Hermaphrodite howler monkey

Weirdest thing yet at rainsong !
aug 7, 2010,

a fellow planetary guardian calls rainsong for the rescue of an adult congo [howler monkey] being attacked by dogs on the beach of tambor.
we immediately dispatched a rescue team, and the monkey was rescued and taken directly to the rws DVM Deanne Sharer.
she called me later to inform me of the congo's condition... a few deep puncture wounds, loss of blood was not life-threatening...
but her real surprise was to tell me that this congo is an HERMAPHRODITE.
wow ! male & female. it's a miracle his own troop didn't kill him/her at birth.
evidently his troop just abandoned the baby, and someone found him and took him as a pet.
then when he was an adult, they released him on the beach at tambor.
he's been hanging out there all alone for about 3 years, local residents have told us that he avoided contact with the other howler monkeys in the area.
now he's safe at rainsong, living next to his own kind, mona lisa... & her adopted babies.
he seems to be settling in to his new circumstances.
he's very calm, and not at all threatened by human caretaking, like your usual wild adult howler monkey.
his rescuer, the FPG who called rainsong, has become his sponsor now, and is paying for his medical care, food, vitamins, etc.
his sponsor decided to call him 'teddy'.
i dubbed him 'teddy the frodo', when we found out about his strangeness.
hermaphrodite births in monkeys are quite rare, about 1 in 500,000.

but there's some really bad news connected to this issue.....
HERMAPHRODITE births in wildlife globally are increasing at an alarming rate.
These anomalies of nature can be caused by genetic damage from mercury poisioning in the environment.
The polar bears of the arctic is the species most threatened by this mutation.
They are already severely endangered by the loss of the ice pack due to global warming,
now this added danger to the future of the species is pushing the polar bear into extinction very rapidly.