Excitement ran high on January 8, 1956, when a truck arrived at the Zoo from the airport carrying some extraordinary new primates. Proboscis monkeys Cyrano and Roxanne, the first of their species in the Western Hemisphere, had just been flown in from Surabaya, Indonesia to make their new home at the San Diego Zoo. Little was known about this species native to Borneo, so mammal curator George Pournelle made special exhibit arrangements for these rare treasures, housing them in a temperature- and humidity-controlled room of the Reptile House, where the tropical atmosphere of their native habitat could be simulated. Not only was this primate pair a rare find for a U.S. zoo, it also turned out that they represented an international gesture of friendship and goodwill. George Pournelle had originally talked with an animal collector over a cup of coffee, who asked if San Diego was interested in animals from Indonesia. Not really thinking it would happen, George listed some, especially proboscis monkeys. A month later, he received a phone call from the American Embassy in Jakarta, inquiring about an exchange of animals from the Americas for the proboscis monkeys with the Surabaya Zoo. Almost not believing his luck, George made the arrangements to send a pair of spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys, raccoons, and sea lions to Surabaya. And in return, Cyrano and Roxanne came to San Diego. But there was even more to the story. It turned out that the representative of the American Embassy in Jakarta, Wade Brooks, worked on extensive negotiations on the San Diego Zoo's behalf, with the aid of the vice-consul in Surabaya. Wade Brooks even went so far as to build a cage in his own backyard, where the monkeys stayed on a stopover before being able to continue to the U.S. Astounded at the entire sequence of events, George wrote, "To us at the San Diego Zoo the great value of this undertaking in not just the receipt of these rare and interesting animals. More important is the establishment of goodwill and friendly relations with Indonesia, through the Surabaya Zoological Gardens—relations that we are sure will be long and pleasant." San Diego Zoo visitors of course noted that Cyrano and Roxanne's noses were big. But they had no idea how big their impact was on increasing the Zoo's partnerships across the globe.