RAINFOREST MONKEY DRAWINGS

How can anyone not love monkeys? They are similar to us yet different. Their antics seem to reflect our fun-loving side. Yet, they have an innocence we humans seem to have lost. Here are drawings of monkeys by St. Mary Magdalene School fourth-graders. Monkeys are quintessential rainforest animals, and occur in other parts of the world as well as the Amazon rainforest, as you can see in the second page of monkey pictures. (See monkey photos.)

Lilly has drawn several monkeys swinging from trees in the forest. Maybe they're after the fruits falling down. It looks like one of them broke a piece of a branch that's also falling. There's a big blue butterfly in the middle of the picture. Lilly says. "I like the rainforest because there are so many bright, flashy, colorful animals living in the wonderful rainforests we have today."

This monkey is so cute! Kaitlyn drew it hanging from a branch. Monkeys like to swing through trees looking for food. They also use vines to scamper from place to place and Kaitlyn has carefully drawn one from the branch to some large leaves. There's a palm tree on the right, and monkeys like to eat palm fruits!

Dara's "Golden Lion Tamarin" reminds us that conservation efforts can be successful. This small monkey lives in the Atlantic rainforest on the southeast coast of Brazil much of which has been destroyed. Luckily the golden lion tamarin has been successfully bred in captivity, and many of them have been returned to the wild to restore natural populations.

Lucas called his picture "The Rainforest Wonders." His stylized monkey is hanging upside down and holding a banana! It's surrounded by lots of of rainforest wonders. There's a snake and a flower in the bottom right corner. Above them is a jaguar with big black spots. A yellow nest with bugs on it is on the branch in the upper left. To the right of the monkey's tail is another bug and flying nearby is a colorful butterfly. In the bottom right is a spider—it has eight legs on one side. Lucas says, "I wish to go to the Amazon some day after what you told me about it. I'm probably not going until I'm a little older because my family has not planned on it." He also says, "I went on your website and the photographs are really good."