The spider monkey is just that – spidery. Mostly dark brown and black all over they have long tails, spindly legs, little pot bellies, little heads, long hands and bare faces. They make their way through the jungle swinging acrobatically with their gangly long arms.

They live in dense, wet, tropical forest and crash through the canopy barking and screaming to other members of their pack. From Mexico south to Columbia the monkey lives but in the last 10 years their numbers have been reduced by 20 percent due to habitat destruction.

At night they gather in groups as large as 35 to sleep clustered together in the trees. During they day they usually split up into smaller groups to go foraging for food. They look for juicy fruits mostly and eat a few seeds and leaves.

They can share the same territory with howler monkeys peacefully, even acting friendly. The spider males do fight each other a bit when it comes to mating season. And they may shout and throw things at humans.