Spider Monkeys - Social Behavior

Spider monkeys are extremely social animals. In fact, if one is kept alone in captivity, it can easily die of loneliness unless its owner gives it a great deal of attention. In the wild, these monkeys tend to congregate in groups of 40–50, although they break up into smaller groups during the course of the day. Each large group has its own territory, and members of the group patrol it daily on specific paths. Spider monkeys rarely enter neighboring territories. Whenever spider monkey territories over-lap, the monkeys somehow readjust them over time.

The smaller group of spider monkeys can be composed of various troupe members, depending on the specifics of the day. Small groups can be composed of a single male with his offspring and mates, a female and her young, or several females and their young, or even several males temporarily associating with each other. When in the forest, the small groups tend to stay within calling distance of each other. When danger is at hand, the large group can be reassembled quickly through a series of bark-like calls by various members of the small groups.

One American zoologist studying the black spider monkey in Panama obviously presented a threat to them; thus, he was attacked several times by the monkeys he studied. He reported that, at these times, the monkeys emitted rough barks and migrated to lower tree limbs. Their barking calls came closer and closer together, until they sounded almost like a unified metallic clanging noise. Some of the stronger males and females then shook the lower tree branches and growled at him. However, the monkeys never approached the zoologist closer than 39 ft (12 m). At this distance, the monkeys broke limbs from the trees with their hands, feet, and tails and dropped them on him.

Spider monkeys have barks that are much worse than their bites. Their seemingly crazy behavior is designed solely to frighten the intruder and is merely a bluff. Thus, when their threats are not heeded, they tend to split into smaller subgroups and move away from the danger in different directions. Moreover, spider monkeys only threaten human beings if they have not encountered them previously. Once they have a negative experience with human beings, they are cautious and try to elude them without notice.

Grooming occurs during certain times of the day when monkeys pick the parasites off of other monkeys in their troupe. While grooming is a highly social behavior, spider monkeys do not commonly do this. Since they do not have thumbs, they are not very skilled at grooming themselves. Thus, they scratch themselves a lot with both their hands and feet. On the infrequent occasions when spider monkeys do groom each other, it usually takes place with mothers grooming their young.