@cloudedleopard611 Forgot to comment on that. I am not sure, but I am afraid it is one of those individually wrapped fruity candies taken from or given by a visitor. Unless the keepers used a similar wrapping materials to make something for the monkeys, which I do hope, but fear is not the case. There appears to be a logo on the wrapper but I don't recognize it, so I don't know for sure.
@cloudedleopard611 Pairi Daiza already has volunteers at the entrance to the monkey island asking visitors to hold back packs in their hands or in front of them to cut down on potential food stealing by the monkeys, and I have also seen people on the islands themselves (although I don't believe they are their permanently), so they do their best, but unfortunately some people just don't (want to) follow rules. I have seen it myself at Pairi Daiza, not so much with feeding but more with touching/stroking monkeys or lemurs.
Unfortunately some people aren't afraid to aggressively confront anyone enforcing rules or telling them what to do, so I think it is likely at least some zoos will not chose walk-through options in the future. And that would be an understandable choice for the well-being of their animals.
@pichu Don't think they have those around here. I have asked around and have found out it is a wrapper from a Dutch brand of throat lozenges/cough sweets. Certainly not something a squirrel monkey should get.
@KevinB yeah your right, sorry. also another thing. lemurs and primates, particularly smaller ones like squirrel monkeys, marmosets, and tamarins are often very aggressive towards people, and can really injure a person, yet its not uncommon for them to be put in walk through's, which makes no sense to me
I really think that's just an American thing, I've never seen aggressive behaviour from Lemurs or Small primates in walkthrough exhibits. In cases like Amersfoort, they even have the problem of the lemurs being too friendly and sitting on visitor's shoulders!
@pichu I haven't really ever seen truly aggressive behavior that was not provoked, just a lot of curious behavior like jumping or sitting on visitors (a lemur once jumped on me too while getting from one part of the island to another, which did scare me a bit), going through visitors' stuff and so on. Of course there is a risk of biting (which I would call responsive or provoked aggression), especially if people don't follow rules - which is why the touching I've seen at Pairi Daiza worries me so much. You are not wrong that lemurs or small monkeys can deliver a fairly nasty bite.
