![]() A 2014 study of Mexican spider monkeys in Belize found that males and females spent their time differently, with females doing more eating and resting and males eating more ripe fruits and traveling. ![]() Within that group, smaller subgroups will often splinter off to forage. Spider monkeys are social, living in groups of up to 40 members. Between 50 and 90 percent of seed dispersal in tropical forests is done by animals. When animals eat fruit and nuts from trees and then go on their merry way, they eventually defecate the seeds and spread the tree species throughout the area. Spider monkeys are important seed dispersers for their rainforest homes. This animal’s diet consists mostly of fruits, plus leaves, nuts, seeds, and sometimes arachnids and insects. Red-faced spider monkeys are covered in longish black hair except for their bare faces, hands, and feet. White-bellied spider monkeys, which range from Colombia to Peru, for example, have a coat of hair that ranges from black to auburn with a light patch on their foreheads and a chin-to-belly swath of white-to-beige hair. It can support a spider monkey’s full body weight and allows them to hang onto branches, freeing their hands so they can climb, forage, and eat.Įach of the seven spider monkey species differs in geographic range and appearance, although they do share some physical traits and behaviors. The spider monkey’s tail is prehensile, which means “capable of grasping.” It is generally longer than the animal’s body and acts as a fifth limb-an adaptation to life in the tree canopy. (They also have thumbs but those are extremely short.) Their tree-to-tree locomotion, called brachiation, is how these swingers get around. Four long fingers on each hand help them grasp branches, too. There are seven species of these agile primates, which get their name from the way their long limbs and tails resemble spider legs as they dangle from branches and swing through the treetops. Spider monkeys are large New World monkeys that live in tropical rainforests from central Mexico in the north to Bolivia in the south.
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