Perception Channels: tactile ; chemical
Currently, captive squirrel monkey populations are maintained in research labs.
Threats to wild squirrel monkeys include eagles in the trees and snakes on the ground.
Squirrel monkeys are easily kept in captivity, and they were once frequently sold as pets.
Habitat destruction, illegal hunting, and capture for the pet trade or medical research all pose threats and problems to the squirrel monkeys.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
Used as pets and in research.
Squirrel monkeys eat mainly fruit and some insects; they also consume some leaves and seeds. The first hour or so of the day is spent searching and collecting fruit. From then on, they look also for spiders and insects. A group spreads throughout the forest in all canopy levels to search for food.
Animal Foods: insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods
Plant Foods: leaves; seeds, grains, and nuts; fruit
Primary Diet: herbivore (Frugivore )
Squirrel monkeys live in the tropical rainforests of South America, except in the southeastern coastal forests of Brazil.
Biogeographic Regions: neotropical (Native )
Squirrel monkeys prefer primary and secondary forest, gallery forest and forest edge.
They prefer the intermediate forest levels, but they can sometimes be found on the ground or in upper canopy levels.
They occupy many different types of forests.
Terrestrial Biomes: forest ; rainforest
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 21.0 years.
Average lifespan
Sex: female
Status: captivity: 27.0 years.
Average lifespan
Sex: male
Status: captivity: 22.7 years.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 21.0 years.
Squirrel monkeys are up to 12.5 inches long (body length), with a tail of approximately 16 inches. They have a slender, lithe build, with a short greyish coat and bright yellow legs. Their non-prehensile tail often curls over one shoulder when they are resting. They have 36 teeth, and their teeth are sexually dimorphic in that males have large upper canines.
Squirrel monkesy possess nails instead of claws, and they have been called 'small, nervous primates'. They are the smallest of the Primate family Cebidae.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Average mass: 925 g.
Average basal metabolic rate: 4.429 W.
Within their own group, squirrel monkeys are promiscuous.
Mating System: polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Squirrel monkeys are seasonal breeders. They mate between September and November, with birth between February and April. Gestation lasts 160-170 days. The birth season is short and occurs during the time of greatest rainfall, perhaps because the wet season brings an abundance of food and water.
Males are mature at 4 years of age; females are mature at 2.5 years of age.
Breeding season: Squirrel monkeys mate between September and November
Range gestation period: 160 to 170 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 2.5 years.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 4 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; viviparous
Average birth mass: 107 g.
Average number of offspring: 1.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
Sex: male: 1826 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
Sex: female: 1003 days.
Female squirrel monkeys nurse and care for their infants until they are independent. The fathers take no part in raising young.
Parental Investment: pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-independence (Protecting: Female)
