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| Description:
Spider monkeys are characterized by their long, slender limbs and great
agility. They travel in small bands in forest trees, moving swiftly by
making tremendous leaps, sprawling out like spiders, and grasping tree
limbs with their prehensile tails. The fur is gray to brown or black,
with lighter undersides; the face has white eye rings and is shaded by
projecting hair that is either light or dark in color. |
| Range/Habitat:
Tropical rain forest of southern Mexico, Central and South America |
| Adaptations:
Spider monkeys have prehensile tails. This tail is the longest and most
powerful of all primates. The hands lack thumbs. Males will occasionally
scent mark branches by mixing saliva with a secretion produced from a
gland on their chest.
Diet: mainly fruits and nuts,
occasionally invertebrates.
Remarks: Spider monkeys use
specific routes as they travel through the trees. These routes remain
constant. During the time of the year when fruit is particularly
abundant, they decrease their daily travel length from 3 miles to around
765 years. Spider monkeys travel by brachiating through the trees using
their prehensile tails as a fifth limb. These monkeys depend highly on
their keen binocular vision.
Spider monkeys live high in the trees of the rain forest and only rarely
descend to the jungle floor. They forage in groups ranging from one to
twenty individuals. The groups are constantly changing as individuals
come and go. This gives the group the appearance of being unstructured
but these fluid groups are actually subgroups of a larger permanent
group. |
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