Central America Wildlife - Spider Monkey

These funny guys get their names after their disproportionately long limbs and long prehensile tail. Their hair is coarse, ranging in color from ruddy gold to brown and black but the hands and feet are usually black.

They have an average weight of 10.8 kg for males and 9.66 kg for females. Due to their slow development they may live 20 years or more. The diet of spider monkeys consists of about 90% fruits and nuts. They can live for long periods on only one or two kinds of fruits and nuts.

They are social animals and live in bands of up to 35 individuals but will split up into smaller groups during the day. Unlike many other species of animals the females are the ones that leave the group when they reach puberty instead of males which live together all their lives. Both males and females sniff their mates to check their readiness for copulation. This process is known as "anogenital sniffing". But the female is the one that chooses a male from her group with whom she wants to mate. The gestation period lasts 7 months. Each female bears only one offspring every 3 to 4 years. The young are dependent of their mothers until their second year.

Each female bears only one offspring every 3 to 4 years. The young are dependent of their mothers until their second year. But yet again the destruction of their habitat is reducing its population rapidly and in some places they are almost extinct. They are divided in seven species and they are all endangered but critically endangered are the Black-headed Spider Monkey and Brown Spider Monkey.

These curious animals live mainly in tropical forests they can only be found from southern Mexico to Brazil. Spider monkeys live in the upper layers of the rainforest and forage in the high canopy, from 25 to 30 m.

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