Featured Animal: 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.

Squirrel monkeys grow from 25 to 35 cm, plus the squirrel monkey has a 35 to 42 cm tail. The squirrel monkey is thought to be one of the most intelligent species of primate and the squirrel monkey has the largest brain to body mass ratio of all the monkey species in the world.
The squirrel monkeys live together in all male or all female groups and these groups can include up to 500 squirrel monkeys. These large squirrel monkey groups can, however, occasionally break into smaller troops.

The squirrel monkeys have a number of vocal calls which the squirrel monkeys use to communicate with other squirrel monkeys. These squirrel monkey sounds include warning sounds to protect themselves from large falcons, which are a natural threat to the squirrel monkey. The squirrel monkeys small body size also makes the squirrel monkey easy prey for predators such as snakes.

The squirrel monkey is an omnivore meaning that the squirrel monkey primarily eats fruits and insects. Occasionally the squirrel monkey will also eat nuts, buds, eggs and small vertebrates that the squirrel monkey finds in the surrounding tree branches.