Shakespearean Monkey

Shakespearean Monkey

This is my favourite monkey – the wonderful proboscis monkey. I always think their fur around their neck looks like a shakespearean ruff!

Their noses are huge – they use them to make a loud honk and to communicate their whereabouts to other monkeys. Some noses are so big they have to lift them up in order to get food in their mouths. It looks so funny when they do this!

We met him in Sabah, Borneo. They only live there – nowhere else. They have two stomachs filled with gas which digests the poisonous leaves which they eat. These leaves are sometimes used for the tips of blowpipe darts. People have tried to keep these monkeys in zoos, but they get depressed and won’t eat and then die. They cannot tolerate sugar so you would never see these monkeys eating bananas, though I think they would look quite at home with a banana in their hand!

They have an almost permanently erect penis – it is thin and red and the locals call it the red chilli! They used to eat it as an aphrodisiac. Their testicals are black and all in all it is quite an amazing sight!

They are good at swimming and have webbed back feet. They are not good at playing hide and seek because when they are hiding up trees you can see their very long white tails dangling down like a load of bell pulls!

Unfortunately much of their habitat around the mangrove swamps has been cleared to plant palm oil. Such a terrible terrible situation for these amazing cousins of ours.

Shakespearean Monkey belongs to the following groups:

Cutest of the Cute, Exotic Mammals and Happy Haven