Natasha is a

macaque The macaques () constitute a genus (''Macaca'') of gregarious Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques inhabit ranges throughout Asia, North Africa, and Europe (in Gibraltar). Macaques are principally f ...

at the Safari Park zoo near

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. She has become well known because, unlike other macaques who move by alternating between walking upright and on all four limbs, Natasha has walked upright all the time since suffering from a stomach flu that almost killed her. She recovered after receiving intensive-care treatment, and while her other behaviour remained normal, she began walking erect solely on her hind legs, which gained her immediate media attention; the ''

Maariv ''Maariv'' or ''Maʿariv'' (, ), also known as ''Arvit'', or ''Arbit'' (, ), is a Jewish prayer service held in the evening or at night. It consists primarily of the evening '' Shema'' and ''Amidah''. The service will often begin with two ...

'' daily newspaper showed a picture of her striding through the grass, with the tongue-in-cheek caption "The Missing Link?". The zoo's veterinarian, Yigal Horowitz, remarked: "I've never seen or heard of this before... One possible explanation is brain damage from the illness."

References

External links

"Israeli Monkey's Lessons in Evolution"
by Charlotte Stoudt, NPR, July 23, 2004 (audio) Individual monkeys Individual animals in Israel {{oldworld-monkey-stub