My mom is allergic to anything with hair… or saliva … or pollen. So of course, having a mammalian housepet (or blooming plant) was out of the question. But that didn’t stop my parents from giving us a fur-filled childhood.
It started when I was 6 or so. On every reasonably weathered Saturday, my dad would pack us up in our minivan -- camera, carrot sticks and juice boxes in tow -- to spend a day at the library and zoo.
I loved those Saturdays.
Then, one day, we discovered the Bronx Zoo, a worthwhile 2.5 hour drive from our house in New Jersey. Even Momma would come with us, albeit with three years’ supply of Benadryl in her purse.
We loved watching the peacocks flaunt their plumes, hearing the strange calls of the colorful exotic birds, and petting the billy goats and sheep, their velvety noses nudging our palms for food crumbs. But our favorite had to be the monkey house. Even Momma, red-eyed and stuffy-nosed, would be excited for the monkey house.
To us, it was so strange and comforting that monkeys acted so similarly to people. These are the lessons that I learned from observing them:
- Love is universal. The way that monkeys pick their young for fleas is so tender that I truly believe other animals feel love the way we do.
- The joy of learning and need for simulation are also universal. If you’ve ever seen a capuchin approach a new toy, I think you’d agree.
- We’re so feeble. Young humans are relatively helpless and fragile compared to monkey babies who can cling onto their mothers as they hop from branch to branch.
That last point really stuck in my mind. For years thereafter, I found evidence of this. Baby horses walk within minutes of being born. But a newborn human is (distance) blind, (mostly) bald, and unable to even hold up his own head.
I would learn later in an earth sciences class in college that this helplessness of human babies is related to our relative intelligence as beings. Some years ago, the climate changes in the African continent caused a recession of forestation, forcing some apes to adapt to living on flat lands. As our species predecessors left the trees to become plains-based primates, it became less critical for babies to be able to hang on tightly. Because of this, they were able to get away with more “wobbly” necks. This allowed their head size to become much larger compared to their body size, which ultimately allowed human intelligence to develop to today’s extent.
Man, am I itching to go back to the Bronx Zoo now that I’m back in the metro area! Think Momma would go with me if I buy the entirety of CVS’s Claritin supply?
xoxo,
the closing belle
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BLOGTOBER: Blogging every other day in October!
