Ayla the capuchin monkey lends a helping hand in Boston, Massachusetts.
Ayla the capuchin monkey must be pretty smart: She goes to Monkey College! Along with 24 other monkeys, Ayla lives at a school that trains capuchins to assist disabled people who can’t use their hands. At the college, monkeys learn to help answer phones, change TV channels, load CDs, spoon-feed their human partners, and even scratch their itches. “They do everyday tasks that humans would use their hands for,” says Judi Zazula, executive director of Helping Hands Monkey College.
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After one to two years of training, graduates are placed with disabled people, who direct the monkeys to their tasks with a mouth-operated laser pointer attached to the wheelchair. Although many monkeys particularly enjoy jobs that involve pushing buttons, such as operating a computer, Ayla prefers turning book pages. She also likes to eat. Sometimes she opens the refrigerator, sneaks out a treat, and stashes it under a blanket for later!