Travel photo of the day: Sugar-eating squirrel monkey

Submitted by Christy Prosser / UGC

Squirrel monkey, Coca, Ecuador

Christy Prosser photographed this precocious squirrel monkey while traveling in Ecuador last April.

Prosser spent four days in the Amazon, seeing the region's diverse wildlife. "The squirrel monkeys were certainly the most entertaining," Prosser told TODAY.com.

She happened upon the monkey, who she dubbed "Sticky Fingers," while sitting at a cafe in Coco, a small town in Ecuador that is used as a base to tour the Amazon basin via the Napo River.

"The little guy ... scampered down from the pavilion and jumped onto one of the tables," Prosser said. "She obviously was experienced in knowing what was in the canisters on the table. She knocked over a silver canister, as it fell onto its side, the top rolled off and she reached her paw in and grabbed a handful of sugar. Delighted by her success, she continued to grab handfuls of sugar and [licked] the granules from her fingers. The cook came running from across the walkway and shooed her off."

Prosser, when not working as a Georgia public school educator, spends her breaks as a freelance photojournalist. To see more of Prosser's photos, visit her website.

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Discuss this post

Looks like an obese american at a doughnut shop.

  • 1 vote
Reply#1 - Mon Mar 5, 2012 1:36 PM EST

That little monkey will have a serious sugar buzz...

    Reply#2 - Mon Mar 5, 2012 4:02 PM EST

    I'm sorry but I hate monkeys lol. There's something about anything that's 'soul-less' (I mean that as supposedly non-self aware) that can imitate human behavior that freaks me out. Monkeys are at the top of the creepy list. Right along with birds that learn to talk and robots. And politicians :D

      Reply#3 - Mon Mar 5, 2012 11:54 PM EST

      Sugar turned this poor monkey into an addict..In a few months he ll be obese..

        Reply#4 - Thu May 10, 2012 2:45 AM EDT
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