A species of monkeys that constantly mate. Mating strategy and copulatory behavior in primates

In February 1926, 90 years ago, Soviet biologist Ilya Ivanov was sent to Africa to artificially inseminate female chimpanzees with human seed. How did the scientist perform his famous experiments and what does Shostakovich’s opera have to do with it?

"Take me as an experiment"

“I dare to approach you with an offer. I learned from the newspapers that you undertook experiments in artificially inseminating monkeys with human sperm, but the experiments were unsuccessful. This problem has interested me for a long time. My request: take me as an experiment.

I beg you, do not refuse me. I will happily comply with all experience requirements. I am confident in the possibility of fertilization.

As a last resort, if you refuse, then I ask you to write me the address of any foreign zoological scientist,” biologist Ilya Ivanov received such a letter from a resident of Leningrad in 1928.

This message is not the only one of its kind: after learning that a scientist was trying to crossbreed a man with a monkey, women from all over the Soviet Union wanted to take part in an unprecedented experiment.

Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov (1870-1932), outstanding Russian and Soviet biologist

To a modern person, Ilya Ivanov may seem crazy, obsessed with the idea of ​​​​creating some kind of mutant. In fact, the scientist, considered the greatest specialist in the field of artificial insemination of animals, began breeding hybrids of a mouse and a rat, a mouse and a guinea pig, a zebra and a donkey, an antelope and a cow back in 1899. Inspired by the successes, the biologist suggested that it was possible to create a hybrid of humans and monkeys using artificial insemination.

Ivanov spoke about this during his speech before the World Congress of Zoologists in the Austrian city of Graz in 1910.

Unacceptability of experiments

In 1925, the rector of the Moscow Higher Technical School named after N.E. Bauman, Nikolai Gorbunov, became interested in Ivanov’s ideas. He believed that the created hybrid would have “important scientific significance” and would attract the attention of all countries to the Soviet Union.

Ivanov himself has repeatedly stated that in the West they want to cross a man with a monkey, but they are afraid to conduct such experiments “because the experiments are unacceptable from the point of view of generally accepted morality and religion.”

By the way, the Soviet biologist admitted that he was not the first to come up with the idea of ​​​​creating an unprecedented hybrid. Ilya Ivanov was well aware that back in 1908, the Dutch naturalist Bernelot Muns argued that it was possible to conduct experiments on inseminating gorillas and chimpanzees with human sperm. Moons even raised money for an expedition to the French Congo (where the cherished crossing was to take place), and also published a thematic brochure “Truth. Experimental studies on the origin of man." As the Dutchman believed, it is best to cross monkeys with blacks - in his opinion, representatives of the “inferior” race.

How monkeys were stunned

In the fall of 1925, Nikolai Gorbunov got the Academy of Sciences to allocate $10,000 for Ilya Ivanov’s experiments in Africa. The following February, the biologist went on a business trip to Kindia, the third largest city in French Guinea. Soon after his arrival, Ivanov learned that the station had only chimpanzees that had not reached puberty.

Then the scientist entered into correspondence with the governor of Guinea and received permission to conduct experiments in Conakry, the administrative center of the country.

The biologist went to Conakry with his son Ilya, who wanted to help his father with experiments. Ivanov Sr. personally supervised the capture of adult monkeys.

“The methods of catching chimpanzees were downright rude,” writes documentarian Oleg Shishkin. — At night, the population of the hunting village tracked down a herd of monkeys. Then, armed with pitchforks and rakes, the aborigines drove the chimpanzees onto a lonely tree and lit a fire around them. After the chimpanzee, seeing no other way out, threw himself down, the Africans ran up to him and inflicted serious blows with batons. The stunned and crippled animal could not resist the hunters, who tied its limbs to two poles. These poles were carried on the shoulders of four Africans.”

The experiment failed

In February 1927, Ivanov conducted an experiment in which two female chimpanzees were artificially inseminated with sperm from unknown human donors. And in the summer he inseminated another monkey named Black.

In none of the three cases did pregnancy occur.

The biologist did not lose hope - now he proposed to inseminate female volunteers with the sperm of a male chimpanzee. However, the scientist’s colleagues did not greet this idea with enthusiasm.

“All around, apart from obvious confusion and even a hooligan attitude, you rarely see even a tolerant attitude towards my unusual quests,” Ivanov wrote in 1927. “However, I am not giving up and, not giving a damn about the antics of our “elders” and their sycophants, I continue to strive for the opportunity to bring the experiments that have begun to a more significant number and get an answer to the questions posed. I’m negotiating and hope to get support where, if there is no academic cap on my head, there is common sense and the absence of professional intolerance.”

Ivanov’s plans were not destined to come true - soon the scientist was subjected to political criticism and exiled to Alma-Ata, where he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

“It’s stuffy for me, it’s stuffy, it’s stuffy under the skin of an animal.”

The experiments of the Soviet biologist found cultural expression - in particular, the famous composer Dmitry Shostakovich began writing the opera “Orango”, the main character of which was a hybrid of man and monkey. By the way, Shostakovich was personally acquainted with Ivanov and even visited his scientific station in Sukhumi in 1929, several years before the scientist’s death.

According to the composer's plan, the half-man, half-ape appeared as a result of a daring biological experiment. But the hero was not kept in the laboratory: he was released, took up journalism, took part in the First World War, got married and even tried himself as a spy.

“Yawn, Orango!”, “It’s stuffy for me, it’s stuffy, it’s stuffy under the skin of an animal,” “Nastya dances and calms down Orango” - these were the names of the episodes of the opera.

For unknown reasons, Shostakovich wrote only the prologue of the musical work.

"My lioness is a nymphomaniac. When the mating season begins, she wants to make love every half hour, and so on for 4-5 days and nights in a row. I’m already exhausted, but I don’t want her to know about it. Is there any means to improve my potency?

Not-sex machine from the Serengeti

Dear Leo, you should be ashamed. Someone like you can perform 157 sexual acts with two different lionesses in 55 hours.

But why are lionesses so insatiable? There are two types of sex obsession. First: in order to become pregnant, the female needs to be aroused. Second (see above): the male copulates for days to be sure that all the offspring are his. Lionesses belong to the first type, just like rats, hamsters, and cactus mice. Even fertilization of an egg in a rat does not result in pregnancy if it was not aroused during intercourse. Lionesses are especially lustful, with only 1% of copulations resulting in offspring.

But is this beneficial to nature? At first glance, no. Perhaps the point here is how the lion society, the pride, is structured. A group of males guard their females and fight other males for them. If the alien lions win, they kill all the cubs of the pride. The lionesses stop feeding and fall into love fever again. Frequent changes of males are disadvantageous for lionesses. And such high demands on the strength (including sexual) and aggressiveness of lions mean that females receive strong defense and stability for at least two years.

Why wrap gifts?

"I think I'm a freak! I'm a long-tailed fly and I go to all the parties, but no one invites me or treats me to dinner. I noticed that all the other girls are so beautifully bloated and look like flying saucers, and I'm the only one so scary . What should I do?"

Quasimode of Delaware

In the culture of such flies, food and sex are mixed. An hour before sunset, the male catches a suitable insect - a juicy mayfly, for example - and presents it to the female so that she has something to do while he loves her. In this species, males prefer to mate with the largest (and therefore more fertile) females. And the latter adapted to their tastes. The flies have bags on the sides of their bodies that can be inflated. So, having inflated 3-4 times their real size, they wait for lovers.

In many animals, the female agrees to mate only in exchange for gifts. A male with a small gift is sometimes punished with a short copulation. Therefore, for example, the hunting spider (the only spider who does not come with empty legs) tries to wrap it in silk as best as possible, even if it is some small thing. “Darling” will take longer to unwrap the packaging and, therefore, endure it longer.

Gifts can be different. One of the species of tropical cockroaches gives the female a nutrient fluid, and produces it himself. A male moth gives his friend a chemical that protects against spiders. Sometimes the gift is a completely trifle: there are mukhans who bring their girlfriend just a silk balloon to play with her during sex.

But all males can only buy sex, not love. Nature forces females to go to great lengths, because this way they will produce much more offspring.

Why doesn't she give birth to a chick?

"I am a bronze-winged jacana, I built a nest, everything is with me, but my wife does not pay attention to me and does not even want to give me an egg so that I can take care of it. What am I doing wrong?"

A spurned husband from Tamil Nadu

Shout louder! Otherwise, this busy person won’t notice you. She has a large territory to protect, other men, and egg-laying business. Yakan females keep a harem of men, an average of four to one, and each husband takes care of the children. It is clear that while he is hatching the eggs, he has no time to have sex, and the female flies off to another husband. As a result of this “disgrace,” she has four times as many children!

A lot of help from the “daddy” is one of the reasons why females are so depraved. The situation of the yakan is typical for both fish and birds. As genetic analysis shows, dad often raises other people's chicks. Why are the father birds so resigned? And they have no choice. Female jacanas, for example, are 60% larger in size. It is unknown where this inequality came from. (Many women, I think, would like to know this)

What should the eyes be like?

“I’m very angry. I’m a bug-eyed fly, and every night I meet with girls, but always with different ones. You can hardly find virgins among them, these girls change guys like gloves. What do they want and why can’t I satisfy at least one?”

Defective from Malaysia

All women in the world can say anything: “he is the kindest, most devoted, noble” - but the truth is that everyone needs the most beautiful.

The desire to please the female sometimes outweighs the risk of being eaten by a predator. Darwin called this phenomenon sexual selection, and the result is that the most beautiful male has the most children.

While studying zebra finches, scientists put red rings on the males' paws. Females preferred males with red rings over all others, laying more eggs in their nests. At the same time, green rings were not rated at all, probably the birds did not like the combination of green with orange legs -

What's the matter here? One of the great geneticists, Ronald Fisher, offered his own explanation. Women's taste arises arbitrarily. But due to female preferences, the male with the longest tail “marries” more often than the short-tailed one, and his offspring will have more sexually attractive males. And so on, from generation to generation the tails become longer and longer - When will this end? And then, when the tail is stepped on, there is a greater, compared to before, chance of ending up in a predator’s breakfast. The increased length of the tail and the beauty of the skin mean: this is a male with healthy genes. This is the best!

How to fly off a log?

“I am a pseudo-scorpio rider. But when I found myself a beetle, I was not allowed on board! Some impudent person helped my girlfriend sit down and pushed me out. She, happy, flew away with him and is now having sex. And I, like a fool, "I'm sitting on a log and waiting for another beetle. How can I now fly away from the log and where can I find a faithful friend?"

Lost in Panama

Finding the right pseudo-scorpio is like catching a falling star. This is explained simply. Females who copulate with two different males have a better chance of producing offspring than those who make love to the same one several times. The latter often experience miscarriages: the genes of the female and the male turn out to be incompatible. If there are more partners, this problem can be avoided.

This is another reason for female promiscuity - it helps to overcome genetic incompatibility, which is often the cause of childlessness in many species.

In humans, approximately 10% of couples are childless. Of these, in 10-20% the cause is genetic incompatibility. Does this explain infidelity among women of the species Homo sapiens? Who knows.

How to protect a chimpanzee?

"I am writing to you anonymously. I want to complain about my chimpanzee neighbors. When these girls go into a frenzy, it’s terrible what happens! Yesterday, one of them slept with eight males in 15 minutes. And once I saw how seven chimpanzees had sex, ten times each a whole week in a day. Why are they such whores?"

Moralist from the Ivory Coast

The remarkable depravity of chimpanzees has long intrigued scientists. To be honest, there is still no answer as to why they are like this. Just two theories. According to the first, chimpanzees give birth left and right due to “sperm competition.” Premise: The sperm of some males have a greater ability to fertilize an egg. And this is a hereditary quality. So the transmission of such genes is generally beneficial for the population, and the chances of obtaining supergenes increase with promiscuity. The second theory concerns males being fooled. If a chimpanzee mates with all the "guys" in the area, none of them (like herself) will figure out who the baby's father is. Therefore, none of the males will kill a small chimpanzee, which generally happens among these monkeys.

Summarizing all the facts, we can conclude:

Being a male is incredibly difficult.

High-quality sex requires enormous physical effort - especially where females prefer many partners. Producing sperm takes a lot of effort. So before you jump into bed with a frivolous fly, remember the words of Lord Chesterfield, who described sex to his son: “The pleasure is momentary, the position is ridiculous, and the price is monstrous.”

Being female is also not easy.

And the female has many reasons for easy behavior. Know that she does this because

She ran out of sperm.

Other lovers turned out to be sterile.

Previous partners have bad genes.

Previous partners have genes that are incompatible with her own.

All her former males were so ugly.

She wants children to be different and healthy.

She wants to be fed.

She wants help raising her children.

She wants the sperm from different males to compete with each other and, therefore, the offspring will be the best.

She wants to hide who the father of her cub is.

Have you noticed that there is another obvious reason? Females cheat on males for pleasure. We know NOTHING at all about the evolution of sexual desire. Perhaps nature invented pleasure precisely to push females into the abyss of promiscuous sex.

The time has come to forever bury the myth that female infidelity is a deviation from the norm.

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. In a wasp, a female who copulates too often becomes “clogged” with sperm and is unable to fertilize her eggs. But in countless species, from grasshoppers to monkeys, having multiple partners is beneficial for offspring. Sorry, boys.

Does this rule work for humans? And what else is considered immoral for us and natural in the animal world? Read about it in the next publication..

http://www.ethology.ru/humor/?id=1

Another representative of the animal kingdom surprised zoologists with their mating behavior: during the mating period, female prehensile-tailed capuchin monkeys have the habit of throwing stones at representatives of the opposite sex in order to attract their attention and express their sympathy.

While filming a documentary about animals in Brazil's Serra da Capivara National Park, filmmakers noticed such unusual behavior in female black-striped capuchins of the species Sapajus libidinosus. Camila Galheigo Coelho, a behavioral biologist from the University of Durham and the University of Sao Paulo, collaborated with the film crew and helped understand the sexual play of the monkeys.

Adult males of the species S. libidinosus often receive “gifts” from their future sexual partners during the mating season.

Representatives of the genus of prehensile-tailed monkeys are distinguished by considerable intelligence, and their ability to use stones for their own purposes is a direct confirmation of this, says Dr. Coelo. With the help of these “tools,” animals crack nuts, dig soil, and explore hard-to-reach areas. And throwing stones at sexual partners is not fun or flirting for capuchins, but the only chance to attract attention.

Female black-striped capuchins, when ready to mate, do not have any standard opportunity to demonstrate their readiness: they do not have a bright color, they do not emit strong odors, and their genitals do not swell. Therefore, they give signals to males in other intelligible ways. In addition to throwing stones, monkeys wrinkle their faces and make howling sounds. And such strange behavior, fortunately, is perceived by males as a compliment.

"Just as members of other species wait until the female's genitals swell and their body begins to emit a characteristic odor, the males of the species S. libidinosus they try to ignore advances from females for as long as possible in order to fertilize them at the stage of maximum fertility,” says Dr. Coelo.

Females do not have the opportunity to attract sexual partners through physiological changes, so they express their readiness for mating through their behavior

Interestingly, this behavior pattern is unlikely to ever become widespread among capuchin species of other species living in areas outside the Serra da Capivara Park. The fact is that female prehensile-tailed monkeys do not migrate from group to group (unlike males). Thus, they cannot pass on the tradition of "stoning" to anyone other than their descendants.

At the same time, males can spread other “traditions”, such as working with sticks or the same stones. They can acquire such a skill in one group, and then teach it to representatives of the neighboring one, after which the skill can spread to all individuals of the species.

Coelo's group plans to continue studying the "social networks" of capuchins in the future to understand how knowledge is spread in groups of monkeys.

Get pregnant by monkeys

The Ministry of Defense has repeatedly asked for help from scientists studying the habits of monkeys. After all, the genetic code of primates is only less than one percent different from the genetic code of humans. This means that the results of experiments on monkeys are also valid for people, the military reasoned. This is how laboratories for studying monkeys appeared in the country. They conducted research for military purposes. And in Sukhumi there even arose an institute created for crossing humans with monkeys.

Lunacharsky approved the crossing

After Lenin's death in 1924, the public was agitated - the leader died of premature aging. This was the official verdict of Lenin’s personal physician, Doctor Rozanov, who was seriously dealing with the problems of rejuvenating the party elite. A year later, Rozanov submitted a paper to Stalin, which stated that he needed two monkeys to transplant gonads into people. If the experiment is successful, he will be able to extend the life of the entire communist elite.

At the same time, in the south of the country, Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov came up with the idea of ​​crossing a man with a monkey. For several years he had cherished this dream, but the tsarist regime opposed the immoral experiment. The Bolsheviks' coming to power freed his hands. He outlined his ideas in a letter to Lunacharsky:

“From the first steps of scientific activity, I tried to carry out experiments in crossing humans and monkeys. At one time, I negotiated with the former owners of famous zoos... However, the fear of the Holy Synod turned out to be stronger than the desire to meet this undertaking... At this time, the only thing missing to stage these experiments is money.”

Ivanov asks to give him 15 thousand dollars and send him to Africa to conduct the first experiments on crossing people with monkeys.

Did gorilla babies get pregnant?

In the summer of 1926, the professor and his assistants left for Guinea, where the station of the Pasteur Institute was based. The scientist hoped to study the circumstances of the rape of black women by gorillas, and if he was lucky, then find possible offspring. But - alas! No matter how hard the professor tried, not a single creature was found in the jungle that in any way resembled a cross between a gorilla and a human.

Then Ivanov secretly decided to carry out artificial insemination on native women who came to see Russian doctors. By luck, local men found out about this. They simply forbade their wives and daughters to seek help from white doctors. Ivanov had only one thing left to do - to order pygmies from Gabon, who, for a small gastronomic reward, were ready to become pregnant by male gorillas.

No one was ever born to the pygmies, but female chimpanzees managed to get pregnant from the pygmies! The delighted professor put the monkeys on a ship and sent them to Russia. But on the way to the USSR they died.

A special commission was created in Moscow to investigate this matter. Ivanov was accused of ruining the honor of a Soviet doctor when he tried to secretly impregnate Guinean women. Two months later, the entire public was discussing the failure of the operation. Ivanov was denied further funding for the expeditions. All the professor could count on was to continue the experiment in the monkey nursery in Sukhumi, which was built specifically for the artificial mating of monkeys with humans.

"We want to live with monkeys"

Ivanov’s ideas are becoming very popular in Sukhumi. People come to him from all over the world, ready to take part in the experiment. From this moment on, Ivanov has no shortage of sperm donors and even those who are ready to live with monkeys as with a husband or wife. Soviet people explained their strange desires to have offspring from gorillas as follows: “We want to serve science without demanding payment, for the sake of the USSR and the enlightenment of our fellow citizens subject to religious ignorance.”

The professor paid with his life

But in 1927, the professor nevertheless decided to move with his entire laboratory to West Africa to continue the experiment he had begun in Guinea. From Africa he wrote to the USSR: “The work is in full swing. Not everything turns out as planned, but there is no time to be discouraged... It is necessary not only to increase the number of experiments in artificial insemination of chimpanzees and gorillas with human sperm, but also to conduct backcrossing experiments again. A hybrid person, who corresponds to anthropoids, grows faster from birth than a normal person, by the age of three or four gains incredible strength, is much less sensitive to pain, is indiscriminate in food... The possibilities of use are endless - from working in damp slaughterhouses to military service.”

Because of Ivanov's departure, Stalin was shocked! The smug professor, against his wishes, left Russia and continues the experiment! By order of the leader, the NKVD recalled the professor to the USSR, allegedly for negotiations on the continuation of the experiment. At the station in Moscow, Ivanov was arrested and transported to Lubyanka. He received 5 years in the camps and died on March 20, 1932 from atherosclerosis in the camp. At the same time, experiments on human mating with monkeys were stopped at the Sukhumi Institute.

The fate of the nursery in Sukhumi

The Sukhumi nursery experienced its last happy days in the eighties. During the Georgian-Abkhazian war, most of the monkeys became victims of firefights. Sukhumi residents say that in the early 90s, a macaque jumping down the street with a baby clinging to its belly was as common here as the sound of gunfire. The pets who fled from the enclosures were shot: it was known that doctors conducted experiments on monkeys, tested new drugs, first infecting them with various diseases. There were also rumors in the city that bacteriological weapons were being tested on the unfortunate animals.

Could the experiment have been successful?

Today, any person, when asked to cross a monkey and a human, will answer that it is impossible! Of course, there are closely related biological species that can interbreed. For example, from the relationship of a horse with a donkey, a mule will be born. And a species like humans cannot interbreed even with a closely related monkey.

Monkeys are truly the creatures closest to us in terms of genotype,” Leonid Firsov, a professor at the Pavlov Institute, said in a conversation with a Smena correspondent. - For many years, science has studied the physiology of women using monkeys - monkeys are the only ones in the animal world whose monthly cycle coincides with that of women. And in male monkeys, impotence occurs due to stress. But this does not mean at all that a monkey can be crossed with a human! Ivanov's experiments were initially doomed to failure.

By the way, the professor is sure that people descended from monkeys who lived a hundred million years ago. The monkeys of that period bore little resemblance to their descendants that we now see in zoos.

Monkeys helped the military

Professor Leonid Firsov is rightfully considered the most competent person on Earth studying monkeys. In 1972, he managed to land several monkeys on the island to test their survival in conditions of isolation from the world.

The military became seriously interested in my experiment,” recalls Leonid Salikovich. “I needed to find out what kind of grass the monkeys would eat in the forest so as not to die of hunger.” We carefully studied these edible plants and passed on the information received to the military.

On the island, the monkeys first began to check whether there were any eggs or chicks left in the nests, then they began to catch mice and small predators. Then it was the crows' turn. When meat and game were running out, the monkeys began to eat dietary food. For many months, the monkeys chewed leaves, shoots, the bast part of the bark, common cornflower, wild rosemary and female kochedednik.
After the end of the expedition, scientists listed to the military elite the names of plants that could form a complete diet for Russian soldiers. Booklets were issued especially for them, which contained images and names of edible plants for the Soviet Army.

By the way, Leonid Salikovich is sure that the First Channel program “The Last Hero” is mostly copied from his popular science film about the island of monkeys near Pskov - “Monkey Island”.

Monkeys made peace between the astronauts

Cosmos was also interested in experiments on monkeys.

American astronauts asked for help as often as Russian cosmonauts, admits Firsov. - After the death of a monkey in space, the Americans decided to stop experiments on primates. But in the USSR, research was in full swing. The last time the astronauts asked to test the composition of five medications on monkeys. The fact is that during the flight, the astronauts often experienced psychological friction. This could seriously interfere with work. Therefore, it was necessary to find a medicine that would alleviate psychological problems among astronauts.

The monkey was adopted by Fidel Castro

In 1983, Soviet scientists decided to present a gift to Secretary General Yuri Andropov on Chekist Day. Sukhumi monkeys Abrek and Bion spent five days in space and landed in the Kustanai steppes. Two years later, their relatives, Faithful and Proud, flew into space for seven days. The third to fly in 1987 were Drema and Erosh, already for 14 days. Upon his return, Sandman was adopted by Cuban leader Fidel Castro, guaranteeing him honor and respect on Liberty Island. Then there were three more 14-day flights: in 1989 (Zhakonya and Zabiyaka), in 1992 (Ivasha and Krosh) and in 1996 (Multik and Lapik). And then the Russian treasury ran out of money for the program.

Ready to fly

In Star City, along with three squads of astronauts, there is a fully staffed squad of monkeys, ready to take flight at any moment. The rights of macaques are respected by the Biomedical Ethics Commission, which signs a contract for them. Scientists promise that after the animals return to Earth, conditions will be created for them to procreate. Since the troop consists only of males, the commission promises to find them wives of their choice and ensure respect among the pack.

Mandatory conditions for astronaut monkeys are impeccable health and excellent reaction.

Monkey rights activists

After the death of the American monkey in space, not only the Americans abandoned experiments on them. A scandal is in full swing in the UK over plans to build a laboratory in which thousands of monkeys will be destroyed. Scientists have come up with a drug that will save humanity from Parkinson's disease, and now it needs to be tested. Animal rights activists do not share the scientists' optimism. They believe that the laboratory will turn into a slaughterhouse. Now the police fear that the “greens” will stage a pogrom similar to the events of 2001. Then the “greens” beat the director of the Institute of Primates with baseball bats, and employees of banks who gave money for research were repeatedly sent letters with death threats. This forced banks to refuse to finance the project.

People soldered monkeys

In 1994, Leonid Firsov continued his research on monkeys. Now in the Central Park of Culture and Culture. Since then, a group of monkeys have been settled on Elagin Island every year for two to three months, using their example to study the influence of the metropolis on the psychology of monkeys, and therefore humans, in full swing.

The initial conclusions are as follows: complete freedom makes monkeys uncontrollable. In just a few months, primates become almost wild and indulge in all sorts of evil.

The stories of how monkeys snatched bags, umbrellas and mobile phones from people who were mooring to the shore on boats are still memorable. Sometimes the monkeys used their teeth, but the guards were there in time.

They also smoke!

In a couple of months, the monkeys learned to smoke, eat chips and drink beer, which was delivered to the island by visitors on catamarans and boats. The zoo workers were only surprised: “It’s easier to work with monkeys than to explain to people that monkeys shouldn’t be soldered!” In general, humans and monkeys have found a common language!

Vera KHOKHALEVSKAYA

Photo by Zamir USMANOV