| Photo Information |
| Copyright: HM Yusof (HMfoto) (1) |
| Genre: Animals |
| Medium: Color |
| Date Taken: 2007-07-07 |
| Categories: Mammals, Rain Forest |
| Exposure: f/6.3, 1/125 seconds |
| More Photo Info: [view] |
| Photo Version: Original Version |
| Date Submitted: 2007-07-28 17:08 |
| Viewed: 8757 |
| Points: 0 |
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
PROBOSCIS MONKEY
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Proboscis Monkey, Nasalis larvatus also known as Long-nosed Monkey is a reddish-brown arboreal Old World monkey. It is the only species in monotypic genus Nasalis.
Appearence
The most distinctive trait of this monkey is the male's large protruding nose. The purpose of the large nose is unclear, but it has been suggested that it is a result of sexual selection. The female Proboscis Monkey prefers big-nosed male, thus propagating the trait.
Males are much larger than females, reaching 72 cm (28 inches) in length, with an up to 75 cm tail, and weighing up to 24 kg (53 pounds). Females are up to 60 cm long, weighing up to 12 kg (26 lb).
The Proboscis Monkey also has a large belly, as a result of its diet. Its digestive system is divided into several parts, with distinctive gut flora, which help in digesting leaves. This digestive process releases a lot of gas, resulting in the monkey's "bloated" bellies. A side-effect of this unique digestive system is that it is unable to digest ripe fruit, unlike most other simians. The diet consists mainly of fruits, seeds and leaves.
Ecology
The Proboscis Monkey is distributed and endemic to the coastal mangrove, swamps and riverine forests of Borneo. It lives in small groups of 10 to 32 animals. Group membership is very flexible, and animals are known to move from group to group quite often.
The Proboscis Monkey lifestyle is both arboreal and amphibious, with its mangrove swamp and riverine environment containing forest, dry land, shallow water allowing wading, and deep water requiring swimming. Like other similar monkeys, the Proboscis Monkey climbs well. It is also a proficient swimmer, often swimming from island to island, and has been picked up by fishing boats in open ocean a mile from shore. While wading, the monkey uses an upright posture, with the females carrying infants on their hip. Troops have been filmed continuing to walk upright, in single file, along forest trails when they emerge on land, the only non-human mammal, with the exception of gibbons and giant pangolins, known to use this form of locomotion for any length of time.
While the official Bruneian name for this monkey is 'Bagkatan'
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