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Callicebus molochdusky titi

By Bret Weinstein

Geographic Range

Central Brazil. Titi monkeys are only found in the Amazon river drainage and around the head-waters of the Orinoco river.

Habitat

Low rainforest canopy

Physical Description

  • Average mass
    804 g
    28.33 oz
    AnAge

Reproduction

Titi monkeys are monogamous.

Births occur from December to April. Gestation period is unknown. From birth both males and females take 10 months to reach adult size, although adult dentition is not fully present until at least 15 months.

  • Average number of offspring
    1
    AnAge
  • Average gestation period
    163 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    912 days
    AnAge

Adult males tend to carry infants except when the mother is nursing. Juveniles leave their family group after two to three years.

  • Parental Investment
  • pre-fertilization
    • provisioning
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • male
  • pre-independence
    • protecting
      • male
  • post-independence association with parents
  • extended period of juvenile learning

Lifespan/Longevity

Behavior

Titi monkeys are generally found in low canopy forest, near rivers. They have been observed on the ground in the wild. Family groups are strongly territorial. A family group consists of an adult male and female and their offspring from several seasons. Mean group size is 3.3. Like all neotropical primates (except Aotus), titi monkeys are strongly diurnal. Their daily feeding is always interrupted by a mid-day rest. They typically sleep together in a vine encrusted tree and often return to the same tree night after night. Titi monkeys are considerably more vocal than most other neotropical primates. Their vocalizations are also more complex than those made by most other monkeys. Family members groom each other often, especially during the mid-day rest. Within a family group, a pair of titi monkeys often sit with tails intertwined. Tail-twining is especially common between the adult male and female and takes place whenever two family members are sitting together. This is true whether the monkeys are awake or asleep.

Communication and Perception

Food Habits

Titi monkeys eat large amounts of fruit, including figs. They also eat leaves, insects, eggs and small vertebrates.

  • Animal Foods
  • eggs
  • insects
  • Plant Foods
  • leaves
  • fruit

Conservation Status

These animals are threatened by the rapid destruction of their habitat. CITES Appendix 2.

Contributors

Bret Weinstein (author), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Neotropical

living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.

World Map

arboreal

Referring to an animal that lives in trees; tree-climbing.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

diurnal
  1. active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

frugivore

an animal that mainly eats fruit

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

monogamous

Having one mate at a time.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

rainforest

rainforests, both temperate and tropical, are dominated by trees often forming a closed canopy with little light reaching the ground. Epiphytes and climbing plants are also abundant. Precipitation is typically not limiting, but may be somewhat seasonal.

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

References

Mammalian Species #112

Walker's Mammals of the World, fifth edition; Nowak, R. ed.; 1991; Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 449-450

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