Thus far my naturalistic investigations have revealed that there are at least two kinds of monkeys roaming the trees here in Nosara - howler monkeys and what, out of sheer ignorance, I will call quiet monkeys. For all I know the quiet monkeys may comprise several actual species, but if so they are all equally quiet. The howler monkeys, on the other hand, can make quite a racket when they are so inclined. Every morning around 5am or so they start hooting and bellowing and grunting at each other for reasons known only to themselves. As far as I have seen, both kinds of monkeys stay in the trees and betray no interest in human affairs.
Today as we drove down to the beach a family of howler monkeys was hanging out in the trees alongside the road, about 20 feet up, hooting away languorously. Along with several adults there was a little baby monkey who would repeatedly wander around his branch for a few seconds before returning to dangle by one arm from one of the adults. Of course, since we were on our way to the beach I didn't have a camera, but I can assure you it was super cute.
I think the two kinds are howler and spider monkeys, the spider monkey (I love typing/thinking/saying that) is the quieter and longer limbed kind. As for "paying no interest in human affairs"... not always true, and they WILL throw poop if pissed off.
ReplyDeleteAndy