonds, largely in thanks to donations from volunteers! In true autumn fashion, we will be roasting the rest of our pumpkins and will save the seeds for afternoon snacks for our dynamic diabetics. Diabetic monkeys LOVE hard-shelled nuts and can't get enough of them. Please donate a variety of nuts to the monkeys to enjoy in their stockings in the upcoming holiday season!
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| | Goldie is getting to the bottom of it! |
Once the bags, pumpkins and cameras were ready, we set about decorating the habitats. We "hid" bags high and low and scattered dry fruit on the ground for them to forage. Our Spider Monkeys in the Thunderdome group had the best time trick-or-treating. Clydette was the first to grab hers from her hammock but Goldie and Udi spent the most time searching through their Halloween bag! The entire group were making happy noises all afternoon as they munched on their treats.
Lulu and her monkey pal Stinky also put on quite the display when they saw their Halloween goodies. At first, they were skeptical but soon discovered all the treasures that their bags held. At one point, Lulu almost ended up falling into her goodie bag! Hopefully the two of them saved some for later.
Our newest Squirrel Monkeys celebrated their first major holiday at Jungle Friends in style! Their bags were smaller but just as packed with sweets and treats for them to munch on. Watch Judy's group pick their bag clean, treat by treat!
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| | There's always one more treat at the bottom! |
HUGE THANKS to everyone that has supported Jungle Friends as we fight to shut down the Banana Derby! We have received dozens of letters, hundreds of comments and thousands of signatures but we need more! There's still time to submit emails to the Alachua County Commissioner's Office, urging them to prohibit acts that include animal exploitation in future fairs. The American Humane Association's petition has over 5,000 supporters, add your name and let's double that number! By taking part in this fight, you are helping Jungle Friends ensure that next Halloween, more monkeys get to enjoy treats, not tricks.
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