The owl monkey also called the night monkey, or douroucouli is one of the primates that live mainly in South America. The owl monkey belongs to the genus Aotus and has eight species and seven subspecies . The most prevalent species is the Aotus azarae or the Azara's night monkey. Their gestation period is 133 days, and their total population in the world is unknown. The owl monkey species is mainly found in Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Panama, and Brazil. The males weigh about 794-1254 g, whereas their female counterparts weigh 455 to 1246g. Their habitat is mainly in primary, secondary, and most tropical forests or even subtropical forests in different parts of the world. Similarly, the Owl monkey has nocturnal behavior that they inherited from their ancestors. Their nocturnal behavior helps them exploit the environments they inhabit (Lang, 2005). This paper will discuss in detail the traits of owl monkeys, their physical characteristics, their adaptation to the environment, and their social behaviors in relation to their environment.
Owl monkeys exhibit several traits that are common in most primates. First, they have a more complex cerebral cortex leading to a massive brain size relative to their body size (Welker, 2017). Thus, they have slightly higher intelligence than other mammals. They have a reduced prognathism or snout size. They have prehensible hands, feet, and tails, allowing them to grasp objects and move easily from one branch of a tree to another (Welker, 2017). They have nails instead of claws or hooves (Welker, 2017). Also, they have an upward trunk posture (Welker, 2017). Another characteristic is a high degree of flexibility in the shoulder, knees, waist, and wrist regions, which enhances their mobility (Welker, 2017). They have extensive eyeballs and more spherical lenses like those of diurnal primates. Also, they are not sexually dimorphic, and therefore the male and females have almost the same weight (Welker, 2017). They have relatively long life stages (Welker, 2017). For instance, the dependency period for infants and the gestation periods relative to the size of offspring, are longer than for most mammals.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The owl monkeys possess large brown eyes to adapt to the nocturnal nature inherited from their ancestors. They are covered by fur in almost all parts of the body to keep them from cold conditions in the forests they dwell in (Lang, 2005). Also, they have developed extensive eyeballs to see objects in low-light levels, especially at night. This physical morphology helps them to move through, the canopy at any time of the day (Corley & Fernandez‐Duque, 2016). They also use it to search for food at night in the forests. Their ability to leap enables them to cross over the gaps of the canopy in the woods when they are on locomotion or in search of food. According to Lang (2005), owl monkeys are light in weight, which aids them in moving from one vine to another in their ecological niche. This adaptive feature helps them run away from their enemies at any time of the day. Also, their eyes have developed more rods than cones, enhancing their acute vision at night. The sharp image helps them in seeing objects in the forests at night. The owl monkeys have developed large upper incisors for cutting large leaves of the plants they feed on in their ecological niche. Similarly, their long legs enable them to move through large trunks of trees in the forests.
Socially, owl monkeys live in monogamous groups, adult males show parental behaviors, and during postnatal development, they can carry offspring. They live in social clusters consisting of 2 to 5 individuals with adults of each sex and young ones of different ages. This behavior was adopted since there is a single reproductive male and female adult to take care of the offspring. The adults in the social groups are continuously displaced by others who assume the breeding and caring roles of the former. The social behaviors of displacement among the owl monkey due to the aggressiveness among the adults can sometimes lead to the death of residing owl monkeys in a given social group (Fernandez‐Duque, 2016). Owl monkeys have developed a communications system through the use of chemical signaling and scent marking. The environment they reside in necessitated the social behavior of marking the routes from their homes when searching for food for easy identification and also for confusing their enemies. Similarly, their honed smells helped them to distinguish ripe and unripe fruits in the forest. The adult males carry the infant owl monkeys, instead of the females who might be lacking energy due to lactation. This social behavior helps them protect flee their offspring from predators. Also, the older siblings in a social unit can carry the young ones when it is in the first four weeks of life.
In conclusion, the Aotus azarae are one of the primate species with unusual appearance due to their nocturnal lifestyle. They have spherical lenses with more rods than cones for acute vision at night. Also, their bodies are covered by fur to keep them warm in their cold habitats in the forests. They have long legs that help them move around their ecological niche. Similarly, they are skillful leapers and thus can move through the forest gaps. They exhibit many social behaviors in adaptation to the environment, including males carrying their offspring to protect them from predators.
References
Lang, K. C. (2005). Primate Factsheets: Owl monkey (Aotus) Taxonomy, Morphology, & Ecology . University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/owl_monkey
Corley, M., & Fernandez‐Duque, E. (2016). Owl Monkeys (Aotinae). The International Encyclopedia of Primatology , 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0067
Fernandez‐Duque, E. (2016). Social monogamy in wild owl monkeys (Aotus azarae) of Argentina: the potential influences of resource distribution and ranging patterns. American Journal of Primatology , 78 (3), 355-371. https ://doi.org/ 10.1002/ajp.22397 ·
Welker, B. H. (2017). The history of our tribe: Hominini. Center for Open Education
