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A trip to Jardim Botânico in São Paulo City

      She was brown and beautiful, glistening in the afternoon sunny rain shower! No, she was not the Girl from Ipanema. She was very hairy and the size of a Beagle, and she was hanging upside down eating the ripened little coconut fruits from a Jerivá palm tree.
      If you did not guess by now, she is a South American monkey and a member of the group of mammals known as the Primates.
      This monkey is called by its common name in Portuguese – the bugio. The bugio I was observing is a mom too, and her baby was every which way – upside down, right-side up and sideways – but almost always clinging to his mom’s fur. Luckily, momma had a “fifth hand” at the end of her very muscular tail. This “hand,” was not in fact a hand at all. It was a prehensile tail that all bugios have. This tail, which at its end has a naked patch of skin with fingerprints, can wrap firmly around tree branches allowing bugios to suspend upside down. In all the primates, only a few of the many South American species have a prehensile tail. At this moment, mom’s tail was wrapped firmly around the thick stem anchoring the bunch of little coconut fruits, which allowed her to work over the fruit in her impressive upside-down position.
      I came to realize that momma’s “baby” was actually probably a pre-teen (in human terms). I realized this when I saw the youngster leave mom and climb up all alone to the top of the palm tree. There, it clambered for a while among the crown, until it got bored and came back down to clamber over mom again. It was a little independence with the need to check in frequently with mom. It was demonstrating a little pre-teen clinginess, literally!
      As I was watching the acrobatic skills of momma and her pre-teen, I had an irksome feeling that I might be suddenly witness to a fall from an extreme height – a fall that would almost certainly prove deadly. One loose grip on the fur of his mom and this youngster was plummeting to the forest floor. One lapse of attention or coordination on the part of mom, and she was careening towards the forest floor, perhaps with youngster on board! Think of everything momma bugio must somehow know. For example, how strong is the stem that holds this bunch of little coconut fruits? Will this stem support me; after all, I am no light weight? Once more, will this stem support me plus my clinging pre-teen who is more than a little rambunctious?
      Thankfully, I did not witness a fall of mom or her youngster. This is most certainly due to the fact that bugios must know their capabilities when it comes to climbing extremely well. This is likely due to their experience from a young age clambering through the branches of the forest. But they are lucky too because their bodies and behavior have been shaped by the process of evolution over millions of years. Besides their muscular prehensile tails, they have strongly gripping fingers and toes all of which are tipped with fingernails and toenails, very good eyesight allowing them to judge the distance between branches and lastly their large brains, which allows them to learn skills. For example, this teenager bugio was almost certainly learning a great deal about climbing and obtaining food from watching his mamma.
      You too can witness the incredible feats of momma bugio and her teenager! All you need to do is visit Jardim Botânico, only 20 minutes by metro from the center of São Paulo City. Then, walk the raised platform that takes you deep into the remaining Mata Atlântica, the Atlantic Coastal Forest. Believe me it is better than the circus! There is one thing to know, the habitat of the bugios, known as the Mata Atlântica, has been severely damaged in Brazil. It is so lucky that bugios can live freely within the Jardim Botânico. While we can enjoy watching these bugios, we must help to save them and their homes from further destruction. If not, then all bugios may eventually take one final and devastating fall!

Eugene E. Harris, PhD
Professor of Biology and Anthropology
City University of New York