Diversity
The genus
Ateles
is made up of 7 extant species of spider monkeys, and includes numerous subspecies.
Spider monkeys cover a broad range of Central and South American rainforests. The
species are very similar to one another in terms of behavior and physical appearance,
and the exact phylogeny is still being worked out among them. Spider monkeys are culturally
significant to humans, and every species of them is threatened with extinction.
Geographic Range
Spider monkeys range from the northern part of Mexico all the way through to northern
Bolivia. They are commonly found in the Amazon rainforest. Each of the seven species
lives in their own region, without much overlap between them. However, habitat loss
and fragmentation have played a major role in decreasing their distribution.
- Biogeographic Regions
- neotropical
Habitat
Spider monkeys live in tropical rainforests, where they have wide home ranges in order
to find an abundance of fruit. Some species do live in semi-deciduous forests. Spider
monkeys choose their range based on water resources, climate, their ability to defend
the area, and predation risk. They primarily live in the tree canopy of many types
of trees, where they are off the ground to avoid some predation, and where there is
an abundance of fruit. They have been known to be on the ground in order to travel,
eat, drink, and play for short periods of time.
- Habitat Regions
- tropical
- terrestrial
- Terrestrial Biomes
- rainforest
Systematic and Taxonomic History
Genus
Ateles
has 7 extant species, with many subspecies. It is most closely related to
Brachyteles
and
Lagothrix
, which are woolly monkeys. The genus was originally named
Ameranthropoides
in 1799, but the name was changed to
Ateles
in 1806. There is much debate about how the 7 species evolved from one another, and
if some of them should be combined into one species. They were originally grouped
based off of morphological characteristics, such as pelage color and hair length.
Over time, researchers have grouped them based off of other factors, such as genetic
data and phylogenetic analysis. Each of these methods led to different results, but
most approaches agree that
Ateles paniscus
is the basal taxon of the genus. However, even this is still up for debate.
Physical Description
Spider monkeys have short faces, and small heads. They have a long, thin tail and
limbs, with a larger torso. Their fingers are long and hooked for grabbing, and their
long tails are used for suspensory locomotion. Spider monkeys are typically black,
and have pale eye patches. There is evidence in
Ateles paniscus
of sexual dimorphism, where the females are larger than the males, but there isn't
evidence of this in the other species.
- Other Physical Features
- endothermic
- bilateral symmetry
- Sexual Dimorphism
- sexes alike
Reproduction
Females and males both use grooming as a method of attracting a mate. Males typically
look at and smell female genitalia to initiate copulation, and females seek out a
male partner at certain times during their ovarian cycles. Most of the mating is done
with one high-ranking male, but females can have multiple partners. It just depends
on the specific group of males. In order to secure mates, male groups guard certain
territories from other male groups if that is where individual female home ranges
are.
- Mating System
- polygynous
- polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Spider monkeys reach sexual maturity between 4 and 5 years old. Their gestation period
lasts between 7 to 7.5 months, and weaning occurs between 1 and 2 years of age. The
number of offspring per breeding season can vary, and they can breed at any point
during the year. Typically, they only mate once every 2 to 4 years.
- Key Reproductive Features
- iteroparous
- year-round breeding
- gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
- sexual
- fertilization
- viviparous
Spider monkey offspring are cared for by the female. The mother and her children live
in a separate home range from the males. Offspring typically stay with the mother
until two years old, when males find their own groups and females find their own territory.
- Parental Investment
- female parental care
-
pre-hatching/birth
-
provisioning
- female
-
protecting
- female
-
provisioning
-
pre-weaning/fledging
-
provisioning
- female
-
protecting
- female
-
provisioning
-
pre-independence
-
provisioning
- female
-
protecting
- female
-
provisioning
- extended period of juvenile learning
Lifespan/Longevity
There is some uncertainty about spider monkey lifespan in the wild, but it seems to
range between 20 and 25 years. They live about 40 years in captivity.
Behavior
Spider monkeys are very social animals. Males live in large groups with some hierarchy.
The males spend more time with each other than with females, so the hierarchy is necessary
to prevent disagreements. Males also stay in the same group that they were born in,
but females leave their groups and spend most of their lives on their own or with
offspring. The home ranges of different groups overlap, and encounters between groups
can be aggressive. In general, spider monkeys are most active in the morning and evening,
and rest during the afternoon and night. There is some evidence that spider monkeys,
specifically
Ateles geoffroyi
, use tools for body care. Spider monkeys also use their tails in order to get food
that may be out of reach otherwise. There is evidence in
Ateles fusciceps
that their tail use is lateralized, meaning that they favor using their tail to one
side over the other.
Communication and Perception
Spider monkeys have a wide range of vocalizations that they use to communicate with
one another. They have an alarm call that sounds like a dog bark to warn for predators,
and other longer distance calls to communicate. To communicate with other members
of their group, they have "chuckles." They also rely on touch, such as grooming one
another, to create social bonds. Spider monkeys also have a stronger sense of smell
than people usually believe. They can use smell to pick out ripe fruits. Research
was done that demonstrated that even with smells meant to distract from the ripeness,
spider monkeys were still able to detect which fruits were ripe and which were not.
However, most of their perception of their environment still comes from sight.
Food Habits
Spider monkeys are herbivores, so they eat predominantly leaves and fruits. They consume
from plants that are abundant in their habitat, so there is not one kind of leaves
or fruit that they eat. They do have some preferences, which leads them to move to
different parts of their home ranges during different times of the year depending
on what plants are most abundant in what area. This behavior has been studied in
Ateles geoffroyi
and
Ateles chamek
.
Predation
Spider monkey's are mainly predated on by humans for their meat and body parts. Due
to their large size, being off the ground, and forming subgroups, it is difficult
for other animals to predate on them. However, there have been known instances of
predation on spider monkeys by pumas (
Puma concolor
), jaguars(
Panthera onca
), crested eagles(
Morphus guianensis
), and harpy eagles(
Harpia harpyja
). Spider monkeys use a bark call to alert their groups to a predator's presence,
and to tell the predator that they have been seen. Due to their low predation risk,
a lot of their other possible predator avoidance behaviors haven't been observed.
Ecosystem Roles
Due to spider monkeys being herbivorous and having large ranges, they play a large
role in seed dispersal in their habitats. This allows for plants to travel to different
areas for growth, and for plant diversity to be maintained. When spider monkeys defecate,
the seeds typically come out whole, which is important for the growth and spread of
large seeded trees. They also eat fruit from a variety of different trees, which helps
with the spread of tree diversity. A research study found that the trees and plants
they consume from and disperse the most are
Chrysochlamys membranacea
,
Pourouma minor
,
Pseudolmedia rigida
,
Tetragas-tris varians
, and genus
Ossaea
.
- Ecosystem Impact
- disperses seeds
- creates habitat
Economic Importance for Humans: Positive
Spider monkeys are important to the cultures of the people who live in their habitat,
such as in their artwork and stories. They are also a source of meat, and their body
parts have been used for making clothing and accessories.
Economic Importance for Humans: Negative
Spider monkeys typically try to stay away from humans as much as possible, so there
aren't many instances of negative interaction. Spider monkeys can carry diseases,
but there isn't much evidence of transmittance to humans because of the low amount
of interaction.
- Negative Impacts
- injures humans
- causes or carries domestic animal disease
Conservation Status
The populations of all spider monkey species are in decline, and range from vulnerable
to critically endangered. They have been victims of habitat fragmentation, habitat
destruction(roads, houses, etc), deforestation, and hunting. These events also trigger
a stress response, which leads to decreased individual animal health and lower population
viability. There is a lot of action being taken to try to stop the population decline,
such as establishing nature reserves and putting protections in place, but there is
a lack of funding and commitment so efforts are slow.
Additional Links
Contributors
Bri Hinchliffe (author), Colorado State University, Audrey Bowman (editor), Colorado State University.
- Neotropical
-
living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- tropical
-
the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.
- terrestrial
-
Living on the ground.
- 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.
- polygynous
-
having more than one female as a mate at one time
- polygynandrous
-
the kind of polygamy in which a female pairs with several males, each of which also pairs with several different females.
- 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).
- year-round breeding
-
breeding takes place throughout the year
- sexual
-
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
- fertilization
-
union of egg and spermatozoan
- viviparous
-
reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.
- female parental care
-
parental care is carried out by females
- arboreal
-
Referring to an animal that lives in trees; tree-climbing.
- diurnal
-
- active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
- motile
-
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
- nomadic
-
generally wanders from place to place, usually within a well-defined range.
- social
-
associates with others of its species; forms social groups.
- colonial
-
used loosely to describe any group of organisms living together or in close proximity to each other - for example nesting shorebirds that live in large colonies. More specifically refers to a group of organisms in which members act as specialized subunits (a continuous, modular society) - as in clonal organisms.
- dominance hierarchies
-
ranking system or pecking order among members of a long-term social group, where dominance status affects access to resources or mates
- tactile
-
uses touch to communicate
- acoustic
-
uses sound to communicate
- visual
-
uses sight to communicate
- tactile
-
uses touch to communicate
- chemical
-
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
- pet trade
-
the business of buying and selling animals for people to keep in their homes as pets.
- food
-
A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.
- causes disease in humans
-
an animal which directly causes disease in humans. For example, diseases caused by infection of filarial nematodes (elephantiasis and river blindness).
- causes or carries domestic animal disease
-
either directly causes, or indirectly transmits, a disease to a domestic animal
- herbivore
-
An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.
- folivore
-
an animal that mainly eats leaves.
- frugivore
-
an animal that mainly eats fruit
- 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.
- 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.
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