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Spider Monkey

Ateles geoffroyi

Description:

They are the largest of the New World monkeys. Have a long tail that acts as a fifth hand

Habitat:

Live in the upper layers of the rainforest. There habitat ranges from Central America to South America.

Notes:

Took this picture while hiking through Corcovado National Park in the southwestern part of Costa Rica

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4 Comments

zachblaster
zachblaster 12 years ago

Thanks guys

Jonathan Sequeira
Jonathan Sequeira 12 years ago

That is am Ateles geoffroyi panamensis, one of the 3 subspecies we can see in Costa Rica, The other 2 are A geoffroyi ornatus seen in the caribean part of the country and the other is A geoffroyi frontatus , seen in Guanacaste, the North Pacific of Costa Rica and some areas of Nicaragua.
This species of monkey has only 4 fingers , they are missing the thumb, the tail is prehensile and they are able to do semi-brachiation (able to move by hanging from the arms, at that moment they also use the tail...) in 1995 I discribed polination done by this monkey in the Corcovado areas, they polinated Cariocar costarricensis an endemic kind on tree....

Carolina
Carolina 12 years ago

You are totally right, Dan. It is a Ateles geoffroyi, but there are 5 subspecies of them, maybe JonathanSequeira can help us with that. :)

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 12 years ago

There's a bit of confusion with the latin name you have provided. Only the species Simia concolor (Pig-tailed Langur) remains in that genus. In 1929, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in its Opinion 114 that Simia be suppressed. It has been renamed Ateles but A. paniscus, is not the species you have here. I think this is a type of Ateles geoffroyi, but I'm not sure. Maybe someone else can help on this? Carolina? JonathanSequeira?

zachblaster
Spotted by
zachblaster

Cartago, Costa Rica

Spotted on May 27, 2011
Submitted on May 27, 2011

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