Rocky is a very special rhesus monkey with a kind demeanor who has captured many hearts at the sanctuary since he arrived in 2021 from an out-of-state laboratory. He will be 20 years old on February 17th!
His personality is kind and curious – he can get along with just about any monkey. If he were a human, perhaps his personality would look like social butterfly!
Rocky and Hanuman were paired at the sanctuary after hours of behavior observations and assessment. They are setting a powerful example for what sanctuary life can mean for monkeys from laboratories. Staff was so excited to see them grooming each other for the first time: this a favorite pastime and natural behavior we want to see!
Rocky readily accepts and digs into any enrichment that comes his way. We love capturing footage of him because he expresses so much enthusiasm any time he is given anything! He is the opposite of Izzle when it comes to being messy. In Izzle’s feature last month, we mentioned how he is clean and doesn’t like getting anything on him. Rocky doesn’t care about mess! He will quickly eat his food rapidly throughout the day and is often seen with a piece of food on his chin after eating.
As you can see from his photos, he has a very unique face and his distinguishing feature is the extra hair around his mouth and nose, which makes him look like he has “stubble”.
The Primates Incorporated staff and volunteers take great pride in caring for Rocky and all of the sanctuary residents! To see how you can support Rocky and monkey residents at Primates Incorporated, please visit www.primatesinc.com. Thank you!
