Origin
The gray woolly monkey (Lagothrix cana) belongs to the family Atelidae, order Primates. It can be found in central South America in Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.
It spends most of its time in the trees around the Amazon and Orinoco rivers at altitudes between 1000 and 2500 meters. The population in Bolivia that is expected to be a third subspecies is at 700m altitude.
It is considered the largest American monkey. It can be found abroad or literature and under the names: Geoffroy's woolly monkey, the gray woolly monkey or woolly monkey.
It is currently threatened with extinction due to hunting for meat and trade and habitat destruction. Over the past 45 years the population of the grey woolly monkey has declined by 50%. Several national parks protect this species.
Feeding the gray Monkey
The gray woolly monkey's food consists of flowers, fruits, leaves, seeds and plants. During dry periods when food is not available they consume various insects and other small creatures.
Favorite foods are fruits, and in their absence they eat most leaves and seeds. It is known for its large stomach.
Being highly social animals they often share the best food place they are in with other groups that come later.
Appearance Gray Monkey
The grey woolly monkey has a length of 50-70cm, a weight of 7-11kg and a long tail as long as its body up to 70cm. They call it the grey woolly monkey because its body is covered with a thick, soft coat like grey wool.
The head is covered by a dark fur coat. The limbs and tail are also darker. The skin is black, so all parts that are not covered by fur are black: the face, the limbs, or the tip of the tail.
Prehensila tail (can use it to grab) has the part from the inside of the tip without hair, it is the part that uses it the most to grab.
The skin adapted and that piece of skin turned into a kind of "palm" with thicker skin. The body is strong and robust, the limbs are quite long, strong and adapted to life in the tree.
Sexual dimorphism is quite difficult to observe, males being somewhat larger than females.
Lagothrix cana cana-Brazil and Peru
Lagothrix cana tschudii-southeastern Peru
Gray monkey behavior
The gray woolly monkey gathers in mixed groups (other monkey species that prefer the harem) of up to 30 individuals depending on the season and the availability of food.
Families can be easily identified by the loud sounds they make when climbing trees. Another feature is that the hind limbs are somewhat shorter and slow down tree climbing quickly.
Being a group with several males they are aggressive and make demonstrations of strength to always establish and modify the hierarchy. Every male wants to be the leader. Males can be heard from 400 meters.
Their natural behavior of hanging in the tail makes the gray woolly monkeys some beloved monkeys. Zoos consider them social and good-natured who are often sympathetic to other animals that appear on their territory.
Most of the time they spend in the treetops looking for food. They move from one tree to another leaving themselves hanging in the tail and swinging to catch the branches on which they want to move.
Reproduction of the gray Monkey
During the breeding season, the males are the ones who call the females to mate with the help of sounds. Mating is quite long compared to other species, it lasts 4 minutes.
After mating, the female has a gestation period of 7-8 months after which she gives birth to a single cub. It rarely happens to give birth to two.
The baby in the first week sits in front on the mother's belly holding on to the fur after which it climbs on the back. It is fed by the mother with milk for 6 months.
Life expectancy is 26 years.
