100 Fun Facts About Monkeys

Which group of monkeys lives mainly in Central and South America and often has prehensile tails?

New World Monkeys live in the Americas, and many species, like spider and howler monkeys, have prehensile tails that can grasp objects and support their weight. Old World Monkeys of Africa and Asia do not.

Which very loud primates have an enlarged hyoid bone that acts as a resonating chamber?

Male howlers face a trade-off: bigger hyoids come with smaller testes, so the loudest males invest in shouting rather than sperm.

What is the heaviest monkey species, known for red and blue facial ridges?

The Mandrill is the heaviest monkey: adult males typically weigh 25–35 kg, two to three times a female's weight, and their blue-ridged, red-striped muzzles are unmistakable.

Which continent is NOT home to any native monkey species?

Monkeys split into New World (Central and South America) and Old World (Africa and Asia) groups, and neither reached Australia.

Which of these Old World monkeys is endemic to the island of Borneo?

The Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus) is found only on Borneo; its most distinguishing feature is the large, pendulous nose of the adult males.

Which New World monkeys, the only neotropical primates that frequently use tools in the wild, crack open nuts with stones?

Capuchin monkeys position a nut on a flat anvil stone and strike it with a heavier hammer stone, choosing hammers of specific weights for different foods.

Old World Monkeys typically have nostrils that face in which direction?

A key anatomical difference between Old World and New World monkeys lies in their noses. Old World monkeys (Catarrhini) have narrow noses with downward-facing nostrils, while New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) have broad, flat noses with widely spaced, sideways-facing nostrils.

Which dietary label fits most monkey species?

Omnivores they are: menus vary by species but can run from fruit, leaves, seeds and flowers to eggs, insects, spiders and other small animals.

The rhesus macaque has the widest range of any non-human primate, across which region?

The rhesus macaque's range runs from Afghanistan through India to northern Thailand, across South, Central and Southeast Asia.

Which monkey group generally has more opposable, human-like thumbs?

Most New World monkeys lack a truly opposable thumb (some cebids excepted), so the Old World group gets the better grip.

Which Old World primates have only stubs for thumbs, an adaptation for swinging through trees?

Colobus comes from the Greek for 'docked' or 'mutilated', a reference to the missing thumb.

What is the common collective noun for a group of monkeys?

A Troop is the usual collective noun for monkeys; mandrill 'hordes' in Gabon's Lopé National Park have been counted at over 800 animals, among the largest primate groups known.

Which monkey species is considered the smallest in the world?

The Pygmy Marmoset of the western Amazon is the smallest monkey: adults weigh only about 100 grams, yet can leap several metres between branches.

What do macaques and baboons use their internal cheek pouches for?

Old World monkeys like macaques, baboons, and mandrills have cheek pouches that allow them to quickly gather and store food while foraging, to be eaten later in a safer location.

Which word best describes the lifestyle of most New World monkeys?

New World monkeys are generally more arboreal, meaning they spend most of their time in trees, using their agility and often prehensile tails to navigate the canopy.

Which monkey species is famous for soaking in hot springs in winter, a habit begun in the 1960s?

Japanese macaques at Jigokudani in Nagano took up bathing in the early 1960s, after a young female entered a ryokan's outdoor hot spring; the park later built the monkeys their own pool.

The gelada, a monkey with a bare red 'bleeding heart' chest patch, lives only in which country's highlands?

Geladas live only in the Ethiopian Highlands at up to 4,400 m, and they are the last surviving species of a genus once spread across Africa and into Spain and India.

Which monkey species is known for its strong affinity for water and is considered a good swimmer?

Rhesus macaques swim readily: in the 1930s a Florida tour operator released some on an island in the Silver River, expecting them to stay put, and they simply swam ashore.

Digs in Brazil show capuchin monkeys have used stone tools to crack nuts for roughly how long?

Hammer stones excavated at Serra da Capivara National Park, Brazil, date capuchin nut-cracking back about 3,000 years, roughly 450 monkey generations; tool sizes changed over time as their target foods changed.

Which species is generally considered the longest monkey, counting body and tail?

While another species is the heaviest, the chacma baboon is often considered the longest monkey species when body and tail lengths are combined, with adult males reaching up to 45 inches in body length and a tail up to 33 inches.

The golden snub-nosed monkey of China mainly eats which unusual food?

Lichens are the golden snub-nosed monkey's staple, often making up the bulk of its diet in the snowy mountain forests of central China, supplemented by leaves, buds and seeds.

The emperor tamarin's flowing mustache allegedly earned it a name honoring which ruler?

Wilhelm II, the mustachioed German Kaiser, is the ruler the emperor tamarin was jokingly named after around 1907; the joke stuck in its scientific name, imperator.

The golden lion tamarin's entire wild range lies within which Brazilian state?

Rio de Janeiro state holds the golden lion tamarin's entire wild range, in Atlantic Forest fragments around the São João River basin; a 2023 census counted about 4,800 wild animals.

Golden lion tamarin fur is bright orange yet unusually lacks which pigments?

Carotenoids produce most bright oranges in nature, so the source of the tamarin's color is a puzzle; its dark face is completely hairless.

The critically endangered cotton-top tamarin is found in the wild only in which country?

Colombia is the cotton-top tamarin's only home, in forest fragments of the country's northwest; tens of thousands were exported for biomedical research before CITES protection in 1976, and only a few thousand remain wild.

Spider monkeys, which hang by their tails with arms longer than their legs, lack what?

Thumbs are absent or reduced to a nub in spider monkeys, leaving a hook-like hand for swinging; dangling by the prehensile tail with limbs loose gives them their spidery look.

Space pioneer Miss Baker was bought with 25 other squirrel monkeys at a pet shop in which city?

Miami: Miss Baker was one of 26 squirrel monkeys bought from a Miami pet shop and trained by the Navy at Pensacola before her May 1959 Jupiter flight with the rhesus Able.

Able, the rhesus who flew with Miss Baker in 1959, died four days later during what?

The cause was a rare cardiac fibrillation under anesthesia; Able is now stuffed and displayed at the National Air and Space Museum.

Albert II, the first monkey in space in 1949, rode which type of rocket?

Albert II rode a captured German V-2 launched from White Sands on 14 June 1949, reaching about 83 miles, but died on impact when the capsule's parachute failed.

Barbary macaques, unusually for monkeys, essentially lack what?

A tail: Barbary macaques have only a vestigial stub, which is why they were long miscalled 'Barbary apes'; they are the sole macaque species living outside Asia.

In 1942, which UK prime minister ordered Gibraltar's dwindling macaque population replenished?

Winston Churchill, told in 1942 that only seven monkeys were left, ordered the Gibraltar colony restocked from Morocco and Algeria; legend holds British rule ends when the macaques vanish.

The Rh blood factor is named after the rhesus macaque; who co-discovered it with Alexander Wiener?

Karl Landsteiner, already famous for the ABO groups, and Alexander Wiener reported the factor in 1940 after immunizing rabbits with rhesus red cells; the human antigen later proved distinct, but the name stuck.

In Harry Harlow's 1950s experiments, which surrogate mother did infant rhesus monkeys prefer?

The cloth-covered one: Harlow's infant rhesus monkeys spent most of the day clinging to the soft terry-cloth mother, visiting the wire mother only to feed from its bottle.

Vervet monkeys give distinct alarm calls for leopards, eagles and which other predator?

Snakes: Cheney and Seyfarth's playback experiments showed vervets give different calls for leopards, eagles and pythons, and listeners respond by climbing, scanning the sky or peering at the ground.

Capuchin monkeys take their name from an order of what?

Friars: Portuguese explorers thought the monkeys' dark cap and brown body resembled the hooded, brown-robed Capuchin friars, a Franciscan order founded in 1528.

Night monkeys' genus name Aotus means what?

Earless: Aotus comes from the Greek for 'without ears', because the night monkey's small ears are hidden in fur; they are the only truly nocturnal monkeys and see in monochrome.

Night monkeys are used in research on which disease, being among the few monkeys it infects?

Malaria: night monkeys can be infected with the human parasites Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, making Aotus a standard model for testing malaria vaccines and drugs.

Female uakaris choose mates based on the redness of which body part?

Face: the bald uakari's scarlet face comes from thin, unpigmented skin over dense blood vessels; a paler face signals sickness, so females favour the reddest males.

Unlike other New World monkeys, both sexes of howler monkey have what kind of color vision?

Trichromatic: howlers evolved routine three-colour vision independently, through a duplicated opsin gene on the X chromosome, so every male and female can tell ripe red fruit from green leaves.

The endangered drill lives in Nigeria, Cameroon and on which island of Equatorial Guinea?

Bioko, Equatorial Guinea's volcanic island, holds the drill's only island population; on the mainland the species is confined to forests between Nigeria's Cross River and Cameroon's Sanaga River.

Grass makes up to what share of the gelada's diet?

90%: grass can make up nine-tenths of a gelada's diet, making it the only living primate that is mainly a grass-eater, with high-crowned molars and nimble fingers for plucking blades.

In ancient Egypt, the hamadryas baboon was sacred to which god?

Thoth himself was sometimes shown as a baboon carrying the moon, and baboon-headed Hapi guarded the lungs in canopic jars.

The patas monkey, the fastest runner among primates, reaches roughly what speed?

55 km/h: the patas monkey is the fastest primate, sprinting at about 55 km/h (34 mph) on long, greyhound-like legs across the savannas of sub-Saharan Africa.

De Brazza's monkey's species name neglectus refers to its talent for what?

Hiding: neglectus means 'overlooked', a nod to how this cryptic swamp-forest guenon, the largest of its group, freezes and stays unseen; its orange diadem and white beard are distinctive when it is spotted.

The Diana monkey is named for a white brow said to resemble what item of the Roman goddess?

Her bow: the white crescent across the Diana monkey's brow was likened to the bow of Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt; this West African guenon also wears a white throat, ruff and beard.

The kipunji, the first new African monkey species since 1984, was found in which country?

Tanzania: the kipunji was described in 2005 from Mount Rungwe and the Udzungwa Mountains, and in 2006 got its own genus, Rungwecebus, the first new African monkey genus since 1923.

The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey allegedly does what whenever it rains?

Sneezes: locals told the scientists who described Rhinopithecus strykeri in 2010 that rain runs into its upturned nostrils and makes it sneeze, so it sits with its head between its knees in wet weather.

The lion-tailed macaque is endemic to which Indian mountain range?

Western Ghats: the lion-tailed macaque is endemic to rainforest patches of the Western Ghats in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu; despite its silver mane it is named for the lion-like tuft on its tail.

The crested black macaque behind the famous 'monkey selfie' is native to which Indonesian island?

Sulawesi: the Celebes crested macaque (Macaca nigra) lives in the island's northeast, around Tangkoko reserve, where photographer David Slater's camera was used for the 2011 'monkey selfie'.

PETA sued photographer David Slater in 2015 on behalf of a selfie-taking macaque it named what?

Naruto: PETA's 2015 suit claimed the crested macaque Naruto owned the copyright to the selfie; in 2018 the Ninth Circuit ruled animals cannot sue under the Copyright Act.

Which is the only Old World monkey known to use stone tools in its daily foraging?

The crab-eating (long-tailed) macaque: populations on Thailand's Andaman coast hammer open oysters and crabs with stones, the only Old World monkey habitually using stone tools; Bali's temple troops also barter stolen goods for food.

Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, the first monkeys cloned Dolly-style, were born in 2017 in which city?

Shanghai: Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua were born in late 2017 at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai, cloned from fetal fibroblasts by somatic cell nuclear transfer, the method that made Dolly.

A Japanese macaque named Imo famously began washing what in water before eating it?

Sweet potatoes: on Koshima island in 1953 the young female Imo began rinsing sand off sweet potatoes in a stream, then the sea; her troop copied her, and a garbled retelling spawned the 'hundredth monkey' myth.

Disneynature's 2015 film Monkey Kingdom follows toque macaques in the ruins of which country?

Sri Lanka: the troop lives among the ruins of Polonnaruwa, the island's medieval capital, and the story follows Maya, a low-ranking female, and her son Kip.

Who narrated Disneynature's Monkey Kingdom?

Tina Fey narrated Monkey Kingdom (2015), directed by Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill; it was the eighth film released under the Disneynature label.

Which species is the largest of all macaques?

Tibetan macaque: males of this thick-furred species from central China weigh roughly 14–20 kg, outweighing all other macaques; among Asian monkeys only proboscis monkeys and the biggest gray langurs are larger.

The dusky leaf monkey of Malaysia and Thailand is also known by what name?

Spectacled langur: white rings around the dusky leaf monkey's eyes look like glasses, earning the name; this leaf-eating colobine ranges from southern Myanmar and Thailand down the Malay Peninsula.

Zanzibar red colobus monkeys eat what unusual substance to help digest toxic young leaves?

Charcoal: Zanzibar red colobus eat charcoal from burnt stumps and kilns, which binds the phenolic toxins in Indian almond and mango leaves; youngsters apparently learn the habit from their mothers.

The muriquis, the largest primates of the Americas, go by what other name?

Woolly spider monkeys is the older name for the muriquis, the heaviest New World primates at up to about 15 kg; both species cling to Atlantic Forest remnants in southeastern Brazil, the northern one critically endangered.

Monkey Day, dreamed up by two Michigan State art students in 2000, falls on which date?

December 14: Casey Sorrow scribbled 'Monkey Day' on a friend's calendar as a joke in 2000, and with fellow Michigan State art student Eric Millikin turned it into an annual celebration of all things simian.

In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong the Monkey King was born from what?

A stone: Sun Wukong hatched from a magic stone egg on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, and his cloud-somersault later carries him 108,000 li in a single leap.

Monkey, the classic 1942 English abridgement of Journey to the West, was translated by whom?

Arthur Waley's Monkey (1942) cut the hundred-chapter novel to thirty chapters; it won that year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and Edith Sitwell called it 'a masterpiece of right sound'.

The cult 1978–80 TV series Monkey, known to English fans as 'Monkey Magic', came from where?

Japan: Nippon Television's Saiyūki, dubbed into English for the BBC, was shot in Northwest China and Inner Mongolia; its Godiego theme calls Monkey 'the punkiest monkey that ever popped'.

Hanuman, the divine monkey of the Ramayana, is traditionally the son of which god?

Vayu, the wind god, is Hanuman's divine father, which is why he is called Pavanputra and Maruti; as a chiranjivi he is held to be immortal, and Shaiva tradition regards him as Shiva's incarnation.

Curious George first appeared in a 1939 French book under what name?

Fifi: the monkey debuted as Fifi in the Reys' 1939 French book Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys; in June 1940 the couple fled Paris by bicycle carrying the Curious George manuscript.

The Monkees' TV sitcom aired from 1966 to 1968 on which US network?

NBC aired The Monkees on Monday nights from September 1966 to March 1968; producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider created the band for the show, and early records leaned on the Wrecking Crew.

The famous three wise monkeys carving decorates a stable at a shrine in which Japanese town?

Nikkō: the carving is on the sacred stable at Nikkō Tōshō-gū, where eight panels attributed to Hidari Jingorō depict the monkey life cycle; the famous trio is on the second panel.

Of the three wise monkeys, which one covers his mouth?

Iwazaru, 'speak no evil', covers his mouth; Mizaru covers his eyes and Kikazaru his ears, the -zaru ending punning on saru, 'monkey'.

The monkey puzzle tree, Araucaria araucana, is the national tree of which country?

Chile's national tree is the monkey puzzle, native to the Andean slopes of Chile and Argentina and protected as a natural monument; its tough triangular leaves persist on the branches for a decade or more.

Who is the wannabe pirate hero of The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)?

Guybrush Threepwood, who wants to be a mighty pirate, got his name from a Deluxe Paint file called guy.brush; Ron Gilbert drew the game's mood from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Cayo Santiago, home to a free-ranging rhesus colony studied since 1938, lies off which island?

Puerto Rico: Cayo Santiago, a 38-acre islet off Punta Santiago on the east coast, has held a free-ranging rhesus colony since 1938 and is nicknamed Monkey Island.

The 1981 Silver Spring monkeys case began with a PETA activist undercover at a lab in which state?

Maryland: Alex Pacheco volunteered at Edward Taub's Institute for Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, and his evidence triggered the first US police raid on an animal researcher; the macaques later informed neuroplasticity research.

Which Thai city holds an annual Monkey Buffet Festival for its macaques?

Lopburi, north of Bangkok, lays out fruit for its crab-eating macaques every November around the Khmer-era temple Phra Prang Sam Yot; the festival began in 1989 to draw tourists.

Which French mathematician framed the typing-monkeys idea in 1913, an early infinite monkey theorem?

Borel argued a million typing monkeys beating the world's libraries was still likelier than statistical mechanics failing.

The 1925 Scopes 'Monkey Trial' over teaching evolution took place in Dayton, in which state?

Tennessee: the trial in Dayton tested the state's Butler Act; town boosters staged it for publicity, and Scopes's $100 fine was later overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court on a technicality.

Which famed lawyer led the defense of teacher John Scopes in 1925?

Clarence Darrow led the Scopes defense for the ACLU, which had offered to defend anyone charged under Tennessee's Butler Act; opposing him was three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.

Monkeypox was first identified in 1958 among laboratory monkeys in which city?

Copenhagen: the virus was first found in 1958 in cynomolgus macaques kept for research at Denmark's Statens Serum Institut; it shares the Orthopoxvirus genus with smallpox, so smallpox vaccines protect.

In November 2022 the WHO announced monkeypox would be renamed what?

Mpox: the WHO adopted the new name on 28 November 2022 after researchers, particularly in Africa, urged a change to reduce stigma, with both names used for a year during the transition.

Which was the first New World monkey to have its genome sequenced, in 2014?

Common marmoset: its genome, published in 2014, was the first for any New World monkey; native to northeastern Brazil, it has become invasive around Rio de Janeiro, hybridizing with the buffy-tufted marmoset.

The critically endangered pied tamarin is the official mascot of which Brazilian city?

Manaus adopted the pied tamarin as its mascot in 2005, yet the city is also the species' biggest threat: its tiny range lies around Manaus and is being eaten by urban growth.

Jack the baboon, who worked railway signals in 1880s South Africa, received a weekly ration of what?

Beer: after passing an inspection Jack was put on the railway payroll at twenty cents a day plus half a bottle of beer each week, assisting double-amputee signalman James Wide at Uitenhage; he reportedly never erred.

The 1995 film 12 Monkeys was based on which 1962 French short film?

La Jetée, Chris Marker's 1962 short told almost entirely in still photographs, inspired 12 Monkeys; Brad Pitt earned an Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe for the film.

Who directed the 1995 sci-fi film 12 Monkeys?

Terry Gilliam directed 12 Monkeys, which grossed over $168 million on a $29 million budget and stars Bruce Willis as a convict sent back in time to trace a plague.

Arctic Monkeys formed in 2002 in which English city?

Sheffield's Arctic Monkeys won the 2007 Brit for Best British Album with that record-setting debut.

Crystal, the capuchin actress, played the monkey Dexter in which film franchise?

Night at the Museum: Crystal, a capuchin born in 1994, played the key-stealing Dexter in all three films; she also dealt drugs in The Hangover Part II and was pet monkey Bennie in The Fabelmans.

The Tonkin snub-nosed monkey, rarest of the five snub-nosed species, is endemic to which country?

Vietnam: the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey survives only in a few forest patches of northern Vietnam; described in 1912 and rediscovered in 1989, it numbered fewer than 250 individuals by 2008.

Pygmy marmosets gouge holes in bark to feed mainly on what?

Tree gum: pygmy marmosets use specialised lower incisors to gouge bark and lap the gum and sap that seeps out, which makes up most of their diet; females typically bear twins twice a year.

The first jungle gym, ancestor of 'monkey bars', was patented in 1920 by a lawyer in which city?

Chicago lawyer Sebastian Hinton patented the 'junglegym' in 1920, writing that it satisfied children's 'monkey instinct'; an early prototype was preserved at Crow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois.

'Shock the Monkey' (1982) was the first US Top 40 hit for which English musician?

Peter Gabriel's 'Shock the Monkey' reached No. 29 in the US in 1982, his first Top 40 hit there; he has described it as a love song about jealousy rather than a comment on animal experiments.

In Classic Maya religion, the howler monkey gods were patrons of which group?

Scribes and sculptors: the Howler Monkey Gods appear on Classic Maya vases writing in codices and carving heads, and rattle-shaking simian statues flank the Reviewing Stand at Copán.

Which Kathmandu stupa is nicknamed the 'Monkey Temple' for its resident troops?

Swayambhunath, the 'self-arisen' stupa on a hill west of Kathmandu, has been part of the Kathmandu Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 and is revered by Buddhists and Hindus alike.

Catarrhini, the group uniting Old World monkeys and apes, was named in 1812 by which naturalist?

Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire coined Catarrhini ('down-nosed') and Platyrrhini ('broad-nosed') in 1812; the broad-nosed New World monkeys probably reached South America from Africa by rafting across the Atlantic.

Brought on 18th-century slave ships, the African mona monkey lives on which Caribbean island?

Grenada: mona monkeys arrived on slave ships from West Africa and roam Grand Etang's forests; the species is native to forests from Ghana to Cameroon and carries food in cheek pouches.

The Beastie Boys' 'Brass Monkey' is named after what?

The Heublein cocktail gets name-checked throughout the Licensed to Ill track, which rides a Roland TR-808.

The yellow baboon's species name cynocephalus means what in Greek?

Dog-head: cynocephalus joins the Greek kyon (dog) and kephalē (head), a nod to the baboon's long muzzle; the yellow baboon ranges from Kenya and Tanzania south to Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Which is the smallest of all baboons, found in the miombo woodlands of Zambia and Angola?

Kinda baboon: adult males of this miombo-woodland species are only about the size of other baboons' females, and its infants are born with white rather than black natal coats.

The critically endangered brown spider monkey is unusual for sometimes having eyes of what color?

Pale blue: some brown spider monkeys have striking pale blue eyes, unusual among primates; found in northern Colombia and Venezuela, the species uses its long prehensile tail as a fifth limb.

Sock monkeys are made from red-heeled socks first knitted in 1932 in which Illinois city?

Rockford: the Nelson Knitting Company of Rockford, Illinois added its red 'De-Tec-Tip' heel in 1932, and Depression-era crafters turned worn socks into monkeys with the red heel as the mouth.

Who provided the vocal effects for Abu, Aladdin's pet monkey, in the 1992 Disney film?

Frank Welker, Disney's go-to animal voice, supplied Abu's chatter; story artist Joe Grant created the character, and supervising animator Duncan Marjoribanks studied monkeys at the San Francisco Zoo.

On Friends, Ross's capuchin Marcel was actually played by a female monkey named what?

Katie, a female capuchin, played Marcel; Ross gave him to the San Diego Zoo in season one, and he returned in a season-two episode as a beer-commercial star.