Howler monkey
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Howler Monkey ( Alouatta arctoidea ) |
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| Cabrera , 1940 |
The howler monkey ( Alouatta arctoidea ) is a species of primate from the family of spotted monkeys (Atelidae). It occurs only in Venezuela north of the Orinoco and east of Lake Maracaibo and on Trinidad .
features
Howler monkeys reach head-torso lengths of 45 to 65 cm, have a 55 to 68 cm long prehensile tail and weigh 6 to 8 (males) or 4.5 to 7 kg (females). The basic color of the monkeys is a golden shimmering copper red. The head, shoulders, limbs and possibly sections of the tail are dark red-brown. Both sexes are outwardly very similar, but the males are usually larger. They often have a black beard, black legs, and a black tail. The howler monkeys in Trinidad are solid red-brown and smaller.
Way of life
Howler monkeys live in more or less open deciduous forests, in the Llanos in gallery forests and in the northern Venezuelan coastal cordillera also in mountain rainforests up to heights of 2000 meters. They form groups of 3 to 16 animals, which consist of one to two males and usually two to three females and their small or teenage young animals. Howler monkeys feed 70% on leaves. Fruits, flowers and other parts of the plant make up the rest of the diet. In order to be able to use the difficult to digest leafy food, they have to rest two thirds to three quarters of the day. They spend 10 to 12% of their time eating. Howler monkeys reproduce all year round. The males become sexually mature at 58 to 66 months of age, females at 43 to 54 months of age. The females usually have their first young at the age of five years and then at intervals of 10.5 to 26 months. The young are born after a gestation period of 186 to 194 days. In a group with two males, only the dominant male mates in most cases, but sometimes a female copulates with the inferior male or a male from a neighboring group. Males usually become fathers for the first time at the age of seven.
Systematics
The howler monkey was described in 1940 by the Argentine-Spanish zoologist Ángel Cabrera Latorre as a subspecies of the red howler monkey ( Alouatta seniculus ) and raised in 2006 to the species rank because its chromosome number differs from that of the red howler monkey.
Danger
The IUCN estimates the population of the species as Least Concern.
literature
- AB Rylands & RA Mittermeier: Family Atelidae (Howlers, Spider and Woolly Monkeys and Muriquis). Pages 526 in Russell A. Mittermeier , Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson : Handbook of the Mammals of the World - Volume 3: Primates. Lynx Editions, 2013 ISBN 978-8496553897
- Liliana Cortés-Ortiz, Anthony B. Rylands, Russell A. Mittermeier: The Taxonomy of Howler Monkeys: Integrating Old and New Knowledge from Morphological and Genetic Studies. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects 2015, pages 55–84, Springer, New York, DOI: 10.1007 / 978-1-4939-1957-4 3 , ISBN 978-1-4939-1956-7
Web links
- Alouatta Arctoidea in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: Urbani, B., Boubli, J.-P. & Rylands, AB, 2008. Retrieved June 18, 2015.