Habitat of Spider Monkeys

Spider monkeys live in Central and South America, high in the forests. These monkeys generally avoid confrontation by staying out of the way of other animals and keeping mobile. The canopy of the forest provides protection and food for small groups of these primates. This type of monkey does not have opposable thumbs or a specific social system, making it a lower primate.

  1. Area

    • Spider monkeys reside in three types of forests in South America: evergreen rainforests, semi-deciduous forests and mangrove forests. They rarely come to the ground. These monkeys can adapt to other types of forests if their habitat has been threatened, but only if hunting pressure is low and there are not primate competitors. This makes spider monkeys more flexible than other South American monkeys.

    Socialization

    • Typically, spider monkeys live in loosely formed communities or groups of approximately 30 monkeys. These can fragment into subgroups of usually fewer than four. The independent groups co-exist in the same general area, though the only consistent interaction seems to be amongst mothers and offspring.

      Spider monkeys sleep at night in trees with horizontally forked branches, high in the canopy, to avoid predators. These monkeys tend to stave off intruders with wild behavior. If this fails, they break into small groups and retreat.

    Diet

    • Leading females plan the feeding routes so the amount of food gathered for the expenditure of energy makes the trip worthwhile. Spider monkeys eat the food on the run rather than bring it back to a home base. Spider monkeys are frugivorous -- 90 percent of their diet is fruit and seeds. The animals consume a wide variety of fruits as well as some leaves, flowers, aerial roots and sometimes bark. Very rarely the monkey will eat insects and bird eggs. The territories of the smaller groups will overlap as long as there is an abundance of food; in scarce conditions the areas do not overlap.

    Locomotion

    • The reason spider monkeys easily live in the higher canopies has to do with the equal usage of all four appendages. The animals use suspending motion when climbing, meaning the arms can sustain the full weight of the animal and effectively move it from place to place. These monkeys can walk on two legs, but they often run using all four limbs for a faster and stronger pace.