Escudo de la República de Colombia Escudo de la República de Colombia
Panel de Accesibilidad

✎ Andrés Rodriguez

✎ Andrés Rodriguez

✎ Camilo Alméciga

Woolly Monkey
Lagothrix lagotrichaAmazon region

  • Generalities
  • Morpho-functionality
  • Lifecycle
  • Distribution

RECORRIDO VIRTUAL POR LA BIODIVERSIDAD DE COLOMBIA
Museo de Historia Natural
Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Woolly Monkey
Lagothrix lagotricha

They are one of the heaviest monkeys in America, their build is robust and they have soft fur; from there the scientific name that refers to a fur similar to that of rabbits. They feed mainly on fruits, but their diet is supplemented by flowers, leaves, and occasionally some arthropods. Their social groups are composed by several individuals of both sexes with a dominant male who is the only one that reproduces with the females.

Conservation status

Extinct

Extinct in the Wild

Critically Endangered

Endangered

Vulnerable

Near Threatened

Least Concern

Not Evaluated

Data Deficient

Morpho-functionality

Tail

Its tail helps it stabilize, balance, and even grab objects

Toes

Its toes are highly developed and allows it to hold on to branches and logs.

Fur coat

Its dense coat helps it stay dry, as it works like a raincoat in the rain forests where it lives.

Lifecycle

The reproductive cycle lasts from twelve to 49 days, in which the heat lasts for three or four. The gestation period is 7.5 months with a single calf of about 140 g born between the end of the dry season and the middle of the wet season. Lactation of the baby goes from nine to twelve months. After their first offspring the females will give birth every two years. The baby will hold on to the abdomen of its mother during the first month and then it goes to the back. After the fifth month they become more independent. Sexual maturity is reached at six to eight years for females and after five years for males. Life expectancy for male woolly monkeys is 24 years and females 30 years.

Woolly Monkey

Distribution

They inhabit northern South America, including the upper Magdalena River valley in Colombia, much of the upper Amazon basin in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil to the west of the Black River, and the eastern foothills and slopes of the Andes reaching up to 3,000 m of altitude. It inhabits undisturbed, continuous and mature primary forests such as cloud forests, gallery forests , moriche palm swamps, flooded and non-flooded forests.

Distribution area