Facts About Monkeys

Monkeys, along with chimpanzees and orangutans, are part of the family of mammals called primates. They look somewhat like apes but differ in several ways: all monkeys have tails, while apes do not; monkeys are active during the day while apes are mostly nocturnal; and most monkeys are tree dwellers, while apes live on savannas or rocky hillsides.

Monkeys are highly social creatures; they generally live in troops that may contain a few or a thousand individuals. Often, troop members are closely related to each other and form familial bonds that include daily mutual grooming. Troops are led by one or more adult males, or in the case of Old World monkeys such as hamadryas baboons and mandrills, by a female with several young. Females usually remain in the troop in which they were born, while males join new groups on reaching maturity.

These intelligent animals communicate with scent and a variety of vocalizations, including alarm calls. Vervet monkeys, for example, use a series of loud and different sounds to warn each other of danger. Leaf-eating colobus monkeys, meanwhile, blow air out of their cheek pouches to signal to other monkeys that they need help eating; burping is also a friendly social gesture among these creatures whose chambered stomachs digest leaves by bacterial fermentation.

A monkey’s long, lanky arms and prehensile tail enable it to swing gracefully from branch to branch in the forest canopy. Their four long fingers on each hand are suited to grasping branches, and a monkey’s strong grip helps it move from tree to tree, a process known as brachiation. The nimble spider monkey, for instance, gets its name from the way its long arms and tail resemble spider legs as it glides from tree to tree in Central and South America. In addition to displaying body language that can be misinterpreted as smiles, such as baring the teeth, many monkey species exhibit signs of aggression.