Monkeys have flexible feet and hands to help them climb in the rainforest canopy, where they pollinate flowers and disperse seeds. They are also adept swimmers and sometimes cross streams to get from one side of the forest to the other.
Most monkeys are frugivores, eating both plants and animals to get all the nutrients they need. But New World monkeys, like marmosets and tamarins, often have dietary deficiencies in vitamin C and thiamine. They need to eat fruits for those vitamins, which they don’t get from meat or plants alone.
Fruits are the biggest part of most monkey diets. They may also eat leaves, bark, flowers, seeds, or insects. Some monkeys, such as proboscis monkeys with their large noses, follow a strict vegetarian diet. Others, like howler and colobus monkeys with long digestive tracts to process tough leaf nutrients, eat both plants and animals. And some, like baboons and colobus monkeys with their loud roar choruses, are cannibalistic. This behavior usually occurs for one of two reasons: to kill a rival male or a pregnant female who needs certain nutrients.
Most monkeys live in the rainforests of Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and tropical parts of Europe and Australia. But some monkeys, such as apes and hamadryas baboons, live on the savannas or in rocky mountain areas. Still others, such as geladas and Japanese macaques, are found in colder climates. And some, such as owl monkeys (Nyctidrillus coria) and night monkeys, are strictly nocturnal.