The socked monkeys of Puerto Rico
As thousands of relief workers struggle to restore normal life to Puerto Rico, a small group of scientists is racing to save more than 1,000 monkeys whose brains may contain clues to mysteries of the human mind.
One of the first places Hurricane Maria hit in the US territory Sept. 20 was Cayo Santiago, known as Monkey Island, a 40-acre outcropping off the east coast that is one of the world’s most important sites for primate research.
Maria devastated the island, stripping it of vegetation, ruining the macaques’ drinking troughs and crushing the piers that the University of Puerto Rico uses to bring in bags of food pellets.
“All of our tools were destroyed,” said Angelina Ruiz Lambides, director of the facility. “Does FEMA cover this? Does the university’s insurance cover this? I don’t know.”
Incredibly, the monkeys survived. No bodies have been found, and a census has not detected large numbers missing.
Established by primatologist Clarence Ray Carpenter in 1938, the island’s original colony of 400 or so Indian rhesus macaques has expanded to become the world’s most studied free-ranging primate population.
“It’s completely unprecedented in its breadth and size,” said James Higham, an NYU professor of biological anthropology studying the monkeys’ cognition and communication.
Now university and local staff are ferrying bags of food pellets in a skiff and trying to reassemble the drinking troughs that keep the animals alive. Mainland scientists are bringing chain saws, a portable pier and other gear.
While the rescue effort is heroic, “it’s not sustainable,” Higham said. “They’re doing the best they can do under very difficult conditions, but it needs help and attention.”