What is a Monkey?

A monkey is a lively and naughty animal that lives in hot countries and climbs trees. In common use, a monkey can also refer to someone who is mischievous or playful.

Monkeys are found all over the world, including in Asia and Africa. They are omnivorous, eating nuts, fruits, leaves, flowers, bark, vegetables, roots, rodents and birds—pretty much anything they can find in their habitats. They are famous for their love of bananas, which many people mistakenly believe they eat exclusively in the wild, but actually bananas make up only about 10 percent of a monkey’s diet.

Monkeys have a wide variety of vocalizations and body language to communicate with each other and their environment. For example, a monkey grinning and showing its teeth may look like a human smile to us, but it is often a sign of aggression or fear. Other signals include yawning, head bobbing and jerking the head and shoulders forward. Some monkeys, such as cotton-topped tamarins, raise and lower crests of fluffy white hair on their heads to emphasize their facial expressions.

Monkeys live in small groups, called troops, that can consist of a single adult male and female and their offspring. They maintain strong family bonds through daily grooming. Some species, such as marmosets and titi monkeys in South America, operate in monogamous pair-bonded systems, while others, such as macaques, capuchins and baboons, live in multimale, multifemale groups. Many species are at risk due to habitat loss and fragmentation, global trade for food or pets, hunting for bushmeat and traditional medicines, and the destruction of their natural habitats.