On average, the lifetime of a captive spider monkey spans from 20 to 40 years. However, one of the animals at the Boise Zoo just celebrated his 60th birthday, proving this incorrect. Based on his age alone, he is widely believed to be the oldest spider monkey alive today on Earth.
This spider monkey with blue eyes has been given the name Elvis. The zoo became his permanent residence when he moved there around 1973. However, the Denver Zoo had received him as a donation from an individual in the past.
Meet Elvis, the blue-eyed spider monkey.
Jeff Agosta works for Friends of Zoo Boise as the person in charge of marketing and public relations. In an interview with the Idaho Statesman, he said Elvis is an oddity and still very active.
The employees at the zoo are not quite sure when Elvis was born. However, on July 2 of each year, they have a celebration for it.
A black coat covers Elvis’s whole body. Additionally, he has a tiny white patch on his forehead.
He is able to swing between the trees because of his long limbs. Besides that, he has the habit of grabbing fruit off trees as he moves along.
Elvis is said to be the oldest spider monkey still living.
Agosta says that Elvis may be grumpy with some of the staff, even though he is very active. The company of female handlers, whom he passionately protects, is something he also enjoys very much.
Agosta claims that none of the male employees at the zoo are favorites of Elvis. This is particularly true with regard to Agosta as well.
The monkey’s training takes place behind a fence. Moreover, this is done in an attempt to prevent giving the animal extra stress.
Spider monkeys may be found in Mexico, Panama, and Ecuador. In most cases, you may find them in the uppermost parts of the canopy.
Moving from branch to branch is made easier by their flexible shoulder joints. However, they lack an opposing thumb.
They have a hand that resembles a hook as a result, which makes it simpler for them to swing through the trees quickly. To grasp objects, they use their prehensile tail, which functions as a fifth limb.
These spider monkeys have a friction pad on the underside of their tails. It enables them to be as flexible as possible and creates unique fingerprints that are similar to those of humans.
Elvis celebrated his 60th birthday at the Boise Zoo recently.
Even though there may be species-specific colorings, all newborns have pink-hued cheeks and ears at birth.
For the most part, spider monkeys only eat fruit as a food source. A Research that was conducted earlier this year discovered that the fruit often contained an alcohol percentage that ranged between one and two percent by volume. It is produced as a by-product of fermentation that occurs naturally.
Robert Dudley is a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley. For the last 25 years, he has been researching people’s love of alcohol. After years of research, he published a book in 2014 claiming that we descended from apes and monkeys who found that the smell of alcoholic beverages led them to ready-to-eat fruit.
The ‘drunken monkey’ hypothesis was supported by his new research which was published in March. It also helped us better grasp how the human brain originally developed a taste for alcohol.
The researchers also obtained urine samples from the monkeys that were allowed to roam freely. After further testing, it was discovered that the urine samples contained alcohol’s secondary metabolites.
Based on this outcome, it may be concluded that the animals were, in fact, drawing their energy from the alcohol. It wasn’t merely flowing through their bodies.
