Comments On: AMAZING MONKEYS

AMAZING MONKEYS by Scott Steedman Part 1
What is a monkey?
Monkeys and apes are our closest relatives. With its big eyes and clever face, the capuchin monkey looks surprisingly human. Most amazing of all are its hands - it has delicate fingers and thumbs just like ours.
The monkey family
You belong to a group of animals called primates. So do apes (including chimps) and monkeys. The only other primates are the lemurs, which took like monkeys with foxy faces, and a few tiny night animals like the loris.
Look while you leap
Leaping through the trees is a dangerous business. Monkeys and apes have big eyes which face forward, making sure they can always spy a safe landing spot before they reach the next tree.
Monkeying about
If you let a monkey loose in your room, it would make quite a mess. Monkeys are quick and clever, and take things apart just to see what's inside. They're a lot like people, really.
Not fussy
Fruit and flowers, birds and butterflies, bamboo shoots and crabs, eggs and frogs' legs -- most monkeys will eat just about anything.
Capuchin monkey
This monkey lives in South America. It is named after capuchin monks, who wear cloaks that come down in a V-shape over their forehead -- just like the brown hairs of a capuchin monkeys.
Too big to swing
Most monkeys and apes swing through the treetops. But the biggest kinds move around on the ground on all fours.
Hands for gripping
Monkeys have long, strong fingers arid toes. These end in nails, which don't get in the way when the monkey wraps its fingers around a branch or a banana.
Brad and Trouble
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AMAZING MONKEYS by Scott Steedman Part 2
Funny faces
Some monkeys have the strangest looks on their faces. The cotton-top tamarin has a hairstyle to match.
Cotton-top
This little monkey is only the size of a squirrel. It eats nuts like a squirrel but also feeds on fruit and insects.
Who knows?
The word proboscis means nose. Any idea why they call it the proboscis monkey?
Painted face
Young mandrills have dull brown faces. But when the males become adults, they get brilliant red and blue noses.
Looking good
An unhealthy uakari has a pale pink. When it is feeling well, the uakari's face turns bright red. (But it doesn't get any prettier).
King of the mustaches
The emperor tamarin flashes its impressive mustache at enemies, trying to appear much bigger than it really is.
Rare beauty
The golden marmoset has a mane like a lion. Sadly; so many have been caught and sold as pets that there are very few of them left in the wild.
High flyer
The douc (DOOK) is one of the most agile--and beautifull--rnonkey of all. With great shouts and leaps, it throw itself 20 feet from one tree to the next. No wonder its hair stands on end!
Wild boy of the woods
Brad and Trouble
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AMAZING MONKEYS by Scott Steedman Part 3
Wild boy of the woods
Orangutans live in the rain forests of Indonesia and Malaysia. With their shaggy orange fur, huge arms, and pot bellies, you can see how they got their name - which is Malaysian for "wild man of the woods."
Endangered ape
Humans are the orangutan's worst enemy. So much of the rain forest has been cut down that zoos may soon be the only places to find orangs.
Four hands, no feet
The orangutan's big toes work like thumbs. Its feet are so good at grasping that it seems to have four hands and no feet.
My dad's bigger than your dad
Male orangutans weigh up to 265 pounds -- more than the average dad! And they're much better at hanging around in trees, too.
Stay out of my (hic) garden
To keep other orangs out of its territory; the male orangutan lets out a booming call -- which ends with a series of burps and sighs.
Fruit lover
Ripe fruit is an orangutan's favorite food. When it finds a tree full of figs or mangoes, it picks the juiciest ones and peels them carefully with its enormous fingers.
Hook-shaped hands, just right for hanging on.
Still growing
The male orangutan at five is still with his mother. He won't leave his mother's side until he is seven, and won't reach his full size until he is twelve.
Where did the branch go?
By the time they've grown up. One orang in three has broken a bone falling out of a tree.
An adult males' arms may stretch 8 feet.
The fifth toe is shorter, to make it easier to swing through trees.
Brad and Trouble
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AMAZING MONKEYS by Scott Steedman Part 4
A day in the life
The morning sun finds the patas monkey waking up on a tree branch. For this big male monkey it's the start of a long day looking after his troop.
Filling the tanks
Drinking is a dangerous business on the African plains. When the troop comes to a waterhole the females and babies lap up all they can while the male keeps guard from a high rock or a tree stump.
An officer and a gentlemonkey
A reddish coat and impressive white mustache have given the patas another name--the military monkey.
See my teeth?
It's easy to tell if a patas is male or female because males are twice as big. If you're still not sure, just peel back the monkey's top lip. If it's a male, you'll find two long stabbing teeth that look like built-in knives.
The fastest primate
Long legs make the patas monkey more like a greyhound than a monkey. It can bound along at 35 miles an hour--faster than the speed limit in most cities!
Blooming snacks
Patas troops live on the ground. They spend most of the day moving around, looking for not leaves, fruit, and flowers to eat.
The dry plains
The patas monkey is at home on the dry plains of Africa, which it shares with hyenas, leopards, elephants--and more and more people.
I'm in charge here
The male patas monkey is five and a half years old and fully grown. He may be the only grown-up male in a troop of seven females and ten young monkeys.
And so to bed...
As the sun sets on the plains or savanna, the patas troop finds a nice big acacia tree and dozes off together.
Brad and Trouble
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AMAZING MONKEYS by Scott Steedman Part 5
Monkeys at night
As the sun sets over the Amazon jungle, the owl monkey is just waking up. A few minutes after dark, when jaguars and eagles are safely snoring, the monkey leaves its tree hole and heads out into the night
. Owl eats owl
The only enemy the owl monkey has to fear at night is, strangely enough, the great horned owl.
Douroucouli
The owl monkey is also called by its native name, douroucouli (dor-uh-KOO-lee).
Birds for breakfast
The owl monkey sneaks up and grabs birds that are sleeping quietly in their nests.
The owl monkey is the only monkey that comes out at night.
Night sight
Huge eyes are just right for seeing in the dark. The owl monkey can leap from tree to tree and snatch insects out of the air, even when it's so dark that you can barely see what's in front of you.
Midnight nap
Many daytime monkeys take a nap at noon, but the owl monkey family huddles up together for a short snooze at midnight.
Bedtime
Most monkeys and apes spend the night curled up in their nests. Even the gorilla builds a nest of branches, so it won't roll down the hill in the middle of a dream.
Hooting at the moon
This monkey's sad call sounds surprisingly like the hoot of an owl. Male monkeys are the only ones that hoot, and they only seem to do it when the shy is clear and the moon is full.
Brad and Trouble
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AMAZING MONKEYS by Scott Steedman Part 7
Monkey talk
High in the jungle treetops, monkeys shout and squeak to keep in touch. Their calls may say "Come quick! I've found some mangoes." Or they may just mean "Keep out of my home."
Singsong
Gibbon couples don't just live together, they also sing together. If the mother is carrying a baby; the baby will often try to join the chorus too.
Whoop-gobble
Male mangabey monkeys make great "whoop-gobble" calls. Next time you're in Zaire, listen out for them - they sound just like Tarzan's famous call (but Louder).
Talking back
The face isn't the only part of the body that talks. When female hamadryas baboons are ready for romance, they signal to the males with their bottoms, which swell and get bright red.
Making faces
Chimpanzees flash their teeth when the are scared, and laugh when they want to play. When they're sad, they seem to cry.
Know any Mozart?
Many monkeys can shriek louder than the loudest opera singer.
Calling the bluff
When two male gorillas meet in the forest, they bark, roar; tear up the shrubbery; and beat their chests. Usually the smaller one backs off before a fight starts and he gets hurt.
Canary of the jungle
The tiny marmoset whistles and squeaks. marmosets move through the Brazilian jungle, they chatter away like a flock of birds.
Brad and Trouble
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AMAZING MONKEYS by Scott Steedman Part 8
The monkey family
Monkeys and apes aren't the only primates. There are 181 different kinds, from bushbabies that look like wide-eyed possums to the most common primate of all--you.
Living on an island
The strange and beautiful ringtail lemur found only on the African island Madagascar. As it runs along the ground, it looks like a cross between a racoon and a monkey.
The amazing aye-aye
Experts used to think the aye-aye was a weird squirrel with huge ears. But now they know it is really a lemur. Its fingers are incredibly long and skinny, especially the middle ones, which it uses for prying grubs out of logs.
Gorillas and mice
The biggest primate, the male gorilla, weighs as much as 450 pounds. That's three times heavier than an average person--and three thousand times heavier than the smallest primate, the gray mouse lemur.
Bushbabies
The bushbaby and the tarsier are small primates that only come out at night. They may took like the first primates, which appeared when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
De Brazza's monkey
This monkey is at home in the swampy forests of Central Africa. It us a typical monkey; long tailed and very curious.
Naked ape
You may wear nice shirts and study with a computer. But under your clothing, you are an animal. Humans just have bigger brains, and less hair, than monkeys and apes.
Brad and Trouble
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AMAZING MONKEYS by Scott Steedman Part 9
Growing up
A baby gibbon spends its first years to clinging to its mother's fur. It has to hang on tight, she moves fast, and the jungle floor is a long way down.
Living bridge
A baby spider monkey has problems crossing big gaps between two trees. The mother helps out by stretching her body into a living bridge which the little one can scramble across.
Piggy-back
When they get a bit older, young monkeys and apes start riding around on Mom's (or even Dad's) back. Soon they will start to spend more time away from her side.
Mother's milk
Like a human, a monkey baby starts drinking its mother; milk from the day it's born. For the first few months it rarely leaves the breast, where a nipple is always close by.
Tightrope champ
The gibbon is famous for its tightrope walking. A mother will run gracefully along a branch, with her long arms out for balance and her baby clinging tight to her belly.
Playing house
A young chimp spends hours "helping" and copying its mother as she builds a nest for the night. When it finally has to make its own nest, it has a pretty good idea of what to do.
Warning! Fragile
Their mothers are dull gray, but baby leaf monkeys are a bright apricot color. This bold coloring makes older monkeys treat the babies with extra special care.
Busy parents
A baby gibbon is born to a gibbon couple every two or three years. It won't leave home until it's eight years old.
Brad and Trouble
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AMAZING MONKEYS by Scott Steedman Part 10
Amazing grace
Monkeys are the acrobats of the animal world. They are fast aud graceful, and make bounding through the trees look as easy as walking down the street.
King of the swingers
The agile gibbon swings along beneath the branches, hanging on with hands like muscular hooks.
Can monkeys fly?
No primate gets around by flying, gliding, hopping, or digging. But a few, like the proboscis monkey can dive into the water and swim away from danger.
... and a tail makes five
Using its strong tail like an extra arm, the spider monkey can hang from a branch and still have two hands for eating.
Chimp in space
One of the first apes in space was Ham the chimpanzee. He spent 16 minutes spinning above the Earth at nearly 5,000 miles per hour - wearing a special pressurized chimp suit, of course.
Knuckle walkers
Gorillas and chimpanzees walk on all fours. They plunk their feet flat on the ground, but curl their fingers over and walk on the knuckles of their hands.
Black spider monkey
Stretched out between jungle branches, this Brazilian monkey looks like a huge, hairy spider.
Brad and Trouble
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