The roar of a howler monkey...

Howler Monkey, Osa, Costa Rica (Photograph by elawgrrl via flickr.com

That afternoon, as Roosevelt and the men in his dugout paddled quietly down the river, a long, deep shriek suddenly ripped through the jungle.  It was the roar of a howler monkey, one of the loudest cries of any animal on earth.  The sound, which can be heard from three miles away, is formed when the monkey forces air through its large hollow hyoid bond, which sits between its lower jaw and voice box and anchors its tongue.  The result is a deep resonating howl that vibrates through the forest with strange, inhuman intensity, and echoes so pervasively that its location can be nearly impossible to identify...

My mother-in-law is reading River of Doubt about Teddy Roosevelt's perilous journey down a river in the Amazon, and she came upon a description of howler monkeys. These are the critters in Costa Rica who woke me up at about 2:30 a.m. the same night/morning that the earthquake rocked Chile.

I didn't know about the earthquake at the time, just that three of these noisy fellows were perched in the tree outside our balcony trying to notify the world about something very, very important. I made noises to stop them. They stopped. For a second. Then they resumed. Then I swore. They stopped. Then they resumed. Then I gave up... The howler monkeys won!