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Howler monkeys live in rainforest trees and eat leaves, flowers, and fruit.
- They are
large, stocky mammals, covered in thick black, reddish, or olive brown fur. Adults are 20 to 36 inches long, plus another 20 to 36 inches of tail!
- Howlers use their sensitive,
strong tails like a fifth hand to hold and feel objects. They also curl them around tree branches and hang while they eat or rest.
- For most of their lives, howlers live in family
troops made up of a father, three or four mothers, young males and females, and babies.
- Howler's have a
huge roar or howl that can be heard three miles away. The only mammal louder than a howler monkey is the gigantic blue whale!
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Troops roar together to let other troops know where they are. They are staking out territory and telling other monkeys not to come to their part of the forest.
- Howlers
don't usually
drink water. They get all the liquid they need from leaf and fruit juice, which means that they must eat a lot every day.
- The howler's
molars are large grinders to crush leaves. They also have big salivary glands that make lots of spit to dissolve leaves.
- It takes a lot of monkey
energy to
digest lots of food, so monkeys lounge and sleep most of the day.
- Even though they are relaxed, howlers
watch out for animals that may eat them, including harpy eagles.
- When a monkey spots an eagle, it
warns the troop by howling. Howler monkeys also send messages by barking, woofing, grunting, and growling.
- They eat a lot of
figs because they love the way figs taste. They drop fig seeds in their dung onto tree branches. The seeds sprout and send roots down to the ground.
- This good,
two-way relationship between howler monkeys and fig trees is called "mutualism" or "symbiosis." Symbiosis means "living together."
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