Behaviour
The red-faced spider monkey exhibits a fission-fusion society, associating with large groups of up to 30 individuals during the night, but choosing to spend the days travelling, foraging, and resting in much smaller groups. At dusk, they recongregate using a greeting call to communicate. At night, they often sleep in large groups called bands. Bands typically consist of several females, with their respective young, along with a few males for protection. The only range size estimate was 255 hectares (630 acres), of which 220 ha (540 acres) had suitable habitat.
The red-faced spider monkey feeds on a variety of foods and would be considered an omnivore. It will eat termites and grubs, but also feeds on supple leaves, flowers, berries and fruit.
It has a gestation period of 226–232 days, is weaned after four or five years when it reaches sexual maturity, and has a life span of up to 33 years in captivity.
Read more about this topic: Red-faced Spider Monkey
Famous quotes containing the word behaviour:
“The methodological advice to interpret in a way that optimizes agreement should not be conceived as resting on a charitable assumption about human intelligence that might turn out to be false. If we cannot find a way to interpret the utterances and other behaviour of a creature as revealing a set of beliefs largely consistent and true by our standards, we have no reason to count that creature as rational, as having beliefs, or as saying anything.”
—Donald Davidson (b. 1917)
“The quality of moral behaviour varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“I look on it as no trifling effort of female strength to withstand the artful and ardent solicitations of a man that is thoroughly master of our hearts. Should we in the conflict come off victorious, it hardly pays us for the pain we suffer from the experiment ... and I still persist in it that such a behaviour in any man I love would rob me of that most pleasing thought, namely, the obligation I have to him for not making such a trial.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)