There are hawks and falcons that can catch small monkeys.  Whenever an adult calls out, “Raptor!”, Lupé knows to look up to the sky where they will be flying.  Most of the kids in Lupé’s troop are anxious when herons fly overhead and will cry out anxiously.  But a heron will not bother a monkey.

The greatest danger the monkeys face are humans and most monkeys will call out in alarm and run away when they see humans, but not in the lowlands at Curú.  The monkeys there know that humans will not harm them in the lowlands at Curú.

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Lupé was old enough to know what a boa looks like, but Tita still confused boas with other snakes.  Tita even sometimes made the boa alarm call at lizards!  Carmen stayed near the boa for quite some time, barking and barking.  Clinging tightly to her back, Tita watched the boa and practiced barking.  Over time, Tita would be able to easily recognize dangerous snakes and know when to make the right alarm calls

Lupé already knew that most snakes are nothing to worry about.  There are many kinds that she saw all the time. There were the green vine snakes and the grey vine snakes.  They were usually up high in trees, but sometimes she saw them in low bushes.  But they only eat mice, lizards, and sometimes small birds and frogs. 

The yellow and black rat snakes grow very big, they can grow as long as 3 meters!  Like boas, they travel in trees and they can move really, really fast.  But their heads are not very big.  They only eat small mammals, lizards, and birds.  They might be a danger to a baby monkey, but not an adult.

Speckled racer snakes are much smaller than rat snakes.  They are only about 1 meter long.  They blend in with leaves very well.  Each scale is black with a yellow dot and blue edge.  In the sun they look sparkly black and green.  Lupé has seen them mostly along the river because they usually eat frogs and toads, but sometimes they eat lizards, eggs, and small mammals like mice.

The indigo snakes are also really big.  They are all brown except for the end of their tails which are blue black.  Lupé doesn’t like them, and the adults will alarm call at them if they are in trees.  Lupé saw them resting in the river, but no one called alarm when they are there.  The good thing about indigo snakes is that they eat other snakes as well as small mammals, birds, lizards and sometimes even fish.

Whenever baby Tita saw those kinds of snakes she would alarm call. She would stare at the snake and shake little branches. She would cry , “Gyrrah!” “Gyrrah!” “Gyrrah!”, in her little voice, but no one paid much attention.  Everyone knew Tita was too little to know the difference between a vine snake or an indigo snake or a rattlesnake.

Whenever Tita yelled “SNAKE!” Carmen or Lupé would come over to see what Tita was calling about.  It was a vine snake or a racer snake, they just ignored it.  But if it was a boa or a rattlesnake, Carmen and Lupé would begin alarm barking.  Everyone else would quickly join in.  This way, Tita would learn to only cry “snake!” only when she saw the dangerous boa constrictors and rattlesnakes.

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