Love and Monkey Business: Precious Primates Get Tasty Valentine's Day Treats

At Whipsnade Zoo in Dunstable, zoologists treated squirrel monkeys to tasty gifts on the eve of Valentine's Day: animals were treated to sweet potatoes that were placed in holiday packages suspended from a rope in an enclosure.

The nimlbe primates happily ran a race around the rope, looking into each package in search of food. Squirrel monkeys (inhabitants of South America's tropical forests) eat insects, fruits, and nuts. In the wild, they live for 6 to 8 years, in captivity these animals can live up to 9 years.