The Brevard Zoo in Florida announced the birth of a Black-Handed Spider Monkey, but this newborn has a very unique marking!
The mark on its face looks just like the “bat-signal” used to summon Batman! The silhouette of a bat extending its wings that was used throughout the DC Comics series as the distress signal. When Batman saw it, he knew there was trouble and he was needed sort out the bad guys in Gotham City.
The zookeepers aren’t sure yet if it’s a boy or girl, but this cute little baby is doing well and mom Shelley is doing great too. The father is Scooter and has several other children. They only give birth to one offspring at a time and have a gestation time of around 7.5 months.
Babies usually weight around 15 ounces or less than half a kilogram. That is about one fifth as heavy as a Chihuahua and lighter than a typical loaf of bread!
They can travel through trees as fast as a man can run on the ground and mothers will carry their baby close to her chest until it is old enough to travel on her back.
Black-handed spider monkeys are also known as Geoffrey’s spider monkey or the Central American spider monkey, are found throughout South America and are classified as “vulnerable to extinction” because of the destruction of tropical rainforests and hunting. Their population has declined due to destruction of their habitat.
The black-handed spider monkey is very important in the tropical rainforest ecosystem where it lives. They play an important role in seed dispersal which means the forest can continue to grow.
