Squrriel Monkeys

SQUIRREL MONKEYS

Squirrel Monkey’s are found in the dense forests of Central and South America. They are highly active during the day time and spend most of their time high up in the trees. They rarely come to ground because of the dangers that lay on the ground level such as predators, because of their size they fall prey to most of the carnivores that roam through the forests. High in the trees they have everything they need to survive so journey’s to the ground are very few and for exploration purposes only.

The explorations that take the young inquisitive monkeys to the ground level are just to prove to themselves how brave they are. These monkeys never go to ground alone in fact they never do anything alone, their defense system is safety in numbers. The Squirrel Monkey’s have a great range of vocals that stretch from a scream to a grunt and a screech. They use various tones to alarm the other monkey’s, depending on the danger really depends on the sound that you will hear from them. The bigger the threat the more noise you will hear. Every voice of these monkeys are different, just as humans we can tell who is talking by just listening and squirrel monkeys work the same way.              

Grab hold of your jump buddy, has everyone got their jump buddy……………

Behaviour of the Squirrel Monkey

Squirrel Monkey’s have one of the biggest groups of all the monkey’s, they stay in groups of 20-30 at any time but these are separate groups of a much larger family group. In the evening time they regroup in the tree canopies, this is where you will see the full extent of the family groups, these groups can range from anywhere up to 1 hundred individuals. The break away groups of 2-30 members are often the feeding groups and exploration groups but they all work as the same group.

They separate groups never stray to far from each other, this allows them to communicate with each other if a threat enters the area. The vocals and behaviours change depending on the threat, the warnings could disiffer between a snake to a tiger, and they all know the warning calls. Because they stay in close range of each other they can tell the other groups where the threat has come from and where it is going. This behaviour keeps the whole family safe from harm at all times.