Colombian night monkey
| Colombian night monkey | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Aotus lemurinus | ||||||||||||
| I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire , 1846 |
The Colombian night monkey ( Aotus lemurinus ) is a species of primate from the group of night monkeys (Aotidae).
features
Like all night monkeys, Colombian night monkeys are relatively small primates. Their weight is around 0.9 kilograms, with the males becoming slightly heavier than the females. Their fur , which is longer than that of other night monkeys, is gray-brown on the back and on the outside of the limbs, the belly and the inside of the limbs are light gray or light brown. The tail is longer than the body and bushy. The large, brown eyes are surrounded by white fields, along the head are three dark stripes, one outside of each eye and one across the forehead to the nose. They differ from other night monkeys in their longer fur and chromosome number .
distribution and habitat
Colombian night monkeys are common in the Andean regions of Colombia and Ecuador , where they can be found in forests between 1000 and 3200 meters above sea level.
Way of life
Little is known about the way of life, but it should agree with that of the other night monkeys. They are nocturnal and are mostly in the trees. There they move on all fours and jump away. Outer monkeys live in monogamous family groups of two to five animals and inhabit fixed territories that they defend from other species. The main diet of these animals consists of fruits, besides they also eat leaves and insects. Due to their nocturnal lifestyle, they avoid competition with diurnal, more dominant species.
Danger
The main threat to the Colombian night monkeys is the destruction of their habitat through deforestation and conversion into agricultural land. Armed conflicts make it difficult to implement protective measures. Overall, the species is listed as "endangered" ( vulnerable ) by the IUCN .
Systematics
The eastern gray-throated night monkey is one of around 11 species of night monkeys that are differentiated today. He is counted within the night monkeys to the gray-throated group , which summarizes the more primitive animals living north of the Amazon. The systematics within this group is controversial, there are some outwardly similar species, but which differ in the number of chromosomes. The Panama night monkey ( Aotus zonalis ), the gray-hand night monkey ( Aotus griseimembra ) and the brumback night monkey ( Aotus brumbacki ), which used to be considered subspecies of the Colombian night monkey, are now listed as separate species by Defler and Bueno (2007) . On the other hand, the Hershkovitz night monkey, which was previously considered a separate species, Aotus hershkovitzi , is now grouped together with this species.
literature
- Thomas R. Defler, Marta L. Bueno: Aotus Diversity and the Species Problem. In: Primate Conservation. 22, 2007, ISSN 0898-6207 , pp. 55-70, PDF ( Memento from February 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
- Thomas Geissmann : Comparative Primatology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin et al. 2003, ISBN 3-540-43645-6 .
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
