Common squirrel monkey

Saimiri sciureus

SUBFAMILY

Cebinae

TAXONOMY

Saimiri sciureus (Linnaeus, 1758), Cayenne, French Guyana. Taxonomy is disputed, has four subspecies.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Saimiri écureuil; German: Totenkopfaffchen; Spanish: Mono ardilla.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Fur is gray to black crown; olive-gray back; light yellow under-side; yellow-orange forearms, hands, and feet; white ears and around eyes. Head and body length is 10.8–14.6 in (27.5–37 cm). Tail length is 15–17.8 in (26.5–45 cm). Weight is 19.5–44.1 oz (559–1,250 g).

DISTRIBUTION

Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.

HABITAT

Primary and secondary rainforest, riverine forest, and man-grove swamps from sea level to 6,600 ft (2,000 m).

BEHAVIOR

Diurnal and arboreal. Multimale-multifemale groups of 20–300 animals. Strict male dominance hierarchy with males dominant over females and integrated within the group year-round. Male emigration upon sexual maturity.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Squirrel monkeys have a high need for protein. Predominately eat fruit and animal prey including frogs, snails, crabs, insects, spiders, and occasionally bats.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Promiscuous mating often with multiple mountings. Males become "fatted", with upper body weight gain, an increase in testes size, and active spermatogenesis just prior to the breeding

season. This is followed six months later by a birth season (coinciding with the wet season) when food is most abundant. Females reach sexual maturity at 30–36 months and gestation is 168–180 days. Births are single.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Widespread and uncommon to locally common. Main pressures on populations include habitat degradation, deforestation, hunting for food, and collection for laboratories. Listed in Appendix 2 of CITES.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Collected for the pet and research markets. Annual export quotas from Guyana to U. S. laboratories. Hunted for food in some areas of its range.

Common Squirrel Monkey[1]
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN) [2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Cebidae Genus: Saimiri Species: S. sciureus
Binomial name
Saimiri sciureus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The Common Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus) is a small New World primate from the Cebidae family, and native to ten different countries of South America: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

It lives in very large groups, up to 300 individuals, on moist tropical forests, and usually forages in the medium and lower levels of the forest and sleeps close to the canopy. The females are the dominant members of the group.

It is a very agile monkey, with a high metabolic rate, and although an omnivorous animal, it feeds primarily on insects and other invertebrates. It also feeds on fruits, seeds and other plant parts.

It is common to see these squirrel monkeys in mixed groups, moving along with other primate species and birds.

There are four subspecies of Saimiri sciureus:

• Saimiri sciureus sciureus
• Saimiri sciureus albigena
• Humboldt's Squirrel Monkey, Saimiri sciureus cassiquiarensis
• Ecuadorian Squirrel Monkey, Saimiri sciureus macrodon

References

1. ^ Groves, Colin (16 November 2005). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 139. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. 
2. ^ Rylands et al (2003). Saimiri sciureus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern

Common Squirrel Monkey at the Henry Doorly Zoo.

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Common Squirrel Monkey

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