Some people who work to protect wildlife say they saw a spider monkey give birth in the wild. This is the first known birth of a spider monkey.
Anku was the name of the tiny spider monkey baby born on January 22. He or she was born in the Choco, a lush forest in the northwest of Ecuador. The birth was a bit of a surprise because it was the first reported birth of a spider monkey, and the conditions were not good. Anku hung from his umbilical cord and sat in a tree 50 feet above the ground after he was born.
Several of the experts who were there to record the birth were afraid that the baby would fall from the tree because he was hanging so high up. “Thank goodness it didn’t happen. “In the end, it’s unbelievable,” said Felipe Alfonso-Cortes, one of the people who helped start the Proyecto Washu environmental group.
You almost never get to see a spider monkey give birth because they usually only do it at night. Alfonso said that they have been researching the group for ten years and that this is the first birth they have seen.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species says that brown-headed spider monkeys are in danger of going extinct. What shocked the researchers the most was that the mother, Arawi, hadn’t given birth in eight years. She is thought to be about 25 years old, so they didn’t think she would give birth again.
Experts say that people are the main cause of spider monkeys’ problems and the main reason why they are in danger of going extinct. They stay in the trees to avoid being eaten, but people have cut down trees for farming, which has had huge effects on the species.
