 
 
A monkey is a large-headed, long-tailed creature with a strong tail that can be used to grab things. Monkeys are found in tropical forests around the world. They are known for their intelligence and curiosity, and some types, like the lion-tailed macaque, can even use sticks as tools. These creatures often live in groups, called a troop, with a dominant male who takes care of females and other young.
Most monkeys are omnivores, eating both plants and animal parts to get the nutrients they need. New World monkeys like capuchins usually eat 50 to 80% fruits, while Old World monkeys, such as the rhesus, eat mostly leaves. Some monkeys have very specialized diets, such as the gelada, which is the only primate to eat grass and is therefore an herbivore.
While some monkeys can pick fruit out of the trees by hand, most prefer to reach their food with their prehensile tails. These tails also help monkeys balance while they travel among the branches. Foraging monkeys often carry their food in pouches in their cheeks or in a sack on their backs. The ape-like mandrills fill their pouches with seeds, nuts and insects. The colobus monkeys have chambered stomachs that allow them to ferment and digest leaves, while the howler monkeys can chew hard-to-digest tree gums.
Monkeys often learn how to get certain foods from their elders in the troop. For instance, the ape-like mandrills will chew on the bark of trees to uncover edible insects within. These clever creatures can also forage using a technique called percussive foraging, in which they touch different areas of a tree to find the hollows created by the insect-eating process. They may then use their slender fingers to pry open the holes in the bark and extract their food.
 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    