Grey-handed Night Monkey (Aotus griseimembra) lives in tropical rainforest across South America. It feeds on fruits and insects. Its conservation status is Vulnerable.
Fascinating facts about the Grey-handed Night Monkey
- Males tip the scales at about 1,009 g (35.6 oz) while females are a shade lighter at roughly 923 g (32.6 oz). Its compact body is cloaked in short, tight fur that shifts from gray-brown to reddish-brown on the back, with a yellowish belly. A distinctive coffee-colored patch on the backs of its hands and feet, tipped darker, sets it apart from close relatives.
- Its home stretches across the northern Colombian lowlands, from the Sinú River eastward, through the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and down the Magdalena, Cauca and Sao Jorge valleys, then jumps across the border into western and southern Venezuela, west of Maracaibo.
- Living in groups of just two to six individuals, usually an adult pair plus one infant and a few juveniles, these monkeys guard barely overlapping territories. One study recorded a sparse 1.5 monkeys per square kilometre, while another, in a forest remnant that acted as a refuge, counted a staggering 150 per square kilometre.
- Unlike most primates, the gray-handed night monkey forms a monogamous bond, usually delivering a single infant each year after a 133-day gestation. Fathers take the newborn within a day or two, cradling it while mothers nurse, and mothers typically wait 271 days before the next birth.
- The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the gray-handed night monkey as Vulnerable.
Sources
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At a glance
RangeSouth America
HabitatTropical rainforest
DietFruits and insects
About the Grey-handed Night Monkey
In the twilight depths of the South American forest, the Grey-handed Night Monkey emerges as a phantom, its large eyes glowing like lanterns as it navigates the shadows with an uncanny silence. With a gentle, effortless leap, it bounds through the trees, its grey-furred form dissolving into the dappled darkness, a master of the nocturnal realm where few other creatures dare to tread. As it moves, the soft rustle of leaves and snapping of twigs betray its presence, a fleeting glimpse of a life lived in the secret hours, hidden from the world yet intimately tied to the pulse of the forest.
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