Endangered
Ateles geoffroyi
Spider monkeys are the acrobats of the canopy. They are so good at what they do that they can hang from a branch without using any hands or feet.
While humans have four limbs, spider monkeys basically have five as their tail can function almost the same as any of their other limbs!
The spider monkey has precise control of the muscles in their tail - so precise that they can even pick up a peanut with the tip of their tail.
They also have something missing from their hand - a thumb. The only primates without thumbs, their hands can hook over the top of branches allowing for quick and easy swinging through canopies.
As highly social primates, they have large troops, both here at the Zoo and in the Wild. Often you will hear screeching and fighting as they test the hierarchy!
The resident troop at the Zoo consists of only females. In the wild troops are usually a mix of males and females and can get quite large in size, sometimes up to 40 individuals. The troop works together to defend their territory and protect the group from neighbouring groups or predators. Usually the troop then splits into smaller subgroups when foraging. This type of societal structure is known as a fission–fusion society.
Around 80% of a wild spider monkeys diet is fruit. But here at the Zoo, fruit technically only makes up 8% of their diet (‘controversial’ fruit – tomatoes, rather than more traditional fruit). This is because the types of fruit found in New Zealand are for humans to eat and they have different sugar compositions to the fruits found in the spider monkeys wild diet. To avoid excess sugar in their diet our troop gets a lot of vegetables. Vegetables and leafy greens make up about 85% of their diet with the remainder made up of boiled eggs and specially formulated protein-rich biscuits.
As with all animals at the Zoo we have to make sure that everyone is healthy. Our keepers are on the lookout for the smallest changes in behaviour and monitor how much everyone is eating. If any changes are noticed it could indicate an injury or a change in troop hierarchy.
With a territorial animal zoo keepers usually have to earn the ‘trust’ of the animal to be able to get close to it. Using a training programme helps to instil specific behaviours that are important for check-ups by the keepers and the vets.
Spider monkeys have been crowned the third smartest non-human primate after orangutans and chimpanzees! To keep their inquisitive minds busy our keepers and volunteers prepare behavioural enrichment every day. Fruit and vegetables get pushed into hidey-holes and cracks throughout their habitat.
Like a giant game of hide-and-seek the spider monkeys then locate the snacks and have to fish them out of crevices using their long fingers. Other manipulation-based enrichment includes hiding food in objects like hose-pipes and boomer balls requiring problem solving and coordination to retrieve the goods. During warmer seasons the volunteers freeze fruit tea with fruit pieces in requiring patience while the ice block slowly defrosts and releases the fruit.
Big tall palm trees and arboreal rope systems replicate the heights of the upper canopy in the virgin rainforests of South America and give our troop a place to swing from the treetops like they would in the wild!
In the wild predators of spider monkeys like the anaconda, caiman or jaguar will hunt from the water. This instills a natural fear of water that allows us to use a moat as a containment barrier rather than a more obstructive fence. Sometimes you might spot members of our troop gingerly leaning across the water to reach a piece of kumara or a corn cob that fell in the water. But you’ll notice that they will always hold onto a branch with a hand or their tail to stop them from falling in!
Did you know that spider monkeys love hibiscus flowers and food-stuffed pinecones?
Since 2016 Auckland Zoo has worked with the Spider Monkey Conservation Project in Venezuela to help fund vital community and education work, a forest replanting restoration project, forest ranger patrols and the monitoring and research of the brown spider monkey (Ateles hybridus) populations.
Historically Auckland Zoo bred spider monkeys as a safety net for spider monkey populations in the wild. The last spider monkey born here was in August 2018.
