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Proboscis monkey

Nasalis larvatus

SUBFAMILY

Colobinae

TAXONOMY

Nasalis larvatus (Wurmb, 1787), Indonesia. This is now the only species in the genus Nasalis, and no subspecies are recognized. The species Simias concolor has sometimes been included in the genus Nasalis, but it is sufficiently distinctive to deserve its own genus.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Nasique; German: Nasenaffe; Spanish: Mono narigudo.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

This is the largest species in the subfamily Colobinae. Fur reddish orange on the crown and back and grayish white ventrally. The fur on the shoulders, neck and cheeks is pale orange. The legs and the tail are grayish white. In males, the penis is bright red in color, contrasting with the black scrotum. Both sexes have a prominent nose, but there is marked sexual dimorphism in that the nose is particularly long and drooping in males, whereas it is shorter and forward-pointing in females. Sexual dimorphism in body size is also very pronounced, with adult males weighing more than twice as much as adult females. Head and body length: 30 in (74.5 cm) for males and 25 in (62.0 cm) for females; tail length: 26.5 in (66.5 cm) for males and 23 in (57.5 cm) for females. Body mass: 45 lb (20.4 kg) for males and 21 lb 10 oz (9.8 kg) for females.

DISTRIBUTION

Occurs throughout Borneo, wherever suitable forest habitat is available.

HABITAT

Occurs in a variety of habits, including lowland rainforest, gallery forest, peat swamp forest and mangrove forest.

BEHAVIOR

Diurnal and essentially arboreal. Individuals and groups have been observed swimming across rivers and even in the sea near the coast. Typically form one-male social groups, with surplus males living in bachelor groups. Individual one-male groups sometimes combine with other groups temporarily. Groups do not show clear-cut territorial behavior.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Feeds predominantly on leaves, but also eats flowers, fruits (mostly unripe), seeds and a small amount of animal prey.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Polygynous. Typically gives birth to a single infant. The species has rarely been kept in captivity and reproductive features such as the gestation period are hence unknown.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Listed as Endangered.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Quite often hunted for bushmeat.

 
 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: proboscis monkey

Species (Nasalis larvatus, family Cercopithecidae) of long-tailed arboreal Old World monkey of swampy mangrove forests on Borneo. Diurnal vegetarians, they live in groups of about 20. They are red-brown with pale underparts; the young monkey has a blue face. The male's nose is long and pendulous, the female's is smaller, and the young's is upturned. Males are 22 – 28 in. (56 – 72 cm) long, have a 26 – 29-in. (66 – 75-cm) tail, and weigh 26 – 53 lbs (12 – 24 kg); females are smaller and much lighter.

For more information on proboscis monkey, visit Britannica.com.

 
WordNet: proboscis monkey
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: Borneo monkey having a long bulbous nose
  Synonym: Nasalis larvatus

 
Wikipedia: Proboscis Monkey
Proboscis Monkey[1]
Nasicuss.jpg
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Cercopithecidae
Subfamily: Colobinae
Genus: Nasalis
É. Geoffroy, 1812
Species: N. larvatus
Binomial name
Nasalis larvatus
Wurmb, 1787

The Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus), also known as the Long-nosed Monkey, is a reddish-brown arboreal Old World monkey. It is the only species in monotypic genus Nasalis.

Appearance

A distinctive trait of this monkey is the male's large protruding nose. The purpose of the large nose is unclear, but it has been suggested that it is a result of sexual selection.[3]

Males are much larger than females, reaching 72 cm (28 inches) in length, with an up to 75 cm tail, and weighing up to 24 kg (53 pounds). Females are up to 60 cm long, weighing up to 12 kg (26 lb).

The Proboscis Monkey also has a large belly, as a result of its diet. Its digestive system is divided into compartments, with bacteria that digest cellulose and neutralize toxins from certain leaves. This lets the monkey eat leaves and remain in the forest canopy. The contents of their stomach weigh about a quarter of their whole body.[4] A side-effect of this unique digestive system is that it is unable to digest ripe fruit, unlike most other simians.[citation needed] The diet consists mainly of fruits, seeds, leaves and mangrove shoots.[5]

Ecology

The Proboscis Monkey is distributed and endemic to the coastal mangrove, swamps and riverine forests of Borneo. It lives in small groups of 10 to 32 animals. Group membership is very flexible, and animals are known to move from group to group quite often.

The Proboscis Monkey lifestyle is both arboreal and amphibious, with its mangrove swamp and riverine environment containing forest, dry land, shallow water allowing wading, and deep water requiring swimming. Like other similar monkeys, the Proboscis Monkey climbs well. It is also a proficient swimmer, often swimming from island to island, and has been picked up by fishing boats in open ocean a mile from shore. While wading, the monkey uses an upright posture, with the females carrying infants on their hip. Troops have been filmed continuing to walk upright, in single file, along forest trails when they emerge on land, the only non-human mammal, with the exception of gibbons and giant pangolins, known to use this form of locomotion for any length of time.

Status

Due to ongoing habitat loss and hunted in some areas, only about 7000 are known to still exist in the wild. In Sarawak, the population of this species has declined from 6500 in 1977 to only 1000 in 2006. The Proboscis Monkey is evaluated as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.[2]

Other names

While the official Indonesian name for this monkey is Bekantan, an Indonesian nickname is 'monyet belanda', meaning 'Dutch monkey' or 'Orang Belanda', the Indonesian word for 'Dutchman', as Indonesians noticed the Dutch colonisers often also had a large belly and nose.

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, 168-169. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. 
  2. ^ a b Eudey et al (2000). Nasalis larvatus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 05 May 2006. Listed as Endangered (EN A2c, C1+2a v2.3)
  3. ^ Proboscis monkey, long-nosed monkey BBC
  4. ^ Proboscis Monkey blueplanetbiomes.org
  5. ^ Nasalis larvatus Animal Diversity Web

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Copyrights:

Animal Encyclopedia. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2005 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Proboscis Monkey".  Read more

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