Night monkey
genus of mammals
Night monkeys, also known as owl monkeys or douroucoulis (), are nocturnal New World monkeys of the genus Aotus, the only living member of the family Aotidae (). The genus comprises eleven species which are found across Panama and much of South America in primary and secondary forests, tropical rainforests and cloud forests up to 2,400 metres (7,900 ft). Night monkeys have large eyes which improve their vision at night, while their ears are mostly hidden, giving them their name Aotus, meaning "earless".
Night monkeys are the only truly nocturnal monkeys, although some cathemeral populations of Azara's night monkey have irregular bursts of activity during day and night. They have a varied repertoire of vocalisations and live in small family groups of a mated pair and their immature offspring. Night monkeys have monochromatic vision which improves their ability to detect visual cues at night.
Night monkeys are threatened by habitat loss, the pet trade, hunting for bushmeat, and by biomedical research. They constitute one of the few monkey species affected by the often deadly human malaria protozoan Plasmodium falciparum and are therefore used as experimental subjects in malaria research. The Peruvian night monkey is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as an Endangered species, while four are Vulnerable species, four are Least-concern species, and two are data deficient.
Taxonomy
Until 1983, all night monkeys were placed into only one (A. lemurinus) or two species (A. lemurinus and A. azarae).
“Night monkey” enters the record as genus of mammals. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Night, monkey and genus can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Night monkey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.