Joel

Meet Joel. Joel is one of three resident monkeys at the lodge where we stayed in the Amazon. Joel came to the lodge after having had his shoulder broken during an alligator attack. The lodge’s staff took him to a vet and had his shoulder mended. Somehow Joel managed to break his other shoulder, and after the lodge’s staff took care of that one too, Joel permanently attached himself to the lodge and its staff.

Joel is a pretty cute little guy, which, in fact, is lucky for him, since aside from his cuteness he can have somewhat of an assertive personality. Joel loves people. He loves following people, watching people, jumping on unsuspecting people’s heads, chasing people around trees, and napping with people in hammocks. He also loves other things about people, especially girl-people, but we won’t go there! His tragic flaw is that his playing and roughhousing can easily turn into aggression. Most people who have played with Joel end up with a few bites marks here and there. Of course, everyone forgives Joel for his flaws as he is fascinating to watch. In fact, we spent many an hour simply following his antics. Truly, he is like a funny little person with a definite personality.

It is unclear what will happen to Joel as he grows older. At the moment, he is two years old and is not fully developed. In the next two years his now non-existent fangs were grow, he will at least double in size, and he will become even more aggressive in his search for girl-monkey companionship. The question is whether or not he is too attached to the lodge to be able to return to life in the forest. Of course, one possibility would be for him and his hopefully acquired girl monkey to live in the forest, while maintaining a more peripheral link to the lodge, much in the way that the lodge’s other two monkeys do.