Katherine Lenore Sharpe,, age 11, of Fredericton, New Brunswick,Canada, for her question:
Is there an animal called the uakari?
The uakari is indeed a real live animal. Chances are, you would never suspect that his name is pronounced wakari. What's more, not many people have ever seen him. He is quite a rare animal, and his native home is high in the treetops of remote equatorial bungles, where none but the boldest explorers dares to venture.
The Amazon bungles of South America are tangled with thickets and vines, adorned with bright fruits and exotic blossoms. Gaudy birds carry on raucous conversations while a vast assortment of fascinating monkeys chatters among the branches. One of these monkeys is the uakari, seldom seen because he is rather rare and hard to spot in the gloom of the overhanging bungle.
Most of the South American monkeys are small fellows with long prehensile tails, used to grasp the branches as they swing through the trees. The uakari also is a small monkey but he does not have the long prehensile tail possessed by most other monkeys in his neighborhood.
His head and body may measure 18 inches, but his 6 inch tail is hardly worth mentioning, and he cannot use it to help him swing through the boughs. He is skinny and spidery with a long shaggy coat of coarse brown hair. He has clever hands and feet, but the most remarkable thing about him is his head.
The average uakari has a bare face and a bald or almost bald head. Sometimes there are few sparse hairs around the sides of his head or tufts that look like thick earmuffs. His face may be black or pinkish red, depending upon where he lives in the mysterious Amazon jungle.
He uses his clever hands to gather fruits and nuts, seeds and tender leaves. He holds his food daintily and securely while he takes bite after bite. When not feasting or sleeping, he enjoys.romping through the trees, often in wild 20 foot leaps. He usually shares his carefree life with a troop of 100 or so friends and relatives.
Once in a while the uakari descends to the jungle floor. He walks on all fours in a rather clumsy fashion with hands turned outward. Not much is known about his family life in the wild state. And those that live in zoos never produce offspring.
A captive uakari is a friendly fellow and seems to enjoy life in a zoo. He invents various sliding games and performs sprightly antics for his human audiences. One of his best tricks is the back somersault, which he repeats again and again. It's too bad that we don't know more about his family life, especially the little ones. But these secrets are concealed in the remote Amazon jungle.