My girlfriend and I stumbled across the zoo quite by accident. We were on our way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and just happened to see the zoo and chose to go there instead. Paintings are great and all but we sure do love penguins. It was really nice until we found the tamarins.
Tamarins are cute little monkeys with very fuzzy bodies and hairless black faces. I have had a previous run-in with these primates at the Cape May Zoo. At that zoo I had wanted to the little guys to come over to where I was standing so I made a squeaking noise with my mouth. It work and a few scurried over. Then I made the sound again and they began screaming at me. They wouldn't stop the high pitched screech that put me off a bit and embarrassed the hell out of my girlfriend. They then became known as the "Pat Hating Monkeys".
This encounter with tamarins wasn't an better. They were behind glass so any squeaking from me would not incur their wrath, but they found another way to disturb me. When a walked up a cute little thing ran up to the glass and sat there on the limb on a tree instead the cage. I felt bad for him because it looked as though he had a spot of mange just below his neck on his back. Another tamarin ran up behind him and looked like he was going to groom his friend. But the first monkey pulled away. The second monkey was insistent and eventually found the sore spot on the other's back. He brushed the hair away and my girlfriend remarked "Oh, look he wants to help him." Then, as if on cue, the second tamarin bit into the injured tamarin's sore spot and ripped a piece of flesh from his back which he then ate.
Tamarins are not as cute as they look.
