Jessica Allen has written for The Boston Globe, CNN, The Independent, McSweeney’s, Mental Floss, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, and many other publications. Based in New York City, she’s swum with humpback whales in the South Pacific and chased after chimpanzees in Uganda, fed elephants in Laos and sung along with howler monkeys in Nicaragua. But her favorite animal encounter, by far, is hanging out with her husband and son.