10 animals on the edge of extinction you didn't know about no. 6

10 animals on the edge of extinction you didn't know about no. 6 - Brown spider monkey

Hello,

Today we're looking at a subspecies of monkey called the brown spider monkey (Ateles hybridus).

The brown spider monkey, also known as the variegated spider monkey, can be found in the Magdalena River basin in Colombia and Venezuela. They live in lowland (sub-)tropical forests. They are social animals, living in groups of up to 30 individuals. These groups have no known social heirachy and are territorial. They split up into smaller groups while foraging for food. Their diet consists of ripe fleshy fruit, flowers, roots, young leaves and seeds. They are vital for the survival of their eco system as they play an important role in seed dispersal.

Adult individuals weigh 6.5 to 9 kg. The females are slightly heavier. They mostly have brown eyes although some have remarkably pale blue eyes. They are about 50 cm big and live for 10-27 years (in the wild). Brown spider monkeys have long legs and a long thin powerful tail. They are better suited to being in the trees where they spend most of their time and are poorly adapted to being on the ground. They are active during the daytime.

Females reach sexual maturity at 8-9 years old and give birth to one baby at a time. The gestation period is 226-232 days (just under 7 months) and the inter birth intervals average at 32-36 months (just under 3 years). They display a polygynandry mating system meaning that both sexes have multiple mating patners. There is no defined mating system and the infacts reach maturity at 4-5 years old.

Unfortunatly, these monkeys are in danger. They are listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN (since the 23rd March 2020) and have been listed on The World's 25 Most Endangered Primates six times. The IUCN suspects a population decline of 80% over the last three generations (45 years). That decline is continuing. Their suitable habitat is decreasing by 20-30%, leading to a decline in mature individuals. Because females only give birth to one child at a time, it takes the population a very long time to grow, which makes it harder for them to avoid extinction. The main threats are habitat loss through the spread of human civilisations, roads, crop and cattle farming and wood harvesting. They are also hunted for the (partially illeagal) pet trade and for human food and medicine on a local and national level (not internationally).

We hope you enjoyed hearing about these amazing animals. We all hope they will be around in future generations.

Your Green World Blog Team💚

Sources:
https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/39961/17929680
https://www.worldlandtrust.org/species/mammals/brown-spider-monkey/
https://animalia.bio/brown-spider-monkey

Images:

1. This image, owned by Nathan Rupert (on flickr.com) is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

2. This image, owned by Chuck Dowe (on flickr.com) is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

3. This image, owned by Marie Hale (on flickr.com) is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Comments

Coral reefs

Hello! We would love to introduce you to the topic of coral reefs and especially coral reef bleaching, as it is a greatly ignored but certainly significant topic. Have fun! 5 coral reef facts 1. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on the planet and is 2300 km long! 2. Less than 0.1% of the world's ocean surface is covered in coral reefs. 3. At least 25% of all marine animals live there. 4. Coral reefs are often known as the rainforests of the ocean. 5. In 1 square kilometre of coral reef, up to 35 tons of fish can be 'produced'. The 5 biggest coral reefs in the world 1. Great Barrier Reef (near Australia) 2. Red Sea Coral Reef (near Egypt, Israel and Djibouti) 3. New Caledonia Reef (Pacific Ocean near New Caledonia) 4. The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef (near Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras) 5. Florida Reef (Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico near Florida) What is coral? Coral is actually made up of small anim...

Photo Essay || Iceland Series (part 1)

Hi Everyone! I recently went on a school trip to Iceland! It was such an incredible experience (and I'm going to sound cheesy now) but it was also incredible to do it with some of my closest friends! I saw so many incredible things and learnt so much, so I couldn't resist sharing a little Iceland mini series of posts, all about Iceland, both my experiences there and what I saw, but also the way it uses geothermal energy, and the animals, natural landforms and plants that are there. Today I'm sharing some photos of my trip. These are all photos I have taken, and are also the highlights so please bear that in mind as you browse these! I hope it is interesting and inspires you to book a trip to Iceland! The blue lagoon <33 landscapes.... Lost little farmhouses a...

18.10.20 Animal Of The Week: Sloth

Hello, Sorry this didn't come out on Sunday as planned but this week's animal of the week is the sloth because the twentieth of October is Sloth Day. Habitat The sloth resides in Central and South America. It lives in the rainforests there and occasionally drops into the water for a bathe as, believe it or not, they are actually excellent swimmers! Diet Sloths eat leaves, twigs and buds which they find in the rainforest. As they don't have incisors they smack their lips together to make leaves more digestible. Sloths can survive on relatively little food as it takes a while for them to digest it. Sleep and Speed When you think of a sloth, you probably think of this slow, sleepy creature. They actually sleep for about 15 hours a day! Sloths have an extremely low metabolic rate (what basic calories your body needs to survive), which means they move at a slow pace through the trees. On average, sloths travel 40 yards per day ...

The life of ... an emperor penguin

Hello, Today, we're looking at the fascinating lives of emperor penguins. These incredible creatures have adapted to survive in the extreme conditions of Antarctica, and in this post, we'll explore their incredible lives. In late May to early June just before the Antarctic winter sets in, female emperor penguins lay a single egg. They then leave the colony and go on a two month hunt. The male rests the egg on his feet and covers it with warm, feathered skin called the brood pouch. He will eat nothing for these two months. The chick hatches in August and the female returned to take over. She has spent two months feeding and now regurgitates some food for the newly-hatched chick. The male leaves to feed himself as he has been living off his fat reserves for the past two months. The female keeps the chick in her brood pouch until the sea ice close to the breeding site breaks up as the temperatures warm. The chick is now strong eno...

March Top Tips // 10 little things you can avoid in daily life

Welcome to the Top Tips this month! We'll be talking about 10 things you can avoid using in everyday life. We know it's a really simple topic, but it can actually make quite a difference. The avoidable stuff will be things many use because they look nice or taste nice or similar, but aren't actually necessary. We will also write a couple of facts on these things, and give ideas on how you could substitute them if possible. Many might be very obvious, but think about it, do you actually not use them? Have fun! Chewing Gum Most people would not be surprised when told that lots of chewing gum have synthetic colouring and flavouring. However, most people would be surprised when told that chewing gum is largely made of plastic. What the companies call the "gum base" is plastic and partly made of the same stuff plastic bags are made of. The gum contains microplastics that, if you spit your gum on the ground often tend to get into the oce...

How much do you know about extinction? | quiz

Hi Everyone! Welcome back to the blog! This week is our last monthly quiz! We'd love to hear which one was your favourite in the comments! We also have a quick online survey for what our monthly post should be next year. We really appreciate any feedback and this is the best way for you to tell us what you want to see us post about and share! From a monthly challenge to an environmental book of the month - we just want to know what you think! 🍂 click here to vote! So, how much do you know about extinction? You may know some from our " animals you don't know are on the edge of extinction " series, or from the news as extinction is such a buzzword. All of these facts are from reliable sources such as National Geographic, as well as the statistics being cross checked with other websites. 1. How many years ago was the most recent mass extinction? a) 44 million b) 55 million c) 66 million 2. How many species could be threatened ...

Ozone layer

Hi everyone, What even is ozone? And the ozone layer? Where does the hole in the ozone layer come from and what does it mean? Is it dangerous? What can be done? Often the ozone-talk can be complicated and confusing, keeping an overview is hard and understanding all the problems always difficult. Let us break it down a bit for you: What is the ozone layer? We'll start with the basics: The ozone layer is part of the stratosphere, which is the second layer of the Earth's atmosphere, between 10 and 50 km above the Earth's surface and made up of protective gases. One of these protective gases is ozone. There is not much ozone in the atmosphere, only 0.3 molecule of ozone per 1 million molecules of air. This is because ozone is chemically unstable and only forms when ultra violet radiation (UV light) hits oxygen and breaks the bonds between the atoms. It fact it is so unstable that even when it has formed, it breaks down again relatively quickly. This leads to ozone turning back ...

December Factfile

Hello, The fact file vote has come to an end and we have a winner. This year, we will be doing top tips. These will come out at the beginning of the month. These tips are, at the same time, challenges. We hope you will enjoy, and apply them! News Good news New hope for coral reefs A coral reef in India has been restored to health- the proof being in the noises the fish have been making. Many of these strange sounds have never been recorded before. This is amazing, especially considering that the reef has been devastated by blast fishing, where explosives are used to stun or kill everything in the area. Although the corals are being restored, scientists want to know if the animals are also returning and in what numbers. The Guardian states that 'Sound is vital for reef survival, because almost all of its inhabitants, from corals to crustaceans to fish, produce offspring that spend the early part of their lives in the open oceans, before us...

Marine heatwaves - an ever growing threat?

Hi everyone, So today we're talking about marine heatwaves. We all know about normal heatwaves, they come almost every summer and are either a blessing or a curse depending on where you live. But today we're talking about marine heatwaves. They are increasing rapidly and have become a commonly mentioned topic. There are multiple definitions of marine heatwaves. Generally, they are considered a period of time with unusually high temperatures. Exactly how high and for how long changes depending on which definition you choose. The most common one definition is when the temperature is over the 90th percentile of the area's average seasonal temperature for at least 5 days in a row. For anyone who doesn't know what a percentile is, if you take a test and are at the 90th percentile then it means you are better than 90% of the people who took that test. So in our context, the temperature has to be higher than 90% of the seasonal temperatu...

4 tips for eco-eating

Hi everyone, Today we are going to be sharing some tips for making sure that what you are eating is environmentally friendly. 1. Check for Palm Oil As you can probably tell from past posts, we are strongly against using palm oil . Palm oil is often used in food products, so by quickly glancing over the ingredients list on the product's packaging, you can make sure that no rainforest has been cut down to make it. For instance, we would recommend buying "McVites Digestive light" instead of the classic version as it was specifically designed to not contain palm oil. 2. Shop Locally The shops in your local area will probably get their produce from local sources, so by buying your food from them will ensure that no CO2 has been produced from shipping, as well as supporting the local community. Some shops have recently started to serve dry ingredients (such as flour and sugar) in paper bags or in your own containers, which leads onto... ...

Green World

Search This Blog