belong to the group of
Primates and make up two families, the Callitricidae,
the marmosets and tamarins and the Cebidae, which
represents woolly, spider, howler, squirrel and capuchin
monkeys among others. As member of the primates, the American
monkeys have separate fingers with opposing thumbs, binocular
vision, large brains and live in complex social groups. The
New World Monkeys are furthermore all arboreal
and feed mostly on
fruits, seeds and insects. In the Amazon monkeys are still
fairly common but on the populous coast they became rare because of
habitat destruction, tropical forests yielding to
agricultural enterprises.
Pygmy Marmosets are
very small and shy animals living in trees near
flooded areas or streams. They only occupy certain species of
trees and like to feed (as do all other marmosets) on tree
exudates. To get to the tree sap or resins, they bite
small and shallow holes into the bark and visit then the trees
in following days to feast on the exudates which gather in the
bark wounds. They further supplement their diet with
insects and occasionally fruits and nectar.
Marmosets and Tamarins make up the family of
Callitricidae and possess distinct features, which
separate them from the other monkeys, the larger Cebidae.
Apart from their smaller size, they have long but
non-prehensiletails, limbs with claws
instead of nails and faces covered with a variety of long
hairs.
Spider
Monkey is one of the largest monkeysfound in Ecuador.There exist 4 species of spider monkeys on the American
continent with two of them found in the country, the brown-headed one in
coastal regions and the white-bellied kind in the Amazon jungle. Spider
monkeys got their name from their acrobatic leaps, stretching
spider-like while jumping from branches to branches, often catching
themselves with their long and prehensile tails, which is used like an
extra 5th limb. They are social animals living in large bands of 20
divided in subgroups of 4 to 5 individuals, which gather fruits and eat
together.They are diurnal animals living in the high crowns of the tropical
trees, rarely coming to the bottom of the forest. As with many monkeys
the dominant males have more than one female companion, which has one
child every 4 to 5 years. After a pregnancy of 7 months, the child
stay with its mother, riding on her back till it knows how to survive on
its own. Spider Monkeys were and are still hunted for their delicious meat by
Amazonian Indians, being for the natives an invaluable source of
proteins.They are also kept as pets. But the major threat to their survival is the ongoing deforestation of
the tropical forests. That is the main reason why the brown-headed
spider monkey is almost extinct, surviving barely in some small patches
left of the coastal tropical forests. The white-bellied one is
under pressure too but can still be found in sufficient
numbers in remote and unpopulated regions of the Amazonian
jungle. That is also true for all other monkey species.
Squirrel monkeys and monkeys in
general are very poor swimmers and therefore they
often cross rivers by jumping from one
side to the other. The dominant male of the
troop chooses a high tree at the edge of the river and
jumps from there to another lower tree branch on the other
side. All other members of the troop then follow him by
jumping precisely the same route. Once airborne they
stretch out all their limbs to have more air updraft.
Capuchin Monkeys aremaybe the best known
American monkeys. They are those poor creatures
of Hollywood fame shown in old movies grinding away on an organ and earning thus
its keep. In the wild of South American tropical forests there exist four
species with three of them occurring in Ecuador. The most common
ones are the White-fronted Capuchin Monkeys which live on either side of the Andes to an altitude of up
to 2000m. Those in the video were filmed in the Podocarpus
National Park. Capuchins live in highly structured
communities of up to 30 members with a dominant male on
top. They feed mostly on arthropods which they find in
the tree branches.
There exist 2 species ofWoolly Monkeyson the American continent
with one of them the Common Woolly Monkey found in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
It got its name from its thick and dense fur, which is yellowish-gray to
blackish-brown. It has a big head with an almost hairless dark brown
face, a strong prehensile tail and a protruding abdomen.Like all
monkeys theyarealso social animals living in troops of 7 to 70
individuals and often mix with other related primates like the howler,
capuchin or spider monkeys. They are diurnal, moving slowly among trees,
eating mostly fruits but also seeds, insects and leaves. On the
ground they are known to walk upright. After a gestation
period of 5 months a single young is born, which is taken care
by the mother till it becomes independent enough to be on its
own.
Young Woolly Monkeys or chorongos, which is their common
Ecuadorian name, are caught to be sold as pets. Their
mothers are often killed in the process as
they do not give up their babies without a fight.But the major threat to their survival is the ongoing deforestation
of the tropical forests. Nowadays they only can be found in
large numbers in remote and unpopulated regions of the
Amazonian jungle.
Howler Monkeys
are the most widely distributed monkeys on the American continent, ranging
in diverse forest habitats in
Central and South America with six species
existing. In Ecuador exist two species of howler monkey, the
Black Howler Monkey on the Pacific side of the tropics
whereasin the Amazon rainforest you encounter the
Red Howler Monkey (pictures to the right
taken in Paρacocha).
They feed mostly on leaves but also take fruits and
flowers. They can survive on leaves poor in nutrients and
sugars and are therefore suited to many more habitats than
other monkey species.
One of their most
important characteristic is their roar, which can be heard
from some two kilometers away and is one of
the loudest sound produced by any
land animal. Special vocal adaptations let them achieve
that and hearing their roar is for many people an unforgettable acoustic
experience. For other monkeys it is an acoustic show ofterritoriality.
Natural
History
Probably one ancestor monkey specie (instead
of several different ones)arrived from Africa on the
South American continent at around 25 to 40 million years ago.
At that time South America was already an island continent and
those founder monkeys could have arrived by island hopping
or on vegetation rafts (as SA was still much closer to
Africa or by way of North America by the same means). They
evolved then in isolation and radiated into the many species
which are presently known. The New World or
platyrrhine monkeys differ from the living Old world or
catyrrhine monkeys in several aspects. Their faces are flatter
with shorter muzzles and their noses are much wider with
the nostrils pointing to the side (and not downwards).
They all are arboreal and have long prehensile tails
which are used as a fifth limb (with the exception of some
species) and aid enormously in climbing.
If a monkey can hang from its
tail,
it is a New World Monkey.
Ecuadorian
Monkey Species
CALLITRICHIDAE
Pygmy
Marmoset
Cebuella
pygmaea
Amazon
Saddleback Tamarin
Saguinus
fuscicollis
Amazon
Black-mantle
Tamarin
Saguinus
nigricollis
Amazon
Golden-mantle
Tamarin
Saguinus
tripartitus
Amazon
CEBIDAE
Black Howler Monkey
Alouatta palliata
Coast
Red Howler Monkey
Alouatta seniculus
Amazon
Subtropical Night Monkey
Aotus lemurinus
Amazon
Tropical Night Monkey
Aotus vociferans
Amazon
White-bellied Spider Monkey
Ateles belzebuth
Amazon
Brown-headed Spider Monkey
Ateles fusiceps
Coast
Red or
Dusky Titi Monkey
Callicebus
cupreus
Amazon
Black or Yellow-handed Titi Monkey
Callicebus
torquatus
Amazon
White-fronted Capuchin Monkey
Cebus
albifrons
Amazon
&
Coast
Brown
Capuchin Monkey
Cebus
apella
Amazon
White-throated Capuchin Monkey
Cebus
capucinus
Coast
Common
Woolly Monkey
Lagothrix
lagotricha
Amazon
Equatorial Saki Monkey
Pithecia
aequatorialis
Amazon
Common
or Monk Saki Monkey
Pithecia
monachus
Amazon
Common
Squirrel Monkey
Saimiri
sciureus
Amazon
Mammal
Vocabulary
Niche:
place occupied by a species in
its ecosystem.
Adaptive radiation:
evolution of a single specie into many
species that ocupy diverse ways of life within the same
geographical area.
Evolutionary
convergence:
the increasing similarity during evolution of two
or more unrelated speciesoccupying
the
same niche by products of different adaptive radiations.
