“GIA” THE SPIDER MONKEY

Baby Gia is a female, approximately 2 months old when she arrived at RAREC in April 2021. She was rescued in the province of San Martin, Peru. She flew into Iquitos airport and we picked her up from there.

Her behavior is still evolving, as she is still in the early stages of her behavior development. Her relationship with animals started with Patrick a juvenile spider monkey (A. chamek), with whom she started to play. At her first 2 months in RAREC, everybody thought that she was an A. chamek as Patrick, but she gives us a surprise when started to show her 2 colors in June, confirming us that she is an A. belzebuth, the other species of spider monkey.

Now, she was successfully introduced to Sarita and Emma, two juveniles A. belzebuth, and she is improving her grooming behaviors and vocalizations.

She has not yet shown strong aggression, but she can try to bite when she is restrained or deprived of an activity that she wants to do.

It was necessary to reduce her contact with people so that she is not humanized and fully relates to her fellows, in order to learn the complete behavioral repertoire of her species and favor future reintroductions.

Our dearest friend Kerry Gladish has decided to name her Gia after her daughter. Sponsoring our animals is just one way that you can help us raise funds to care for these beautiful creatures. Sponsoring an animal is a great gift for that someone special and gives you the opportunity to have video calls with your animal, name your animal and receive regular updates. The sponsorship money goes towards cage maintenance, general care, food and toys for mental stimulation.