When the snow falls in the mountains ofJapan, young Japanese macaques frequently make snowballs and carrythem around. The grown-up macaques don't make snowballs, though theysometimes will play with the ones the younger monkeys make. Thefunniest part is that even though they like rolling a lot ofsnowballs, no one has ever seen the macaques throw them!

The very first female to travel intoouter space was a squirrel monkey. Her name was Miss Baker. In 1959Miss Baker was one of two squirrel monkeys to fly on a fifteen minutemission from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Coconuts are a very important crop inMalaysia. For many years, the Malaysian people have worked hardclimbing the coconut trees to pick the fruit that grows at thetop.
This kind of work is very tiring and verydangerous.  The people have trained pig-tailed macaques to climbthe trees and pick the coconuts. The macaques are connected by longthin ropes to their human partners waiting on the ground. A trainedmonkey can pick more than three to four hundred coconuts before thesun gets too hot and the monkeys get too tired to work anymore. Nowthat's a lot of coconuts!

An organization called Helping Hands inBoston, Massachusetts trains capuchins to live with people that aredisabled. These monkeys are very valuable helpers, especially forpeople that are unable to use their own hands. They can help by doingthings like getting food out of the refrigerator, turning oncomputers, and even carrying things around. Sometimes the monkeys canbe a friend for the person too. In this way, the capuchins arehelpful in more ways than one.
 

Folklore,Fables and Legends

Jupiter and theMonkey(From Aesop'sFables) 

Jupiter issued a proclamation to all thebeasts of the forest and promised a royal reward to the one whoseoffspring should be deemed the handsomest. The Monkey came with therest and presented, with all a mother's tenderness, a flat-nosed,hairless, ill-featured young Monkey as a candidate for the promisedreward. A general laugh saluted her on the presentation of her son.She resolutely said, "I know not whether Jupiter willallot the prize to my son, but this I do know, that he is at least inthe eyes of me his mother, the dearest, handsomest, and mostbeautiful of all."
 

In India, monkeys are treated as veryspecial animals, sometimes they are even considered holy.  Thereis an ancient legend about a langur monkey who was very intelligentand had special powers.  The monkey was called Hanuman (sayHA-nuh-man).  Hanuman had many adventures as he served hismaster, the god Rama.  In one particular adventure, Hanuman'senemy Ravana set fire to his tail.  But Hanuman escaped, jumpingfrom building to building.  As he fled the city, his burningtail lit the enemy's entire city on fire.  During festivals inIndia, men dress like monkeys and act out the adventures ofHanuman.

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