SpiderMonkeys

Spider Monkeys!

Emma (DOB 7/14/2000)

Daniel (DOB 2/1/2003)

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

New world monkeys like the spider monkey are more primitive than old world monkeys. Their brains are less complex, their thumbs are not opposable and their nostrils are further apart. They have slender bodies and limbs with long narrow hands.

The black-handed spider monkey has a light to medium brown body and darker limbs with the hands and feet usually black in color. The tail is sometimes longer than the body. When the animal

is on the lookout, it stands or walks on two feet,

using the tail to hold on to a support. In the wild,

the Spider monkey rarely comes down to the

jungle floor.

This arboreal monkey has a prehensile tail that is

muscular and tactile and is used as an extra hand.

Both the underside and tip of the tail are used for

climbing and grasping. When swinging by the tail,

the hands are free to gather food. Acrobatic and

swift, Spider monkeys move through the trees,

with one arm stride covering up to 40 feet.

DISTRIBUTION and HABITAT:

Spider monkeys live in evergreen rainforests,

semi deciduous and mangrove forests, almost

never coming to the ground. In these forests they live mostly in the upper canopy, preferring undisturbed high forest. They will be found in other forest types if habitat is limited, hunting pressure light and other primate competitors are not present. They are more flexible than their South American primate cousins in habitat adaptation.

BEHAVIOR:

Spider monkeys live in medium-sized, loosely associated groups of about 30 individuals, which fragment into subgroups of varying smaller sizes and composition. Unless there is an abundance of preferred food available, the subgroup size will consist of fewer than 4 animals.

It was previously thought that daily feeding routes were always the same. It was also observed that males were not able to plan an economic and varied food route like the leading females; therefore they have a less varied diet. When food is scarce the groups tend to avoid overlapping territories.

Spider monkeys are diurnal and at night use sleeping trees which are usually tall enough

so that the crown is free from the canopy beneath it having a broad open crown that

has horizontally forked branches for prolonged resting postures. The sleeping trees are often chosen for their ability to provide a ready source of food. Sleeping high in a tree above the canopy also affords security from predators. When threatened, both males and females of the troop scare intruders away with rough barking and wild behavior displays. If this fails, they fragment into subgroups and run. They prefer retreat, so fights are rare.

Since the thumb is absent, the Spider monkey's grooming is not as developed as in other primates. They scratch themselves with hands and feet, but most of their social grooming is mothers grooming their young.

REPRODUCTION and GROWTH:

A female is able to give birth between the ages of 4 to 5 years old, with an estrus cycle of 26 days. The birth interval is 17 to 45 months. Males are sexually mature at the age of 5 years. After a gestation period of 226-232 days, one entirely black baby is born. The baby is continuously carried by the mother, clinging to her back or belly, and at about 5 months of age it will begin riding on her back. It will be dependent on its mother's milk for 2 years.

Adult coloration is attained at the end of infancy and will not begin to manifest itself until it is 5 months old. Juveniles at the age of 24 to 50 months old never ride on their mother's back but they will still stay close to her. They spend their time exploring, or chasing, grappling, and jumping on others. They will play with others their same age or with adults.

Their lifespan in the wild is about 27 years.

DIET:

Spider monkeys are fruigivorous preferring a diet of

90% fruit and seeds, feeding on the mature soft parts

of a wide variety of fruits in which the seeds are

swallowed along with the fruit. They also eat young

leaves, flowers, aerial roots, sometimes bark and

decaying wood, as well as honey. A very small part

of the diet consists of insects, insect larvae and birds

eggs. They eat large quantities of food over a relatively

short period of time and they tend to feed by

suspension while hanging, climbing or moving.

They do not pick fruit and carry it to another location to

be eaten.

The lead female is often observed determining the forage route for the group; however if food is scarce they tend to divide into smaller groups.

In our home they are fed a variety of fruits and vegetables, Mazuri Primate Biscuit, Granola and occasionally noodles.

LOCOMOTION:

Spider monkeys use several different types of locomotion: quadrupedal, using all four limbs for locomotion as seen while walking or running; suspensory locomotion used when hanging, climbing or moving through the trees and bipedalism, using only two limbs when leaping. Quadrupedal locomotion is usually observed if the monkey is on

a stable relatively substrate free of

obstacles. When they are using

suspensory locomotion they may be

brachiating (swinging with their arms

from one branch to another while often

maintaining a tail hold). The most

commonly used pattern of body

movement while in a feeding pattern is

that of quadrupedal, climbing and

suspensory locomotion. While traveling

they mostly employ quadrupedal

walking and running, suspensory