Hello, friends, and welcome to episode 179 of Just the Zoo of Us.

This week I spoke with a primatologist and biological anthropologist about the ballerinas

of the Central and South American rainforests, spider monkeys.

We discuss what life in the treetops looks like through a spider monkey's big beautiful eyes,

the latest innovations in butt-scratching technology, and the power of friendship.

Just the Zoo of Us presents Spider Monkeys with Dr. Michelle Rodriguez.

Music I'm P. I'm B.

I'm

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I'm

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. Hello, friends. This is Ellen Weatherford. Welcome back to Just the Zoo of Us, your favorite animal review podcast. And this week week we have a brand new friend that I'm

extremely excited to talk to you. This is Dr. Michelle Rodriguez. Say hi, Dr. Michelle.

Hello, nice to meet everyone. Michelle, what are your pronouns? There's she, her.

Thank you so much. I am so excited to talk to you. You study and work with some really,

really incredible animals that I'm super excited to learn to you. You study and work with some really, really incredible animals

that I'm super excited to learn more about and get to know. But before we talk about our really

cool animals today, I'd love to talk about you a little bit. What kind of work do you do with

these cool animals? I study their behavior, and I've also studied their ecology and their

hormones.

And the goal of a lot of my research is understanding why primates form friendships, how they

form friendships, and how that helps them cope with stress.

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