12 Interesting Facts About Primates

Primates are very intelligent, with behaviors that reinforce their proximity to humans on the evolutionary scale. Specifically chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos have amazing and curious features. Get to know some below.

1 - The orangutan has the longest childhood of any animal in the world. Babies are carried and fed by their mothers until they are six years old and usually still stay with them for a few more years. Females stay with their mothers until their teens.

2 - The Japanese monkey (or snow monkey / picture above), from northern Japan, has very thick hair and its habitat is composed of hot springs to keep them warm. This hair has two insulating layers, which allows the animal to get out of a hot water source and walk in the snow without suffering hypothermia.

3 - This weird animal from the image above is a Tarsius, a nocturnal primate. Each of your large eyes is approximately 16 mm in diameter, even larger than your brain, and allows you to see better at night.

4 - The rhesus monkeys love to play and create confusion with their antics. These creatures often invade villages in India, entering homes to steal food and leaping from tall structures in great jumps just for fun.

5 - Howler monkey is a monkey with a very striking feature: its roar can reach 90 decibels and can be heard from miles away. These high intensity vocalizations of howler monkeys happen due to the huge volume of the hyoid bone and serve to scare off possible invaders. Check out the roar in the video above.

6 - The mandrel (in the highlighted image and below) is the largest monkey on earth and has an unusual look with its beautiful colored muzzle. But it is not only in the nose that they have a strong coloration. Their buttocks also have a colored hue, which becomes even more intense as they reach sexual maturity, especially among males. The dominant "alpha" males have even brighter pigmentation.

7 - The long-tailed monkey (also known as the Old World Monkey) is quite intelligent, making his own tools for performing tasks such as opening clams for food. They are still known for a half-brat custom: plucking hair from a human head to floss.

8) For bonobos (also known as pygmy chimpanzees), "make love, don't make war" is the mantra. Instead of fighting, they prefer to use intercourse - including same-sex individuals - to resolve disputes and problems. Easier, isn't it? No one gets hurt and in the end everything is fine.

9 Considered as the most intelligent New World monkeys, capuchin monkeys (pictured above) use tools, can recognize images of themselves in the mirror, and learn quickly, which is why the film and series industry likes to put them in their own. productions. Who remembers Ross's Marcel monkey from the Friends series?

10 - Gibraltar monkeys are the only wild monkey population in Europe, totaling about 300. As a precautionary measure, feeding them (other than the responsible organs) is punishable by a fine of about $ 800, a effort to prevent animals from becoming dependent on humans.

11 - The frozen baboon ( Theropithecus gelada ) is a primate species that lives only in the highlands of Ethiopia. The animal (image above) is large and robust, and males have a red spot on the chest. The brighter the color is, the more virile it is considered.

Chimpanzees are the closest living relatives to humans, with 99% of their DNA in common. They use tools, have complex social hierarchies and relationships, and can even be taught with sign language.