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To the Beauty of Birds

A Monkey is a primate of the Haplorrhini suborder and simian infraorder, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey, but excluding apes and humans. By this definition, the most common in biology, the monkeys are the group of all primates that are not tarsiers, lemurs, apes or humans and consist of about 260 known living species. Colloquially, the term "monkey" can also include all non-human apes. Many species are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys usually have tails. Tailless monkeys may be called "apes", incorrectly according to modern usage; thus the tailless Barbary macaque is called the "Barbary ape".

The New World monkeys (superfamily Ceboidea) are classified within the parvorder of Platyrrhini, whereas the Old World monkeys (superfamily Cercopithecoidea) form part of the parvorder Catarrhini, which also includes the hominoids (apes, including humans). Thus, as Old World monkeys are more closely related to hominoids than they are to New World monkeys, the monkeys are not a unitary (monophyletic) group. New World monkeys are the only monkeys with prehensile prehensile tails —in comparison with the shorter, non-grasping tails of the anthropoids of the Old World.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word "monkey" may originate in a German version of the Reynard the Fox fable, published circa 1580. In this version of the fable, a character named Moneke is the son of Martin the Ape. A group of monkeys may be commonly referred to as a tribe or a troop.

We saw three types of monkeys: the Black and White Colobus, Syke’s and Vervet.

Black-and-white Colobus are Old World monkeys of the genus Colobus, native to Africa. The word "colobus" comes from Greek κολοβός kolobós ("docked"), and is so named because in this genus, the thumb is a stump. Colobuses are herbivorous, eating leaves, fruit, flowers, and twigs. Their habitats include primary and secondary forests, riverine forests, and wooded grasslands; they are found more in higher-density logged forests than in other primary forests. Their ruminant-like digestive systems have enabled these leaf-eaters to occupy niches that are inaccessible to other primates.

Colobuses live in territorial groups of about nine individuals, based upon a single male with a number of females and their offspring. Newborn colobuses are completely white. Cases of allomothering are documented, which means members of the troop other than the infant's biological mother care for it. Colobuses are important for seed dispersal through their sloppy eating habits, as well as through their digestive systems. They are prey for many forest predators, and are threatened by hunting for the bushmeat trade, logging, and habitat destruction.

Sykes' Monkey (Cercopithecus albogularis), named after English naturalist Colonel William Henry Sykes (1790-1872), also known as the White-throated Monkey or Samango Monkey, is an Old World monkey found between Ethiopia and South Africa, including south and east Democratic Republic of Congo. It has been considered conspecific with the blue monkey (which in turn has included the golden
and silver monkey), but has a large white patch on the throat and upper chest, and a grizzled (not blackish) cap.

The Vervet Monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus), or simply Vervet, is an Old World monkey of the family Cercopithecidae native to Africa. The term "vervet" is also used to refer to all the members of the genus Chlorocebus. The five distinct subspecies can be found mostly throughout Southern Africa, as well as some of the eastern countries. Vervets were introduced to Florida, Ascension Island, Cape Verde, Barbados, Saint Kitts, Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Nevis. These mostly vegetarian monkeys have black faces and grey body hair color, ranging in length from about 19 in for males to about 16 in for females.

In addition to very interesting behavioral research on natural populations, vervet monkeys serve as a nonhuman primate model for understanding genetic and social behaviors of humans. They have been noted for having human-like characteristics, such as hypertension, anxiety, and social and dependent alcohol use. Vervets live in social groups ranging from 10 to 70 individuals, with males changing groups at the time of sexual maturity. The most significant studies done on vervet monkeys involve their communication and alarm calls, specifically in regard to kin and group recognition and particular predator sightings.

Monkeys