Text for ‘Smoke-in’
2005

Smokey is a lone Woolly Monkey – the only one the Zoo possesses – and because she seemed to pine for company the authorities decided to provide the solitary spinster with a cage companion. Their choice fell on Tony, a young Capuchin – another of the South American monkeys, though smaller than the Woolly.

It proved a happy decision. Smoky ‘adopted’ her little cage-mate forthwith and decided to bring him up just as if he were her very own baby – a situation which luckily seemed quite acceptable to Tony.

The pair are still greatly delighting visitors, and no wonder! For when feeling specially maternal, Smoky squats by the wires, calls her adopted son over to her, and cuddling him protectively, “nurses” him with an exaggerated tenderness quite ludicrous to watch. From time to time too she ‘combs’ Tony’s hair and manicures his nails, just as she would, no doubt, if he were her own baby.

At other times, this pair play happily together, their favorite toy, I have noticed, being a cigarette. They are always delighted when some visitor throws a cigarette into the cage. This they will roll across the floor to each other, until one of them picks it up and accepts a light from one of the visitors and shares it with the other.

Text and Images from
“Playmates at the Zoo”
The New Illustrated Encyclopedia, Collins, 1962

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