December 14 – World Monkey Day.

World Monkey Day appeared as a joke among students at the University of Michigan. One of the students marked December 14 as Monkey Day in the holiday calendar. It happened in 2000. Then the humorous prank ended with a humorous holiday celebrated by the students. However, as it often happens, the joke gradually grew into a tradition, and the Internet made it worldwide. Artist Casey Sorrow, together with his friend, began to use the idea of this holiday in his artwork and comics, which only contributed to the spread of the holiday, first in the United States, and then in other countries. Ecologists from different countries decided to use an unusual tradition, which is just being formed, as an opportunity to talk about different types of monkeys, many of which are on the verge of extinction, and once again draw public attention to the problem of preserving these interesting animals.

In different countries the holiday is celebrated with costume parties and humorous competitions. Mykolaiv Zoo also held such a costume event: magical gnomes (and in fact, of course, our young biologists) in a magical forest (in our bright photo zone) prepared a delicious gift for our monkeys. Various delicacies were placed in the boxes: apples, sweet pears, nuts, raisins, dried fruits. We gave our monkeys a little holiday!

For reference: the collection of Mykolaiv Zoo includes 15 species of primates. Among them are small marmosets and tamarins, bright mandrills, nimble gibbons, a whole group of chimpanzees and many others! Animals are waiting for you as a guest on Monkey Day and every day!