Page 149 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

RED HOWLER MONKEY 149

The monkey’s long tail lashes out. Latching onto a strong Disaster is averted – and a valuable lesson learnt. From now
branch, the howler takes advantage of this good fortune. on, the howler will know to attach a ‘safety line’!

Rivalry between males is intense, but only one male will generation and that he doesn’t spend time, energy and
become dominant and win the right to lead the troop and resources raising and protecting another male’s offspring!
mate with the females.The dominant male must spend a This is such a widespread practice that it’s estimated that
great deal of time and energy defending his status. If he’s less than one-quarter of red howler monkey infants survive
thrown out of his own troop, it’s likely that he won’t be the arrival of a new troop leader.
the only one to suffer. It’s unpleasant to imagine that intelligent mammals like
The new male will often kill their rival’s offspring as primates might indulge in such behaviour, but it’s
soon as he takes control of the troop.This has two effects. important to remember that they’re just following their
It brings the females into oestrus, which makes them instincts – and these instincts tell them to stay alive and
sexually receptive so that he can mate with them. It also reproduce. Infanticide is simply the best strategy for the
ensures that his unique genes are passed on to the next new, dominant male.

Comparisons

The dramatic, white-faced saki monkey (Pithecia pithecia) is another of
the Amazon Basin’s primate residents.While sakis form devoted
couples who mate for life, red howler troops are polygynous, meaning
that one male attempts to dominate the troop and breed with all the
females.Adult sakis are also much smaller than their howler
neighbours, at around 1.7-2kg (3.7–4.4lb), with non-
prehensile, bushy tails.

White-faced saki monkey Red howler monkey

(c) 2011 Marshall Cavendish. All Rights Reserved.