On fools
#2 Lillian Chen
Nov. 9, 1992
Science / Per.3
Species Report
The Woolly Spider Monkey
The woolly spider monkey is noted for its exceptional tail as an extra limb. When it hangs upside-down on its tail, it resembles a spider.
Spider monkeys are found in the tropical rain forests of southern Mexico to Bolivia. Woolly spider monkeys spend most of their time in the canopy of the trees. In the canopy, they feed on fruit, seeds, and other plant matter. They also eat birds and in-sects. The monkeys are very selective in picking different kinds of food, like eating only one bite of a piece of fruit and dropping it on the ground if something is wrong with it. Woolly spider monkeys are active in the day.
They are called woolly spider monkeys because their fur is woolly and wiry. Spider monkeys have four fingers and no thumb. Adult spider monkeys weigh about ten to nineteen pounds. They look like monkeys because their arms are longer than their legs. The woolly spider monkey can grow up to about two feet tall, not including their tail. These monkeys vary in different colors: black, brown, gold, reddish, and tan.
Spider monkeys live in bands of up to one-hundred mon-keys. There could be two-hundred of them in a square mile. The monkey can live to be twenty years old in captivity.
Woolly spider monkey babies are usually black when they are born and change color when they mature. Their young weighs about seven percent of their mother's weight. The young are dependent on their mothers until they are about ten months old. In their first month, the mother carries its baby on its stomach. after that, the mother carries it on her back.
A woolly spider monkey can leap up to thirty feet, but they are not very intelligent. As a spare time activity, young spider monkeys like to wrestle. They hang by their tails and push and pull trying to get another monkey to drop off a tree limb.
Hunting is the reason of being endangered. Sometimes, they are killed to be eaten. They are preyed on by jaguars and other cats, plus men. They are also endangered because of deforestation.
I learned that animals are like humans. We should not destroy their homes because I wouldn't like it if someone took my home away. We also shouldn't take everything that we want like land and water. Polluting is the worst way to destroy the earth. We are polluting all our sources, land, water, and air. How can we stop all this from happening?
