The Spider Monkey
The Spider Monkey
Physical Characteristics
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 colour. 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.
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 rain forests, 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.
REPRODUCTION and GROWTH
A female is able to give birth between the ages of 4 to 5 years old, with an oestrus 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 vent rum 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 colouration 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. TA 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 the Zoo they are fed celery, bananas, raisins, apples, oranges, carrots, monkey chow, dog chow, lettuce, and wheat bread.
LOCOMOTION
Spider monkeys use several different types of locomotion:
quadruped, using all four limbs for locomotion as seen while walking or running. Quadruped locomotion is usually observed if the monkey is on a stable relatively substrate free of obstacles.
While travelling they mostly employ quadruped walking and running, suspensor locomotion and climbing.
suspensor locomotion used when hanging, climbing or moving through the trees and bimetallism, using only two limbs when leaping.
When they are using suspensor locomotion they may be brachia-ting (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 quadruped, climbing and suspensor locomotion.
Spider Monkeys & Men
Throughout much of its range, the black spider monkey is hunted by man for food. Being both noisy and quite large, the spider monkey is an easy target for darts or arrows. But because the young mature slowly and the rate of reproduction is low, it is easily over hunted and, in some areas, its populations have been wiped out completely. The spider monkey is also threatened by the destruction of rain forests. It is particularly vulnerable to habitat loss because it is unable to adapt to other habitats
Key Facts
Head & Body Length:15-22 in
Tail: 25-36 in
Weight: Males:21 lb Females:19 lb
Sexual maturity: Males:5 years Females:4 Years
Breeding Season: Year Round
Gestation: 225-232 days
Number of young: 1 every 2-3years
Lifespan: Typically, up to 20years. Longest recorded, 33 years in captivity
Colours: golden, red, buff, brown or black, with hands and feet generally black