Woolly Monkey

True Wild Life | Woolly Monkey | The woolly monkey is a medium to large sized primate, that inhabits the tropical forests of north-west South America. The woolly monkey is most well known for it's round-shaped head and dense fur that covers the body of the woolly monkey. Woolly monkeys are found throughout Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and parts of Venezuela where they live an arboreal lifestyle. Woolly monkeys have long and very strong prehensile tails which allows them to balance and grip onto branches without having to give up the use of their hands.

White Faced Capuchin

True Wild Life | White Face Capuchin | The white faced capuchin, also known as the white headed capuchin and the white throated capuchin, is a medium sized species of monkey that is native to the jungles of Central America and the northern regions of South America. The white faced capuchin is one of the most well known monkeys, particularly in North America, and the white faced capuchin is thought to be one of the most intelligent monkeys in the world with the white faced capuchin being best known as a companion for organ grinders and are also used to assist people that are paraplegic.

Squirrel Monkey

True Wild Life | Squirrel Monkey | The squirrel monkey inhabits the tropical rain forests of Central and South America, where the squirrel monkey is found in the jungles of Costa Rica and Panama. The squirrel monkey has short fur, coloured olive on the squirrel monkeys shoulders and yellowish orange on the squirrel monkeys back. The squirrel monkeys throat and ears are white and the squirrel monkeys mouths are black. The upper part of the squirrel monkeys head is quite hairy when compared to the rest of the squirrel monkeys body.

Spider Monkey

True Wild Life | Spider Monkey | The spider monkey is found in the tropical jungles of South America, from Southern Mexico to Brazil. The spider monkey generally dos not enter the further southern regions of South America as the terrain becomes mountainous and not to the spider monkey's taste. There are four different types of spider monkey, all of which are fairly large in size and get to around 50cm tall, plus the spider monkey's tail which can often grow longer than the spider monkey's body.

Red-handed Tamarin

True Wild Life | Red-handed Tamarin | The red-handed tamarin (also known as the Golden-handed Tamarin and the Midas Tamarin) is a New World monkey named for the reddish hair on it's hands and feet. The red-handed tamarin is native to the moist woodland areas along the Amazon river in South America. The red-handed tamarin is found inhabiting the forest alongside the Amazon throughout Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, and Venezuela. Although once quite large, the natural territory of the red-handed tamarin has rapidly decreased today due to deforestation.

Pied Tamarin

True Wild Life | Pied Tamarin | The pied tamarin is a small species of monkey found in the rainforest of Brazil. The pied tamarin is an endangered species and is one of the larger species of tamarin found on the South American continent. The pied tamarin is found in only one restricted area in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, where the pied tamarins are being protected from being hunted and poached in the forest or from being subjected to habitat loss in the form deforestation. The pied tamarin is a very distinctive species of tamarin as it has a white chest and back, brown, tan or red hind legs and tail and a black hairless face. The pied tamarin is a highly territorial animal and is known to make a variety of calls to warn off unwanted visitors.

Patas Monkey

True Wild Life | Patas Monkey | The patas monkey is a ground-dwelling monkey that inhabits areas across western Africa and parts of eastern Africa. The patas monkey is the only monkey species of it's kind and is thought to be the fastest primate in the world as the patas monkey can run at speeds of more than 30mph. The patas monkey is fairly large in size and can grow to heights of up to 80 cm tall. The patas monkey also has an extremely long tail which is often around the same length as the patas monkey's body.

Monkey

True Wild Life | Monkey | Monkeys are found naturally in the jungles and forests of the Southern Hemisphere. There are two ways to classify a monkey, the old world monkey (Asia and Africa) and the new world monkey (South America). There are around 260 known species of monkey worldwide ranging from chimpanzees to the tiny pygmy marmoset. The monkey can be anywhere from just a few centimetres tall, with some species of monkey growing to more than a metre tall.

Howler Monkey

 

True Wild Life | Howler Monkey | There are 9 different species of howler monkey, found dispersed throughout the tropical jungles of South America. The howler monkey is one of the largest species of monkey found in South America with some howler monkeys growing to nearly a meter long. Despite their large size, howler monkeys weigh less than 10 kg which allows them to move with more agility through the high trees and lets the howler monkeys hang from branches by their tails when picking fruit.

Gibbon

True Wild Life | Gibbon | The gibbon is a small sized ape, found inhabiting the dense jungles and tropical rainforests across south-east Asia. Gibbons belong to the lesser ape family which are closely related to the great apes (chimpanzees, orang-utans, bonobos, gorillas and humans). Gibbons are small and lightweight monkeys that grow to around 90cm tall and weigh just 7kg. The lightweight body of the gibbons means that the gibbon is able to move around in and leap between the trees.

Geoffroy's Tamarin

True Wild Life | Geoffroy's Tamarin | The Geoffroy's tamarin is a small species of monkey found in the forests of South America. The Geoffroy's tamarin is also known as the Red-crested tamarin or the Rufous-naped tamarin, and is thought to be closely related to the cottontop tamarin. The Geoffroy's tamarin is found in the tropical forests of Panama and Colombia in South America, where the Geoffroy's tamarin spends the majority of it's life in the trees. The Geoffroy's tamarin is more commonly found on the Pacific coast rather than the Atlantic.

Emperor Tamarin

True Wild Life | Emperor Tamarin | The Emperor tamarin is a small species of monkey found in the forests of South America. The Emperor tamarin was named because of it's elegant white moustache, which is thought to resemble that of German emperor Wilhelm II. There are two subspecies of Emperor tamarin found in the south west Amazon Basin. The bearded emperor tamarin inhabits the rainforests throughout Brazil and Peru, and the black-chinned emperor tamarin that actually has no beard and is distributed throughout the rainforests of Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia.

Crab-Eating Macaque

True Wild Life | Crab-Eating Macaque | The crab-eating macaque is a medium species of monkey, found in the tropical and sub-tropical forests and jungles throughout South-East Asia. The crab-eating macaque differs from other macaque species in the fact that the crab-eating macaque has a long tail which is about the same length as it's body. The crab-eating macaque is widely dispersed across the South-East Asian jungles and are found in a variety of different habitats. The crab-eating macaque generally settles in areas that are close to water over a wide range of habitats including lowland forests, tropical jungles and mangroves.

Golden Lion Tamarin

True Wild Life | Golden Lion Tamarin | The golden lion tamarin is a small monkey native to the eastern rainforests of Brazil. The golden lion tamarin is today considered an endangered species as there are estimated to be around 1,000 golden lion tamarin individuals left in the wild. Golden lion tamarins are best known for their bright fur which (as the name suggests) is golden and orange in colour. The golden lion tamarin is one of the smallest primates in the world with the average golden lion tamarin adult growing to just 20cm tall! The golden lion tamarin also has an incredibly long tail which is often longer than the golden lion tamarin's body. Despite the long length of the golden lion tamarin's tail, it is not prehensile which means that the golden lion tamarin cannot use it's tail to grab onto trees and hold on.

Pygmy Marmoset

True Wild Life | Pygmy Marmoset | The pygmy marmoset is a tiny primate that is exclusively found in the jungles of South America. The pygmy marmoset is known to be the smallest known species of monkey in the world. The pygmy marmoset averages at about 15cm tall, with a 20cm long tail behind it. The pygmy marmoset has sharp claws which make the pygmy marmoset excellent at climbing trees and the long tail of the pygmy marmoset gives this little monkey fantastic balance when jumping between tree branches. The low weight of the pygmy marmoset allows the pygmy marmoset to reach the canopy tree tops, a place where many of the larger species of monkey cannot reach. Here the pygmy marmoset eats fruits, berries, insects and small reptiles safely high above any dangerous predators.

Proboscis Monkey

The proboscis monkey is a large tree-dwelling primate found exclusively on the island of Borneo in south east Asia. The proboscis monkeys are best known for the long noses of the males, which are thought to be related to mating in order to attract females.

The proboscis monkey has a large protruding belly that is thought to stick out so much due to the proboscis monkeys diet and complex digestion system, which along with the long nose of the males, gives the proboscis monkey very distinctive yet strange characteristics.

A study at the end of the 1980s showed that there were around 250,000 proboscis monkeys in the wild. Today there are thought to be considerably less of the proboscis monkey in the wild due to hunting and deforestation. The proboscis monkey is considered to be an endangered species.

Cottontop Tamarin

 

True Wild Life | Cottontop Tamarin | The cottontop tamarin is found in tropical forest edges and secondary forests from Costa Rica to north western Columbia where the cottontop tamarin spends the majority of it's life in the trees. The Cottontop tamarin is a small species of monkey found in the forests of South America. The Cottontop tamarin was named because of it's elegant white fur that flows over it's head and shoulders. Cottontop tamarins are among the smallest of the primates with a body length of 17 cm and tail length of 25 cm. The forelimbs of the cottontop tamarin are shorter than the hind limbs, and unlike other monkeys the thumb of the cottontop tamarin is not opposable and it does not have a prehensile tail.