The Federal Attorney’s Office for Environmental Protection in Yucatan rescued a baby spider monkey that was abandoned in Merida.
The specimen of the Ateles Geoffroyi family was found at the door of a house in the Yucatan capital, whose inhabitants reported it to the authorities.
Baby” spider monkey abandoned in Mérida
According to information published on the social networks of the Attorney General’s Office, the animal is between one and two months old and does not have any marking system to identify its origin, so it is believed that it was born in captivity, on private property.
The agency reported that the animal is in apparent good health and was taken to a Wildlife Management Facility (PIMVS) for medical monitoring and rehabilitation.
Spider monkey. Description of the species
According to the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas, the spider monkey belongs to the group of primates with the largest body size, measuring between 35 and 45 cm in height and its tail can reach 85 cm. They weigh between 7.5 and 8.2 kilograms as adults.
They have a slender build with long limbs in comparison to their body size. Its head is relatively small. Males lack a beard, they have a tail whose inner part is naked, which they use as a fifth limb to move nimbly among the trees with their typical “acrobatics”.
On the back it has a dark coloration, in the abdominal region it has a lighter color, so it is called white belly monkey, besides has a kind of tuft on the top of the head and a light coloration in the area around the eyes.
In Mexico, there are two subspecies of Ateles: Ateles geoffroyi vellerosus and Ateles geoffroyi yucatanensis, both species are commonly known as spider monkeys or changos.
What do spider monkeys eat?
Spider monkeys are essentially frugivorous species. Fruits constitute about 80-90% of their daily diet, the rest is provided by leaves. They also supplement their diet with seeds, flower buds, leaves, aerial roots, honey, and insects. However, in fragmented habitats, they may feed on leaves rather than fruits due to the low availability of fruits.
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