The monkey spirit animal is a playful and clever creature. They can help you find humor in everyday life and see more possibilities when solving a problem. If you have this spirit animal, they can also remind you to enjoy yourself and not take yourself too seriously in the search for true love.
Monkeys are the most common of all mammals in the infraorder Similformes, along with apes and lemurs. There are two main groupings of simian primates—the New World monkeys and the Old World monkeys and apes. Both groups share some similarities, but the easiest way to tell them apart is whether they have a tail and the relative size of their bodies.
Most monkeys are arboreal, living primarily in the trees. Others, such as baboons, live primarily on the ground. Monkeys are omnivorous and eat leaves, roots, fruit, flowers, insects, and honey. They are social animals that communicate with facial expressions and with body language. They are very social and usually live in small groups with a dominant male and female.
A study of capuchin monkeys conducted by researcher Susan Perry found that these wild animals readily learn skills from their peers. This is the first evidence of “payoff bias” learning in a wild animal and could lead to better ways to train wild animals to cope with rapidly changing environments. Some monkeys have thick fur that helps them survive harsh climates. Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), known as snow monkeys, even bathe in hot springs during the winter to stay warm.