Brown spider monkey
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Brown spider monkey ( Ateles hybridus ) |
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| Ateles hybridus | ||||||||||||
| Gray , 1872 |
The brown spider monkey ( Ateles hybridus ) is a primate of the family of atelidae (Atelidae). It lives in northwestern South America and is critically endangered.
features
Brown spider monkeys, like all spider monkeys, are slender primates with long limbs and a long tail. The head body length is 45 to 50 centimeters, the tail is 75 to 80 centimeters long. At around 10 kilograms, males are heavier than females, which reach around 7 kilograms. Their fur is brown on the top and on the head, the belly and the inside of the limbs are gray. There is a white, triangular spot on the forehead. The hands are long and bent like a hook, the thumb is missing. The tail is designed as a grasping tail, the rear part of the underside is hairless.
distribution and habitat
Brown spider monkeys inhabit a small area in northeastern Colombia and western Venezuela . Their habitat are forests, they prefer to stay in rainforests .
Way of life
These animals are diurnal tree dwellers who mostly stay in the upper canopy. They move quickly and skilfully, either on all fours or swinging and swinging, using the tail as a fifth limb and also - especially when foraging for food - can hang on one limb. They live in groups of up to 22 animals that split up into small subgroups for daily foraging. The subgroups keep in touch with each other by screaming loudly.
Their diet consists mainly of fruits, but they also eat leaves and other parts of plants.
After a gestation period of around 225 days, the female usually gives birth to a single young. This depends on the mother for over a year and becomes sexually mature at the age of 4 to 5.
Danger
The main threats to the brown spider monkey are hunting and habitat destruction. Their range has been greatly reduced and fragmented. Over the past 45 years the total population has declined by 80% and the IUCN fears that this trend will continue to the same extent. It therefore lists the species as " critically endangered ".
literature
- Thomas Geissmann : Comparative Primatology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-540-43645-6 .
- Don E. Wilson, DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
