- characterised by their long, slender limbs and great agility
- they travel in small bands in forest forest trees
- they move swiftly by making trenmendous leaps, sprawling out like spiders and grasping tree with prehensile limbs.
- their fur is gray to brown or black, with lighter undersides.
- their face has white eyes and is shaded by projecting hair that is either light or dark in colour.
- have no thumbs or it is reduced to a nub.
- use specific routes as they travel through the trees which remain constant.
- travel by branchiating through the trees using their prehensile tail as a fifth limb.
- depend highly on their keen binocular vision.
- live high in the trees of the rain forest and rarely descend to the jungle floor.
- forage in groups ranging from one to twenty individuals.
- the groups constantly change as individuals come and go.
Food And Feeding
- spider monkeys mainly eat fruits and nuts.
- occasonally spider monkeys eat invertebrates.
- they decrease their daily travel distance from 3 miles to around 765 feet at the time of the year when the fruit is abundant.
Breeding
- females tend to be a little larger and heavier than males.
- non- seasonal breeders and have a gestatio period of 225 - 230 days.
- gives bnirth to one baby which is dependent on the mother for the first 2 or three years of life.
- start consuming solid food by the fourth or fifth month.
- females usually give birth every two or three years.
Interesting Facts
- have prehensile tails.
- has very long arms and legs and even just the tip of their tail can support the weight of their entire body.
- spider monkeys tails are the longest and most powerful of all other primates.
- males will occasionally scent mark branches by mixing saliva with a secretion produced from a gland on their chest.
