I need this your (iPhone, Internet, brain, underline the necessary) as a dog’s fifth leg – so they say about something completely superfluous. But our friends from the amusing family of arachnid monkeys have a fifth hand. And no one disputes its effectiveness and usefulness.
After you see this miracle hanging on a tree, questions on the type of name will disappear immediately. A creature with an abnormally large number of limbs, jumping in the crowns, will make the arachnophobe lay down such a mountain of bricks that they will be enough for the whole Kremlin.
It looks no less strange when close to monkeys: a frail body up to 10 kilograms, long legs. And the pug of the alien and the fifth leg of the priests additionally convince us – before us are real aliens!
Okay, de jure – this is, of course, the tail. But de facto he works for himself (as a balancer) and for Sasha (as an additional limb). A peculiar receding hairline at its tip is covered with leathery growths, which provides increased grip on the branches.
Monkeys can either support themselves with their tail or hang completely on it.
So the tail turned into an additional arm (or leg – depending on how you look), which the monkeys quite successfully do to themselves “grab”. When your whole life is parkour at dizzying heights, additional insurance will never be superfluous!
Even if this insurance sticks out of the fifth point.
Representatives of a noble family, uniting 5 genera and 30 species, live exclusively in the New World. Depending on the clan, you can find our friends either in South or Central America, from Mexico to Brazil. However, you will have to try hard: most of these guys are listed in the Red Book.
No wonder: with their requirements for housing, not every realtor will undertake the selection of a hut (be it with the monkeys). Trees must be of a certain age and height: the older and higher, the better. The lower floors of the fluffy finicky are not interested in the word “not at all”. Also, the tree should have many strong branches, along which you can safely jump, and a bushy crown, where it is convenient to hide from the predatory glances of meat-eaters.
The monkeys themselves, by the way, feed exclusively on greens.
The main problem here is the conflict with the sapiens, who are not interested in the trees themselves, but in the ground under them. Hunters-poachers add fuel to the fire: the spider monkey is not only a miracle of nature with a hand from the priests, but also live goods. The cubs of our heroes are being driven for a tidy sum to anonymous lovers of exotic.
And the rates of reproduction of our heroes are far from spider ones. Technically and theoretically, they are always ready, but there are a number of “buts”. First, pregnancy lasts a little less than that of Homo sapiens – 7 months. Secondly, the first 2 years of life, the cub is exclusively an attachment to the mother – it does not leave her.
Another 3 years are needed to unlock the achievement “move out and arrange a personal life.” And only on the condition that during these 5 years the cub has not been eaten and sold to the Tolostosums for amusement – they will have 12 years of meditation in tree crowns.
What would you like to say in the end? Spider monkeys are a great time to think. And not only about the pernicious influence of mankind on species diversity. But also about life in general. It doesn’t matter who you are, how many arms you have and where they grow from. The main thing is how to use them.
