Watching monkeys can be so entertaining, especially when they get up to their crazy monkey business. Here are some interesting facts to celebrate them:
- There are more than 260 different types of monkeys in the world.
- There are New World and Old World monkeys.
- The New World monkeys live in the Americas while the Old World monkeys live in Africa and Asia.
- The mandrill is the world’s largest monkey in the world and you can find him in the rainforests of equatorial Africa. He is about 1m tall and weighs 35kg.
- This monkey has a colourful face and long arms.
- He loves climbing trees and will sleep in a different tree every night.
- There are two types of monkeys in South Africa: Vervet monkey and Samango monkey.
- Samango monkeys can be found north of St Lucia in the coastal forests of KwaZulu-Natal and in forests in Mpumalanga.
- Monkeys grooming each other is called allogrooming and is beneficial to the health of these animals.
- Studies show that groomed animals are generally healthier than non-groomed animals.
- The two main reasons why monkeys groom each other are to keep their coats clean, and to build their social bond.
- Animals, like monkeys and baboons, can spend hours in a day grooming their troop mates and will remove parasites and dirt from each other’s coats.
- Sometimes they groom each other to make peace after a quarrel.
- Monkeys are omnivores, which means they eat plants and meat.
- Monkeys will forage throughout the day and will eat whatever they come across, including a variety of fruit, nuts, seeds and flowers.
- They will also eat small animals like lizards, scorpions and spiders, and will even eat eggs.
- The biggest difference between the monkeys and apes is that monkeys have tails and apes don’t.
- Apes are more clever than monkeys and overall larger.