Eastern gray-throated night monkey
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Eastern gray-throated night monkey ( Aotus trivirgatus ) |
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| Aotus trivirgatus | ||||||||||||
| Humboldt , 1811 |
The eastern gray-throated night monkey ( Aotus trivirgatus ) is a species of primate from the group of night monkeys (Aotidae).
features
Eastern gray-throated night monkeys, like all night monkeys, are relatively small primates with large eyes that are adapted to their nocturnal lifestyle. At around 0.8 kilograms, males are slightly larger than females who weigh 0.7 kilograms. Their fur is gray-brown on the back of the head, on the back and on the outside of the limbs, the belly and the inside of the limbs are reddish-brown. The 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. The rear part of the long tail is dark in color.
distribution and habitat
Eastern gray-throated night monkeys have the northeasternmost range of all night monkeys. They inhabit southern Venezuela (south of the Orinoco ) and northern Brazil , where the Rio Negro and the Amazon form the southern limit of their range. Their habitat are forests, although they can occur in different forest types.
Way of life
Like all night monkeys, they are nocturnal and usually stay in the trees. There they move on all fours and jump away. To sleep, they retire in tree hollows or thickets of plants. They live in monogamous family groups of two to five animals and live in fixed territories that they defend from conspecifics.
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.
After a gestation period of around 130 days, the female usually gives birth to a single young, twins are rare. After the first week of life, the father takes on the main responsibility for the young, he carries it, sleeps with it and only gives it to the mother to suckle. Sexual maturity occurs after around three years.
Danger
Eastern gray-throated night monkeys inhabit a relatively large, sparsely populated area. In some places they suffer from the destruction of their habitat, but overall the species is often and, according to the IUCN, “not endangered” ( least concern ).
In Europe the species is only kept in Antwerp and Madrid. The last German owner was Erfurt until 2004.
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. Until the 1980s, all owl monkeys were grouped into one species, which also bore the scientific name Aotus trivirgatus .
literature
- Thomas R. Defler, Marta L. Bueno: Aotus Diversity and the Species Problem. ( Memento from February 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Primate Conservation. 22, 2007, ISSN 0898-6207 , pp. 55-70.
- 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 .
supporting documents
Web links
- Aotus trivirgatus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2009. Posted by: R. A. Mitter Meier, A. B. Rylands, 2008. Accessed on 5 November of 2009.
- KA Cawthon Lang: Primate Factsheets: Owl monkey ( Aotus ) on Primate Info Net (English)