Spider Monkeys live high in the canopy of the rainforest and seldom venture to the rainforest floor. Spider monkeys live in evergreen rainforests, semi deciduous and mangrove forests, lowland rainforests to mountain forests. In these forests they live mostly in the upper canopy, preferring undisturbed high forest, almost never coming to the ground. Spider monkeys prefer wet forests rather than dry forests. In the wild, the Spider monkey rarely comes down to the rainforest floor.
Acrobatic and swift, Spider monkeys move through the trees, with one arm stride covering up to 40 feet. Spider monkeys are characterized by their long, slender limbs and great agility. They travel in small bands in forest trees, moving swiftly by making tremendous leaps, sprawling out like spiders and grasping tree limbs with their prehensile tails.
Spider monkeys live in medium-sized, loosely associated groups of about 30 individuals. The females have a more active leading role than males, so their social system is thought to be matriarchal. Within the group, adult males can coexist peacefully, although there is a clear hierarchy determined by age. The group is centred on the females and their young.
Males are dominant over females, but it is the females that make the main decisions for the group. Males may forage in small groups. Females and offspring often forage alone. At night Spider monkeys use sleeping trees which are usually tall enough so that the crown is free from the canopy beneath it having a broad open crown that has horizontally forked branches for prolonged resting postures.
The sleeping trees are often chosen for their ability to provide a ready source of food. Sleeping high in a tree above the canopy also affords security from predators. Since the thumb is absent, the Spider monkeys grooming is not as developed as in other primates.
They scratch themselves with hands and feet, but most of their social grooming is mothers grooming their young. Groups defend their ranges. Male Spider monkeys will mark their territory with secretions from chest glands.
The interactions will often begin with males, often along with one or two females, calling, which will bring other group members into the area. When males are within metres of each other, they will mutually threaten with a great deal of bluster. They chase about in the trees, shaking branches and whoop and growl at each other. These noisy sessions can easily last for an hour or more but they seem to be strictly male affairs. Females remain quietly in the background.
But troops rarely come to blows. Sometimes a male will occasionally scent mark branches by smearing saliva and a secretion that comes from a gland on his chest onto the branches, presumably to deposit his scent in the area. The gestation period of the Spider Monkey is about 7 — 8 months. Environment As the EU targets emissions cuts, this country has a coal problem.
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United States Change. There is no set breeding season for spider monkeys. Females determine when or if they will reproduce, only giving birth to a single offspring every two to five years — something determined largely by the food and water availability. If conditions are optimal, the females will go into estrus, and if it is less than ideal, then they will not breed until conditions improve. Newborn monkeys rely heavily on their mother for about three months, and then begin to explore on their own and become largely independent within the group by one year of age.
Typically, they leave to join a new group or start their own at around three years of age. Both females and males will move away from their original troop to form new groups or join other groups as they mature. Major loss of habitat, deforestation, and over- hunting has drastically diminished wild populations of spider monkeys across Central and South America. Spider monkeys are very sensitive to changes within their environment, and all species are listed internationally as either Threatened or Critically Endangered.
Monkey, Spider. Physical Characteristics Spider monkeys are among the largest of the New World monkeys — measuring up to two feet tall, and with males weighing up to 24 pounds and females about 21 pounds.
Social Behavior Spider monkeys are highly social, matriarchal societies that gather in groups of individuals, but they are rarely seen all together.
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