Cute creatures with bad habits

To the uninitiated, the roar of howler monkeys in the wild has caused many a traveler to shiver with trepidation. However, the only danger these hairy tree dwellers pose to hikers is the fact that, in many regions, they have inherited some very bad habits.

One of their favorite sports is to wait silently for people to walk directly beneath them and then shower them with branches, fruits and sometimes even urine and feces. I am up to their tricks and so I always make a wide detour around the troops.

This causes the males to howl furiously. “How dare you spoil our fun!” they seem to shout. I howl back that they are “bad animals with bad habits!”

This only makes the males howl louder. Fun in the jungle, as I would say.
“Stop harassing those animals!” the tree-huggers scold. “You should be ashamed of yourself!”

“Hey, they yelled at me first! Besides, we’re having a blast!”

—Thor Janson / www.bushmanollie.com