RAIN FOREST MONKEYS

DID YOU KNOW

There are so many species of monkeys in the Amazon rain forest that scientist have not yet discovered all of them. In fact, in early 2009 a brand-new species, Mura’s tamarin, was found in a remote part of Brazil—and it’s already considered to be an imperiled species because of habitat loss due to the logging and burning of the rain forest.

One thing most monkeys in the Amazon rain forest—and throughout the rainforests of South and Central America—have in common is a prehensile tail. “New World” monkeys use their long prehensile tails as a fifth arm or leg to wrap around tree branches.

The “Old World” monkeys of the African and Asian rain forests lack this handy adaptation. Common types of monkeys in the Amazon rain forest include tamarins, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys and marmosets.

Dozens of species of tamarins inhabit American rain forests from Costa Rica through the southernmost parts of the Amazon and Brazil’s dwindling Atlantic Coast forest. Most tamarins are small—about the size of a squirrel—and some of them are quite strange in appearance.

The nine species of howler monkey are the largest monkeys in the Amazon and other rainforests of the New World. Howlers have the distinction of being the loudest land animal in the world: Their territorial calls can be heard up to three miles away. Howlers live in family groups of up to 18 members.

Rain forests from Mexico through the southern Amazon and Brazil’s Atlantic Coast are home to more than a dozen species of spider monkey. which get their name from their extremely long arms, legs, and prehensile tails. Three spider monkey species, the brown-headed spider monkey (Aleles fusciceps), the brown spider monkey (Aleles hybridus) and the northern muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus) are critically endangered, with habitat loss as the cause in all three cases. Spider monkeys are fairly large rainforest animals, weighing up to 11 kilos (24 pounds). They live in groups of up to several dozen that split into smaller groups to look for food during the day, and then reunite in the evening. Spider monkeys have a brain larger than that of a howler monkeys, and they are considered to be one of the most intelligent of all the Amazon rainforest monkeys.

Emperor Tamarin.

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 Rain Forest Monkeys: Howlers

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Brown Howler Monkey.  

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Black Howler Monkeys  

Amazon Spider Monkeys

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Spider Monkey. 

Rainforest Capuchin Monkeys

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Capuchin Monkey.  

Amazon Squirrel Monkeys

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Squirrel Monkey.

Rain Forest Marmosets

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Wied’s Marmoset.