The Eating Habits of Black Spider Monkeys

The black spider monkey is a large South American primate found in Brazil, Guyana and Suriname. It is almost completely black in color except for around the face, hands and feet, and it has long fur by comparison with most other primates. It is a forest-dwelling animal that spends much of its time high in trees searching for and eating food.

  1. Foods

    • The diet of a black spider monkey is not hugely varied, with around 85 percent being made up of various fruits, such as the fleshy fruits produced by trees from the sapotacae and moracae tree families. Members of these tree families are native to tropical rain forests, as are the spider monkeys. The monkeys use trees from the myristicaceae family for seeds, which make up a small part of their diet. The monkeys' diet is also seasonally affected; when fruit is more scarce, they feed on leaves, shoots and flowers. To a smaller degree, the monkeys also eat insects, such as termites and caterpillars.

    Feeding Range

    • The monkey's high dependence on fruit, which often grows in small isolated regions of the forest, means it travels a great deal for food. Because of this, groups of black spider monkeys have large home ranges, which can be 1 1/2 square miles in area. Daily travel for food can be across large distances as the monkeys search for ripe fruiting trees.

    Feeding Postures

    • While eating, the monkeys have two main postures based on where they are obtaining the food. If fruit is within reach above the monkeys, they assume a seated posture and just pluck the fruit, either eating it whole or stripping off the outer layers of tougher fruits. If the nearest fruit is on lower branches, the monkeys wrap their tails around a branch and dangle by their back feet. This method leaves their hands free to pluck fruit from the lower branches, which they eat in the same manner as when seated.

    Social Feeding

    • Black spider monkeys live in small groups of between 20 and 30 individuals but split up into smaller groups for feeding. Starting in the early morning, groups of three or more monkeys separate out into feeding groups. When food is more scarce and spread out, these groups remain small. The groups feed for the first few hours of the day and then again for the last few hours before nightfall.