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[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

The Union Leader (Manchester NH)
October 06, 2001 Saturday ALL EDITIONS

SECTION: SECTION B Pg. 10

LENGTH: 598 words

HEADLINE: DJ's monkey hunt in Danville 'jungle' flops

BYLINE: JASON SCHREIBER Union Leader Correspondent

BODY:
DANVILLE -- Donnie White learned an important lesson in monkey 
hunting yesterday morning: You can look like a big, hairy ape and act 
like one too, but it still won't guarantee success when attempting to 
attract a tiny capuchin monkey lost in the woods.
White, a former ice cream truck driver who is now a radio disc 
jockey, set out on his "Donnie in the Mist" monkey mission just 
before sunrise yesterday in the jungles of Danville. His goal was to 
catch that missing monkey.

White, the promotions manager and a DJ at WHOB, 106.3 FM in Nashua, 
decided to take the monkey search into his owns hands by renting a 
gorilla costume and heading out into the woods.  He figured he'd give 
it a shot because all attempts to lure the monkey, which have 
included bringing a female monkey to the area where the male monkey 
is living, have failed. "The bottom line is it's all about saving the 
monkey," White stressed.  But somehow his mission was more like 
entertainment.

In the end, just like everyone else, White went home monkeyless.  But 
his search isn't over.  White is determined to find the monkey, and 
he vowed to return to the woods in his gorilla get-up.

"If (the search team) can't find it Saturday, I'll be back," said 
White, who may return to the area tomorrow with his costume and 
remain living in the wild until the monkey is caught.  That would 
mean he'd have to broadcast his radio show from the woods, something 
he's willing to do. It's important to note that White was among the 
500 prospective contestants chosen from a total of 80,000 people who 
sent in applications hoping to appear on the reality-TV show 
"Survivor."

In his gorilla suit, White walked the streets of local neighborhoods 
bright and early yesterday morning, asking residents if they knew 
where the monkey was living now.  Residents were just waking up and 
were a bit surprised that a man would dress up as a gorilla to find 
the monkey.

Bob Grosso, 62, thought Halloween came early this year when he looked 
out his kitchen window and saw White approaching his house.  "I don't 
have any candy out," he said he thought to himself.

Grosso was not at all convinced that White's plan would be 
successful.  "It ain't gonna work," he told him.

White provided updates on his search via a cell phone throughout the 
morning on WHOB's "Morin In the Morning" show.

Residents who have seen and heard the monkey said White's gorilla 
costume would most likely scare the monkey away rather than lure it 
in.  "I'm sorry, you're not a very pretty monkey," Tara Eaton told 
White.

Earlier in the morning, White got lost on his drive from Nashua to 
Danville and called the Rockingham County Sheriff's Department for 
directions.  The department then warned Danville Police Chief Wade 
Parsons to be on the lookout for a man in a gorilla suit roaming 
around town.

Parsons eventually met up with White and flung a large animal net 
over him to catch him.  The capture was only for fun, and a few 
minutes later Parsons let him loose to continue his hunt.

While Animal Control Officer Denise Laratonda declined to give White 
specifics on the location of the trap in the woods where the monkey's 
now living, she did offer a few clues to at least bring him close to 
the area.

White attempted to make some monkey calls, but neighbors said his 
sounds weren't quite right.  "It sounds kind of like a sick owl," Pam 
Harrington said of the noises made by the real monkey.


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