11/11/2022 0 Comments Spider mokeyIn the late 1950’s a number of young spider monkeys were purchased in the market in Panama City and released onto the island, provisioned with fruits to help them survive to adulthood. When Barro Colorado Island was established as a nature preserve in 1924, there were no spider monkeys on the island as they had been exterminated from the area by hunters. Spider monkey males and females are about equal in size, in contrast to howlers, in which males are about 20% larger than females. It is possible for human observers to recognize individual spider monkeys by their distinctive facial markings. This species is covered with brilliant reddish hair, but the immediate facial area tends to be naked and the area around the eyes lightly pigmented, often with many tiny or large freckles or black dots. The Barro Colorado Island spider monkey species is Ateles geoffroyi, the black-handed spider monkey. When adult, spider monkeys, like howler monkeys, weigh from 8 to 9 kilograms. There is some debate as to how many spider monkey species there are–some authorities want to place all spider monkeys in a single species whereas others recognize 5 species. Typically they are found swinging and feeding in the tallest and largest forest trees. They are totally arboreal–but this does not mean that they, like other New World primates, cannot move about on the ground. Like howler monkeys, spider monkeys have a very wide geographical distribution, being found from southern Mexico through most tropical regions of Central and South America. Unlike other New World monkeys, they do not travel about on all fours (quadrupedal) but rather are brachiators, swinging the body down and around the grasping hand and using the prehensile tail as a fifth hand to aid in their rapid locomotion. Spider monkeys are the acrobats of New World primates. Posted in: Mammal Directory, Rainforest Connection Live
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