The Kings of Swing

Bubba and I had our keeper talk showmanship down to an art.  In front of the visitors, I would present Bubba with a half a banana, held a few feet back from the fence of his enclosure.  Bubba, the dominant male of our troop of black spider monkeys, would hurry over and climb the fence until he was eye-level with me. 

He would reach out one long arm (the hand having four fingers and no thumb, as is typical of spider monkeys) and find that the treat was just out of reach.  Looking back, I find it fascinating that he always reached with his hand first, though the fruit was never within arm reach.  Then, to the delight of his audience, he would pivot and point his butt at me.  His long tail would shoot out and effortlessly grab the banana.  Seconds later, he would be munching away happily at it while the crowd oohed and aahed,

Watch almost any of the five-thousand Hollywood versions of Tarzan, or almost any jungle film, really, and you'll be sure to see monkeys hanging from their tails from the tree tops.  Most of these jungle movies are set in Africa.  In truth, however, only a relatively small number of monkey species can swing from their tails, and all of them are from the Americas.  Their ranks include the spider monkeys, howler monkeys, and to a lesser extent, the capuchins.  The tail is a nifty trick.  It serves as a fifth leg when climbing.  It can hold the animal's weight while it hangs from a branch, helping it reach food items.  It can be used to pick up objects.  Monkeys can even use it to demonstrate affection, holding tails like we might hold hands.

Such a hand-like limb is referred to as a prehensile tail.  Monkeys aren't the only animals to have it - opossums, chameleons, tamanduas (tree anteaters), binturongs, and an assortment of other species do as well.  Some animals have other prehensile body parts as well, as in, they can be used like we might use a hand.  A giraffe's tongue could be said to be prehensile, and really, an elephant's trunk is just a prehensile nose/upper lip.



Of course, just because a monkey doesn't have a prehensile tail doesn't mean that it can't get around in the trees - heck, apes don't have tails at all and they move around just fine.  Sifakas and some other lemurs move about my leaping from trunk to trunk.  Smaller primates such as tamarins and marmosets tend to run through the branches, scurrying like squirrels.  Gibbons and orangutans move by brachiation, swinging with their long arms like kids on the... well, on the monkey bars.  In orangutans it tends to be somewhat slow and ponderous.  With gibbons, it's like watching a blur.



Even the most terrestrial of primates tend to be excellent climbers, and there are few things more incredible than watching an arboreal primate in its element, either in the zoo or in the wild, as it swings through the branches.  I've mentioned more than once about how we tend to gravitate towards monkeys and apes because they seem so human-like.  Whenever I watch a group of kids climb all over our zoo's playground, jumping and swinging with reckless abandon, I find myself remarking that the opposite could also be said - it's remarkable of just how monkey-like we can be.