Monkeys on Board?

[menina]

Does anyone have a monkey? I want to have a small monkey on board, maybe a spider monkey or capuchin??? what do ya'll think? I've heard stories from people that monkeys like to distroy things and fling poo......

[2divers]

I'm anticpating at least one if not two on my future boat.... wait those are deck apes as opposed to yard apes..... never mind....

Truthfully, most of the monkey owners I have either known or heard about usually are severly physically impared in some way and the animal functions as second set of hands and helper. Primates in general fall under a different class of "pet" called Exotic. This typically creates havoc for any kind of health, travel, medical, vet issue that arises far above and beyond the normal seeing eye dog. I'm not saying that you can't especially if you have a good reason. They would certinaly have plenty of stuff to hang from, climb and get exercise and it would probably make it easier to retreive that occasional lost halyard from the top of the mast. I can't see why a monkey can't be trained to use a head like the rest of us, I mean they can train cats so why not a monkey?

As for the destruction thing, it all gets back to the reason you have the 'pet' in the first place.....

2divers

[Vasco]

but I did have one when I worked on a deep sea tug (149') years ago. We traded a few pairs of socks for "Pedro" in Zamboanga and he was quite an addition to the crew. Well behaved and learned fairly quickly. Taught him to make obscene gestures and give the finger. He was friendly and used to nurse the kittens the ship's cat had. The cat is another story, we thought the cat was a kitten when she came aboard but she got larger every day and finally had a litter. However, I would advise against having a monkey on a sailboat , too confining.

[menina]

Well, I guess it all depends on the monkeys personality whether it will fling poo & do other nasty things.....
Vasco-you really think a sailboat is confined? I was just at the zoo this past weekend and the 15 little monkeys were in a house sized closed in area.
I saw the little blonde monkeys masturbate, scream, pick their noses.....these are all things humans do, just not infront of people right?hahaha!!!!

[little boat]

menina, i read a really good novel that was written by a chekoslovakian, (i think), sailor called 'my monkey and me' or something like that. it was all about drug running in the caribbean and the protagonist had a monkey aboard that did alot of crazy things. the book was published on a small european press but maybe you could find it..it really goes into the details you are looking for and is a great read; the storyline seemed very authentic.

[Boracay]

http://www.monkeymaddness.com/articl...litycheck.html

[philaw]

If you stop off somewhere tropical you could pick one up cheap, but I've heard before that they're very hard to care for and are a big commitment because they live so long.

[tgoodwin]

Neither monkey would be a good idea on a boat. we live at a marina and have a friend that has a Black capped capuchin that comes regularly to visit. In a matter of minutes the boat is wiped out. We now maker her wait until we can clear the dinning area of all thing where she can play. She also has a red foot tamarian. We really enjoy Tom Thumb. He is as fun as laya the Capuchin but not as destructive. We Are actually thinking about getting a tamarian. They can wear diapers and be taught to behave like some of the bigger monkeys. I would only have a capuchin monkey if I had a room in a house for it and a huge play area outside. You would not believe the energy they have. I love for her to visit but happy to see her go home...

[edsailing]

Leave monkeys where they belong - in the wild.

[sww914]

It sounds like a great deal of chaos to me. They are very energetic animals and very nimble. Sounds like a fast moving **** tornado.
My friend had a spider monkey for years, They loved each other but the monkey was always into something, always. He figured out the child locks on the cupboards and it was never the same after that.

[Bash]

Zoonotic diseases might be a concern, both for you and the monkey. A simple cold sore, transmitted from a human, can kill a smaller monkey like a tamarin. Alternately, you could pick up herpes B, potentially fatal to humans, from macagues.

Here in the USA nine states prohibit keeping non-human primates as pets. You may find this to be the case in various cruising destinations as well.

[David M]

It would be a lot easier to get a stuffed animal monkey and pretend its alive. I think the hassles with sanitation, permits, maintenance and clearing customs would far outweigh the pleasure. Monkeys are not cute miniature people. They are wild animals which are probably best left in the wild.

[virginia boy]

Here in the USA nine states prohibit keeping non-human primates as pets.

Hmmm.......NON-human huh?

[Cormorant]

In Arthur Ransome's "Missy Lee" a monkey spills something (can't recall -- an oil lamp? a container of fuel?), which lights the schooner on fire and it burns to the waterline. All hands abandon ship and make for shore in small boats, becoming separated in a storm and eventually all taken captive by a pirate queen.

So don't let that happen to you. Unless it's a nice pirate queen . . .

[Polunu880]

you sound a little crazy to me, but then againg most boaters are a little crazy anyway.
I rather see the aminals to be left in the wild.