Trivia question for Oct-08-2011

Olivia liked these monkey’s and was surprised to learn how few were left. These guys spend much of the day feeding on abundant, but nutritionally poor, mangrove vegetation.

As a seasonal folivore and frugivore, these monkey’s eats primarily fruit and leaves. It also eats flowers seeds and insects to a lesser extent. At least 55 different plant species have been recorded used as food sources. Young leaves are preferred over mature leaves and unripe fruits are preferred over ripe fruit.

So here are Olivia’s questions:  Tell us what this monkey is called and tell us what is unique about these monkey’s over all other species (hint, it has to do with water).  Also, tell us one quick way you can tell the difference from a male and a female by looking at their face?

Good luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations goes out to Tami Kannenberg from Washington for being the first one to correctly answer our trivia. The odd looking monkey we featured is the Proboscis Monkey. The proboscis monkey or long-nosed monkey, known as the bekantan in Malay, is a reddish-brown arboreal Old World monkey that is endemic to the south-east Asian island of Borneo. The monkey also goes by the Malay name monyet belanda (“Dutch monkey”), or even orang belanda (“Dutchman”), as Indonesians remarked that the Dutch colonisers often had a similarly large belly and nose.

The Proboscis Monkey is by far the most powerful and athletic swimmer of all primate species. The adult male’s extravagantly long tongue-shaped nose attracts females during the breeding season.  Further adding to the dimorphism is the large nose or proboscis of the male, which can exceed 3.9 inches in length, dwarfing that of the female, and hangs lower than the mouth. Nevertheless, the nose of the female is still fairly large for a primate.  Here is more on these primates: Proboscis Monkey

Thanks for playing along 😉