Squirrel monkey
Saimiri S.Sciureus
IUCN Status: Least concern
Diet
These monkeys will spend 75-80% of their day foraging for fruit, insects and small mammals. During the dry season when fruiting trees are primarily bare they are able to entirely depend on animal prey
Breeding
Squirrel monkeys mate during the dry season and will only have one baby every two years (in the wild)
At The Zoo
We have a colony of 10 individuals as of 2018 but this is the first year they have not bred which we suspect is due to the old age of the breeding male. Should we wish to breed again we may have to introduce a new male that will inevitably cause us to exhibit an all-male group as the younger males become excluded!
Habitat
Squirrel monkeys have a large range from Ecuador and Colombia through to Guyana and Brazil. They occupy many different types of forest depending on the season and when food is available.
Fun Facts
Squirrel monkey groups can consist of up to 100 animals which are combined from different troops during the fruiting rainforest season! As a keeper they are extremely difficult to keep clean as they urinate and cover their hands and feet in faecal matter to scent mark their territory and tell others where they are and have been!
Behaviour
Both sexes form a single, linear hierarchy within the group, but most males are still dominant over females. Only males form coalitions and can be aggressive to each other especially when there is competition for fruit in small, dense patches.