Black Spider Monkey Plush Toys
Get facts and information about the Black Spider Monkey, as well as plush toys, at The Forest Cottage.
The little plush toy Black Spider Monkeys shown above are sold out, but find other plush toy monkeys at: Jeanne's Cottage LLC.
The Spider Monkey, Ateles, is the champion acrobat of the New World. You can recognize it by its light, slender body (23 pounds), its long, spidery limbs, and its extraordinary lengthy tail (up to 35 inches), which is better developed for grasping than that of any other monkey.
The spider monkey's tail has twenty-three vertebrae and is more than two feet in length - a little longer than the animal's rounded head and short body. The extremely sensitive tip is naked and can firmly grasp anything it may touch. The tail acts like a fifth hand. With this remarkable appendage the monkey can suspend itself in the air, leaving all four limbs free, or it can grasp fruit that is out of the reach of the hands.
Normally the spider monkey travels along the upper surfaces of branches, using all four feet, with its tail arched over its back. When the animal wants to cross from the limb on which it finds itself, it may bring the powerful tail into play as a suspending arm, and swing itself till it can get a grasp on the next branch.
The spider monkey's arms are longer than its legs, and its hands are nearly as long as its feet. It has no thumbs, and so the hands cannot help it much in grasping. Swinging is another matter again - speed and the spider monkey are synonymous. In a flying leap it can cover a distance of thirty feet or drop twenty feet straight down.
Spider monkeys live in small groups, such as several females with their respective young, a male with several females and their young, or it may be a group of males only. The bachelor group consists of as many as ten individuals. Sometimes the smaller bands join up to form a group of males and females that may include thirty-two or more.
The spider monkey's food is mainnly fruit, but it also consumes bird eggs, flowers, and insects in small quantities. Wading into a stream, it will catch fish. It is busiest just before dawn and before the sun sets in the evening. As soon as one area develops a scarcity in food, the colony moves out.
The spider monkeys have no fixed breeding time, but more young may be born during certain seasons of the year than others. For about the first month the baby spider monkey is carried on the belly of the mother; after this it rides on her back. When traveling, the infant curls its tail around the mother's, close to the base.
The mothers are very careful of their young. When danger threatens, a female will pick up her baby, place it on her back, and carry it away. The young are dependent on their mothers until ten months old.
Spider monkeys are found in the tropical forests, from southern Mexico to Bolivia. The different species are much alike. Some are entirely black, while the coarse, woolly fur of others is golden yellow or reddish brown. Rather like them in many ways is the Woolly Spider Monkey, or Miriki, Brachyteles, of Brazil; although it is not brightly colored, its face is often a brilliant red, which becomes intensified when the animal gets angry.
The white-bellied spider monkey is considered endangered.
