Woolly Monkey

True Wild Life | Woolly Monkey | The woolly monkey is a medium to large sized primate, that inhabits the tropical forests of north-west South America. The woolly monkey is most well known for it's round-shaped head and dense fur that covers the body of the woolly monkey. Woolly monkeys are found throughout Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and parts of Venezuela where they live an arboreal lifestyle. Woolly monkeys have long and very strong prehensile tails which allows them to balance and grip onto branches without having to give up the use of their hands.

White Faced Capuchin

True Wild Life | White Face Capuchin | The white faced capuchin, also known as the white headed capuchin and the white throated capuchin, is a medium sized species of monkey that is native to the jungles of Central America and the northern regions of South America. The white faced capuchin is one of the most well known monkeys, particularly in North America, and the white faced capuchin is thought to be one of the most intelligent monkeys in the world with the white faced capuchin being best known as a companion for organ grinders and are also used to assist people that are paraplegic.

Tarsier

True Wild Life | Tarsier | The tarsier is a small primate was once found in Asia, Europe, and North America, and possibly Africa. Today the tarsier is only found on several Southeast Asian islands including the Philippines, Sulawesi, Borneo, and Sumatra. Tarsiers are small animals with enormous eyes with each eyeball of the tarsier measuring approximately 16 mm in diameter which is as large as their entire brain. Tarsiers also have very long hind limbs and the feet of the tarsier have extremely elongated tarsus bones, from which the animals get their name.

Sumatran Orang-utan

True Wild Life | Sumatran Orang-utan | The Sumatran orang-utan is a species of orang-utan native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Sumatran orang-utan is one of only two species of great ape that are found in Asia, the other being the slightly larger and closely related, Bornean orang-utan. The Sumatran orang-utan is found inhabiting tropical and sub-tropical rainforest in the lowlands of Sumatra and the habitat of the Sumatran orang-utan extends into the moist swamps. Due to extensive deforestation in the Sumatran orang-utan's natural habitat, the Sumatran orang-utan is now much rarer than the Bornean orang-utan.

Squirrel Monkey

True Wild Life | Squirrel Monkey | The squirrel monkey inhabits the tropical rain forests of Central and South America, where the squirrel monkey is found in the jungles of Costa Rica and Panama. The squirrel monkey has short fur, coloured olive on the squirrel monkeys shoulders and yellowish orange on the squirrel monkeys back. The squirrel monkeys throat and ears are white and the squirrel monkeys mouths are black. The upper part of the squirrel monkeys head is quite hairy when compared to the rest of the squirrel monkeys body.

Spider Monkey

True Wild Life | Spider Monkey | The spider monkey is found in the tropical jungles of South America, from Southern Mexico to Brazil. The spider monkey generally dos not enter the further southern regions of South America as the terrain becomes mountainous and not to the spider monkey's taste. There are four different types of spider monkey, all of which are fairly large in size and get to around 50cm tall, plus the spider monkey's tail which can often grow longer than the spider monkey's body.

Red-handed Tamarin

True Wild Life | Red-handed Tamarin | The red-handed tamarin (also known as the Golden-handed Tamarin and the Midas Tamarin) is a New World monkey named for the reddish hair on it's hands and feet. The red-handed tamarin is native to the moist woodland areas along the Amazon river in South America. The red-handed tamarin is found inhabiting the forest alongside the Amazon throughout Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, and Venezuela. Although once quite large, the natural territory of the red-handed tamarin has rapidly decreased today due to deforestation.

Pied Tamarin

True Wild Life | Pied Tamarin | The pied tamarin is a small species of monkey found in the rainforest of Brazil. The pied tamarin is an endangered species and is one of the larger species of tamarin found on the South American continent. The pied tamarin is found in only one restricted area in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, where the pied tamarins are being protected from being hunted and poached in the forest or from being subjected to habitat loss in the form deforestation. The pied tamarin is a very distinctive species of tamarin as it has a white chest and back, brown, tan or red hind legs and tail and a black hairless face. The pied tamarin is a highly territorial animal and is known to make a variety of calls to warn off unwanted visitors.

Patas Monkey

True Wild Life | Patas Monkey | The patas monkey is a ground-dwelling monkey that inhabits areas across western Africa and parts of eastern Africa. The patas monkey is the only monkey species of it's kind and is thought to be the fastest primate in the world as the patas monkey can run at speeds of more than 30mph. The patas monkey is fairly large in size and can grow to heights of up to 80 cm tall. The patas monkey also has an extremely long tail which is often around the same length as the patas monkey's body.

Neanderthal

True Wild Life | Neanderthal | The Neanderthal is an old world, modern primate that is now extinct. It is thought that the Neanderthal roamed the lands of Asia and Europe for around 100,000 years. The Neanderthal traits are no longer found in humans, the last known being 24,000 years ago in Portugal. However, extensive research has shown the similarities between Neanderthal and human.

Mountain Gorilla

True Wild Life | Mountain Gorilla | There are two species of the mountain gorilla, both of which are found in the highlands in eastern Africa. One of these is found in the volcanic mountains of Virunga in Central Africa, with the mountain gorilla having a habitat range across 4 national parks throughout the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The other mountain gorilla species is found in Ugandas Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. The mountain gorilla is one of the largest primates in the world with the male mountain gorilla, known as a silverback, often growing to twice the size of a female mountain gorilla.

Monkey

True Wild Life | Monkey | Monkeys are found naturally in the jungles and forests of the Southern Hemisphere. There are two ways to classify a monkey, the old world monkey (Asia and Africa) and the new world monkey (South America). There are around 260 known species of monkey worldwide ranging from chimpanzees to the tiny pygmy marmoset. The monkey can be anywhere from just a few centimetres tall, with some species of monkey growing to more than a metre tall.

Mandrill

True Wild Life | Mandrill | The mandrill is a medium to large sized primate, natively found in a small pocket of tropical jungle in western-central Africa. The mandrill is most commonly known for it's red and blue coloured nose and it's multicoloured rear end. The mandrill is not related to the great apes but is thought to be closely related to the baboon, another medium-sized African primate that is found in eastern and southern Africa. The mandrill was even once thought to be a sub-species of baboon but this is now not believed to be the case.

Indri

True Wild Life | Indri | The Indri is a large species of lemur found only on the secluded island of Madagascar. The Indri evolved in the same way as every other lemur, from smaller individuals that came to the island from Africa around 50 million years ago. Due to the fact that there were no other primates to compete with, lemurs soon adapted to live in a variety of habitats, producing a diverse range of different species. Locally, the Indri is known as the babakoto which means little father or ancestor of man. As the native people believe that the Indri (with it's lack of visible tail) resembles their ancestors, their is a certain taboo over consuming it, meaning that the Indri does receive some protection in parts of their native environments.

Human

True Wild Life | Human | The human being is part of the primate group that walks on two legs rather than than the usual four like most of the other primates, which is known as bipedal. The thing that sets human beings apart from other primates however, is the fact the human has a highly developed brain and therefore capable of abstract reasoning, language and problem solving. The modern human being is thought to have originated in Eastern Africa around 200,000 years ago and due to the advanced mental capacity of the human and the fact that humans have been able to use their two free arms to manipulate objects, has meant that human beings are more sophisticated in using tools than any other species of animal.

Howler Monkey

 

True Wild Life | Howler Monkey | There are 9 different species of howler monkey, found dispersed throughout the tropical jungles of South America. The howler monkey is one of the largest species of monkey found in South America with some howler monkeys growing to nearly a meter long. Despite their large size, howler monkeys weigh less than 10 kg which allows them to move with more agility through the high trees and lets the howler monkeys hang from branches by their tails when picking fruit.

Grey Mouse Lemur

True Wild Life | Grey Mouse Lemur | The grey mouse lemur is one of the world's smallest primates, and one of the smallest lemurs on the island of Madagascar. The grey mouse lemur was named after it's size and appearance that resembles that of a mouse (in a similar way to the other mouse lemur species). Although threatened, the grey mouse lemur is considered to be one of the most abundant primates on the island. Like all other lemur species, the grey mouse lemur is native to, and found only on, the island of Madagascar, off the eastern coast of Africa. Grey mouse lemurs inhabit native tropical woodlands and forests where they spend the majority of their lives nesting in the trees. Grey mouse lemurs are usually found perching on thin branches and occupy ranges of up to 5 acres in size.

Gorilla

True Wild Life | Gorilla | Gorillas are the biggest of the worlds primates and live in the forests in select parts of Africa. The gorilla population is sadly much lower than it used to be meaning that gorillas are an endangered species. Gorillas are herbivores, eating vegetation, fruits, shoots, berries and leaves. An adult male gorilla is able to consume up to 27 kg of food everyday. Gorillas are thought to be the most closely related to chimps and humans. It is said that the DNA of gorillas is 98-99% identical to human DNA!!

Gibbon

True Wild Life | Gibbon | The gibbon is a small sized ape, found inhabiting the dense jungles and tropical rainforests across south-east Asia. Gibbons belong to the lesser ape family which are closely related to the great apes (chimpanzees, orang-utans, bonobos, gorillas and humans). Gibbons are small and lightweight monkeys that grow to around 90cm tall and weigh just 7kg. The lightweight body of the gibbons means that the gibbon is able to move around in and leap between the trees.

Geoffroy's Tamarin

True Wild Life | Geoffroy's Tamarin | The Geoffroy's tamarin is a small species of monkey found in the forests of South America. The Geoffroy's tamarin is also known as the Red-crested tamarin or the Rufous-naped tamarin, and is thought to be closely related to the cottontop tamarin. The Geoffroy's tamarin is found in the tropical forests of Panama and Colombia in South America, where the Geoffroy's tamarin spends the majority of it's life in the trees. The Geoffroy's tamarin is more commonly found on the Pacific coast rather than the Atlantic.