A common question asked by kids in the study area is how monkeys sleep? So, in today’s post we are going to talk about sleeping in monkeys. Most species of monkeys don’t build nest as chimpanzees, gorillas or orangutans do. But some of them like all species of nocturnal monkeys (including the Brumback’s night monkeys from the study area) used hollow trees and palms, as well as dense liana and vine areas on tall trees to sleep overnight.
All the other monkeys sleep on big wide branches of tall trees, Guadua forest (Guadua angustifolia patches), dense liana and vine areas on tall tree, palms. More terrestrial monkeys such as macaques can also use cliffs and rocky areas to sleep overnight.
In the study area black- capped capuchins and Colombian squirrel monkeys love to sleep on palms where several individuals sit together on the leaves base to sleep. Red howler monkeys use wide branches from big trees to sleep with females, juveniles and infants sleep together and the males sleep alone in nearby branches. Dusky titi monkeys sleep in dense liana and vine areas on tall trees with their tails intertwined.
Babies usually sleep on their mothers chest when there are small and when they are bigger the sit next to them for sleeping. Males usually sleep a bit separated from the other members of the group in nearby branches. Depending on the group size, monkeys can sleep all in the same tree or in very large groups they can use several big trees or palms to sleep.
Most diurnal species don’t make any noise or movement overnight. However, black-capped capuchins and squirrel monkeys can move inside the sleeping trees or palms and even sometimes move to nearby trees, especially in full moon nights. Sometimes you can hear vocalizations of these two species during the night.
Most species of monkeys sleep around 12 hours, from dusk to dawn, but in cold days some species can sleep a bit longer in the morning. For example, on cool mornings can stay on their sleeping sites until 8 or 9 o’clock in the morning before moving to eat. Also, some monkeys go to sleep earlier than others. For example, dusky titi monkeys and red howler monkeys usually enter their sleeping trees around 4 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon, while black capped monkeys and squirrel monkeys won’t go to sleep until 6 o’clock or a bit later depending on the sunset time.
Additionally, during the day all monkeys in the study area have nap times around noon when the sun is high and is hotter. For those nap times monkeys usually choose big trees with wide branches where they can lay down in groups or alone.
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