So Many Monkeys!

They are an amazing lot, they really are! They are absolute monkeys!

The Squirrel Monkey has a long and slender tail. The tail serves many purposes. It helps the animal to keep its balance when it monkeys around, I mean, jumps from branch to branch.

It also acts like a blanket during the night for, the monkey wraps itself cozily in its long tail! Except for some long-tailed large individuals, most squirrel monkeys are about the size of a squirrel.

Douroucoulis are also called Owl-monkeys.

They have round heads and round eyes like marbles. This animal makes its home in holes of trees, and sleeps in it the whole day. If someone taps on the tree, a Douroucouli wakes up and looks out to see who it is!

The Golden Lion Marmoset is called so because it looks like a lion! It is as big as one and has a long, silky mane. But it doesn’t roar like a lion; it chirps and twitters like a bird!

Here’s a monkey with a sad face, the Monk Saki. It has a long bushy tail, and when it sleeps, it looks like a bundle of dry leaves! It has a unique way of drinking water by wetting the fur on the back of its hand and licking it!!

The Mangabey is a large monkey with a long tail. It makes small mewing and twittering sounds. Mangabeys love fruits. They have big teeth and pouches in their cheeks to store food in them until they want to eat it!

The Spider Monkey has a long and strong tail which is like an extra arm. It has ridges underneath so that it can grip branches easily.

In fact, it is so deft that it can even pick up something as small as a peanut! That’s not the end of the tail tale – these monkeys often hold tails just the way we hold hands! Spider monkeys love to swing through branches of trees, they do not like the ground so much.

The Howler Monkey is the noisiest monkey. The female barks like a dog, and the male makes a deep roaring noise which can be heard several miles away! They have a special organ – a bony box in their throat which makes sounds that boom like a drum. Howler monkeys live high in the trees, and often march along the branches in long lines.

The Uakari (pronounced wackari) is perhaps the strangest looking monkey. It is bald headed with a bright red face! It loves the sun, so it lives in the treetops where it can get lots of sunlight. (And if a Uakari is kept indoors away from the sun, its bright red face goes pale pink!)

The Colobus monkey is a very picky eater – it eats only leaves. But since leaves by themselves are not very good food, the monkeys have to eat a huge amount of leaves to get enough nutrition. And because of this, Colobus monkeys have large stomachs!

The Langur is also called a Leaf monkey.

Since the leaves provide enough water, some Langurs can go for months without drinking! They have a long tail and a prominent ridge above the eyes.

Langurs live in troops (a group of monkeys) of 3 to 120 individuals!

The Probosis monkey is a leaf-eater too. The male adult has a very strange nose – it is like a pendulum! It hangs down over the monkey’s mouth to below its chin. Proboscis monkeys love to swim and sunbathe afterwards!

The Guenon is a brightly coloured monkey, with stripes or spots on their noses! Others have moustaches or colourful beards. These marks help the monkeys to see each other in the dark forests!

The Mandrill is a rather colourful monkey. The adult male has ribbed cheeks of blue and a long red nose. This display of colours becomes brighter when the animal is frightened, angry, or excited! Mandrills are powerful fighters and a troop (a group of monkeys) may even attack and kill a leopard!

Baboons live in big family groups. They have strong canine teeth, jaws and limbs. The stronger males lead the group and all others obey.

Baboons have the most unusual diet which includes scorpions, small animals, and most plants.

The Capuchin is named so because of black cap of fur that resembles the cowl of a Capuchin monk. It is also called a ring-tailed monkey because its tail is coiled at the tip. It is one of the most intelligent monkeys. Capuchins live in the tops of large trees, rarely descending to the ground.

777 words | 8 minutes
Readability: Grade 5 (10-11 year old children)
Based on Flesch–Kincaid readability scores

Filed under: planet earth
Tags: #trees, #monkeys, #teeth, #spiders, #squirrels, #long tail

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