Welcome to the August edition of the Living Links newsletter – your source of all things monkey and more!
What’s new at Living Links?
Research
The monkeys have been busy exploring new environments this month! We’re slowly introducing a “big box” to the capuchin cubicle training, which they seem to be loving – once they’re in, they don’t want to leave! The capuchins have also been learning to navigate a virtual environment, with some promising results.
Scroll down to our Researcher of the Month section to learn more!
Visitor Experience
Visitors have been loving the new interactives and signage we introduced last month, and we’re hard at work designing even more fun new materials.
This month, we will be trialing a new game where you can become one of our team of researchers and try collecting some real life data yourself – we hope you stop by!
Read about past visitor research!
Monkey of the Month
Our monkey in the spotlight for August is the beautiful Junon, the second oldest female capuchin on the East Wing. She is one of the best at research, and she has passed down her intelligence to her 5 offspring (Carlos, Chico, Reuben, Matoury and Jaci). Great work, Junon!
Did you know…
While squirrel monkeys are one of the smallest members of the primate family, they are also the primate with the largest brain to body mass ratio!
Question of the Month
Q: What do the monkeys like to eat the most?
A: The monkeys at Living Links love raisins, but their diet consists of a lot of healthy fruit and vegetables – even potatoes! Each monkey has their own preferences, however – they can be as picky as removing the skin of an apple!
Do you have pressing questions for the researchers at Living Links? This is your opportunity to ask! Each month, our researchers will go through your questions and choose one to answer using their expertise.
Researcher of the Month
This month, our researcher in the spotlight is PhD candidate Andreea Miscov!
Andreea recently completed a MSc in Comparative Psychology at the University of St Andrews, where she studied the memory abilities of the Living Links capuchins. She has recently returned to Living Links and is currently working alongside Dr Emma McEwen to discover whether capuchins are able to forage for food in a virtual environment within the cubicles.
Through her research, Andreea seeks to better understand the capabilities of capuchins, opening avenues to new methods for research and discovery. Check out her Twitter to learn more!
