Territorial Tinkles

Did you know these monkeys have come up with innovative ways to use their urine? Squirrel monkeys will urinate on their hands and rub urine on themselves and specific places within their habitats for a range of reasons.

In the summer, rubbing urine on their bodies helps them to thermoregulate and cool down. They also rub it on their hands and feet to get a better grip when climbing in the trees, and to spread their scent as they move around the forest. The scent helps them keep track of each other – like a natural GPS system! Similarly, by rubbing urine on the trees where they live, they can signal to other squirrel monkeys that this is their area.

Squirrel monkeys are highly territorial, so this puts other groups on notice that this area is occupied.

Flexible living

While these primates may be territorial, but they are also very adaptable to living in different habitats. Due to predation risk from animals such as hawks, they normally avoid living in the upper canopy level of the forest and are mostly found in the mid-canopy or foraging in the shrub layer or forest floor.

Squirrel monkeys are able to live in a forest that has been changed by events like human intervention or extreme weather. This flexibility to settle in new areas is a key reason that wild populations continue to survive despite deforestation and habitat loss. Squirrel monkeys require a varied diet and deforestation can threaten other species in the ecosystem, such as invertebrates and plants that they rely on for survival.

At the Zoo

In their leafy habitat, the squirrel monkeys are able to climb, explore, and play. This habitat has been designed to provide plenty of shelter and cover from the weather, and opportunities to forage as they would in the wild.

The branches in this habitat are purposefully left to grow long to allow the monkeys to learn how to balance on unstable foliage, with the help of their long tails. The plants in the squirrel monkey habitat, such as acmena, palms and lemonwood, also have lots of small holes that insects can hide inside, which the monkeys will find and eat.

As well as fruits and insects, squirrel monkeys like to eat flowers too. Favourites include hibiscus, plumbago, and pōhutukawa, which are sourced by our horticulture team, browse team, and volunteers. The habitat is planted with monkey apple trees that the monkeys will snack on when the trees are in flower.

Enrichment activities provide physical and mental stimulation for the squirrel monkeys. The keepers conceal food in different parts of the habitat or provide innovative treats such as tubes filled with mealworms, vegetable ice blocks, or frozen pinecones packed with mashed vegetables!

In the Wild

Origin: Bolivia, Brazil, Peru

Habitat: Forest

Conservation status: IUCN – Least Concern

Though squirrel monkeys are currently classified as Least Concern, their population is declining. While their adaptability helps them to endure the threats of deforestation, the loss of their natural habitat in the wild does affect the wider ecosystem that the squirrel monkey exists in, including the smaller insects, plants, and animals that they feed on. The squirrel monkey is also threatened by humans who capture them for the illegal pet trade and medical research.

How we’re helping

Visiting the Zoo or by booking one of our squirrel monkey experiences, helps to raise money for the Conservation Fund. This helps to support a variety of conservation projects in the wild, both locally and overseas, including our support for the brown spider monkey (Critically Endangered and included in the list of the 25 most threatened primate on the planet).

Our conservation partners, the Spider Monkey Conservation Project, are working hard to save the remaining animals in fragmented forest on the Venezuelan/Columbian border through essential research into their numbers and population trends and by employing locals to protect and re-plant the forest.

How you can help

You can help at home to protect habitat loss by purchasing paper, wood, and cardboard products with a ‘PEFC’ (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) or ‘FSC’ (Forest Stewardship Council) logo. These wood certification schemes are considered ‘rainforest friendly’ and promote sustainably managed forests in timber supply chains.

When travelling overseas never pay to have your photograph taken with primates, you can learn more in the IUCN responsible primate guidelines.