The constant ambient air temperature is physical mechanism which, in random fashion, creates sound waves that resonate within air column leading to eardrum. It follows then, that these incoherent sound waves create a "resonant pressure" on eardrum, similar to what it is like when you hold a seashell to your ear and sound waves bounce around. The resonant pressure fluctuates and increases random firing of nerve cells in auditory system. Transmitted from auditory system to brain, these random firings result in noise that masks or obscures a signal that contains speech or other useful information.

The smaller shape of monkey’s ears means that monkey is faced with a lot more "seashell-type roar" and noise than humans take in. "So that’s what average monkey is faced with—a lot more white noise is created in little ear that blocks outer ranges of sound. This also explains historic bank of data that indicates that monkeys hear a smaller range of sounds than humans do.

So, in essence, my little Ziggy’s ears get a lot of ambient noise and those dumb looks in a chaotic setting can be written off to her diminished hearing, or, let’s say her not hearing at a comfortable level. ###

Andrea Campbell is author of Bringing Up Ziggy: What Raising A Helping Hands Monkey Taught Me About Love, Commitment, and Sacrifice. She frequently writes about monkeys, forensic science, criminal justice, writing and parties….

Later on, after tests where answers were positively reinforced, all three monkeys responded correctly at a level above chance guessing.

Dr. Terrace says, "The results of these experiments provide compelling evidence that number is a meaningful dimension for rhesus monkeys."

It’s not unusual that tests such as these are also compared to results of rats and children. In this case, researchers pointed out that monkeys were trained on ordering skills for approximately six months. They also estimated that it took children learning numbers thousands of repetitions to master similar concepts.

The researchers also found several performance similarities between monkeys and people on comparable tasks. To explain, they say that monkeys are more accurate and quicker to order pairs of numbers further apart numbers are, in other words, ordering four and nine is easier than placing four and five for both humans and monkeys.

In my book I tell a story about how Paula, another foster mother for a Helping Hands monkey Emma, has taught her little charge to decipher colors. Paula used colored Easter eggs to help facilitate process. Paula bought a set of big plastic eggs and put a treat inside a particular color, say, blue egg. When she asked Emma to show her blue egg, if monkey was correct in her choice, she was allowed to procure treat inside. Emma learned all of primary colors in this way and even went on to learn to differentiate between a spoon, knife and fork.

Not too bad for a species we call a "lessor" primate!

Andrea Campbell lives with Ziggy, in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. She is author of BRINGING UP ZIGGY: What Raising A Helping Hands Monkey Taught Me About Love, Commitment, and Sacrifice. Visit her web site at: www.andreacampbell.com ###