Black Spider Monkey

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Spider Monkey

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Family:	Atelidae
Genus:	Ateles
Species:	A. paniscus
Binomial name
*Ateles paniscus* (Linnaeus, 1758)

Description

Spider monkeys (of several species) live in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America and occur as far north as Mexico. They have long, lanky arms and prehensile (gripping) tails that enable them to move gracefully from branch to branch and tree to tree. These nimble monkeys spend most of their time aloft, and maintain a powerful grip on branches even though they have no thumbs.

These New World primates are social and gather in groups of up to two- or three-dozen animals. At night, these groups split up into smaller sleeping parties of a half dozen or fewer. Foraging also occurs in smaller groups, and is usually most intense early in the day. Spider monkeys find food in the treetops and feast on nuts, fruits, leaves, bird eggs, and spiders. They can be noisy animals and often communicate with many calls, screeches, barks, and other sounds.

Typically, females give birth to only a single baby every two to five years. Young monkeys depend completely on their mothers for about ten weeks, but after that time they begin to explore on their own and play amongst themselves. Mothers continue to care for their young for the first year of their lives, and often move about with their offspring clinging to their backs.

Indigenous peoples often hunt spider monkeys for food, and the animals are usually agitated by human contact. Logging and deforestation continue to shrink the space that spider monkeys are able to call home.

Habits

The black spider monkey has exceptionally long, slender limbs and an even longer tail. Where possible, the spider monkey will run on all fours along the tops of branches. But where there is a break in the intertwined canopy of the trees, it will swing or leap from one tree to another. On the rare occasion when the spider monkey sets foot on the ground, it may walk upright on two legs with its long tail held stiffly up against its back. The spider monkey lives in loose-knit, nomadic troops which vary in size according to the availability of food. There are usually no more than 18 monkeys per square mile of forest, but where food is plentiful, as many as 100 may live together.

Breeding

Once the female is sexually mature, she comes into estrus every 24-27 days. She may then mate with any of the adult males in her troop. The baby monkey, born 20 weeks after mating, clings tightly to its mother's abdomen for its first four months. When the young monkey is older, it rides on the mother's back, wrapping its tail around hers for security. Even when it becomes too big to be carried, the young rarely strays from its mother's side. Such prolong maternal care means that may young spider monkeys successfully reach maturity. But because a female will not breed while her young is in her care, the reproductive rate of the species is family low. Did You Know, relative to its size, the Spider monkey has a larger brain than other western hemisphere monkeys. The spider monkey will break off heavy branches and drop them from trees to scare off intruders.

Diet

Each morning, The spider monkey troop breaks up into two or three smaller groups, which disperse to forage for food. The black spider monkey's large size means that it is not threatened by the eagles and hawks that prey on smaller primates. Consequently, it does not require the safety of a large group to be protected from predators. While feeding, the monkeys keep in contact with each other by their loud calls, which sound similar to the whinnying of a horse. The spider monkey feeds chiefly on fruit and nuts but also eats leaves, seeds, flower buds, birds' eggs, insects, and spiders. Fruit is an essential source of water. The spider monkey often suspends itself from a branch by a leg or its tail. This allows it to reach down to pluck fruit or flowers from the tip of a branch. Its long tail is do well adapted that is can pick up small objects such as nuts.