Wildheart Animal Sanctuary Black-Faced Spider Monkey and Black-Spider Monkey

Fresco3

Fresco3

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
These guys are what Isle of Wight Zoo say they have, but I cannot actually find a species/sub-species named either of these?

Would it be safe to assume they are black-headed spider monkeys and red-faced spider monkeys/Colombian spider monkeys respectively?

They say they have Indian tigers too so they obviously aren't that detailed in their identification but I'm confused as to what they actually are!

Help would be much appreciated :)

Isle of Wight Zoo: About Our Monkeys
 
I use it alot, they dont even have one of the species listed on the website! And the other is listed as a black-faced spider monkey/ Apparently, neither of these are species of spider monkey (according to a quick google search)

Sorry, I wouldn't be asking this if I wasn't stuck :(

Two other zoos are listed as having them:
One states they are (Ateles fusciceps rufiventris) the other (Ateles Chamek). It's quite confusing as all three use the same common name but their latin names are different.
 
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ah, okay, sorry about that.

The database on Zootierliste isn't always up to date because it depends on information coming from (often) Zoochatters visiting :)

In that case, the Zootierliste page for monkeys (ZootierlisteHomepage) has black spider monkey as an alternative for red-faced spider monkey, and black-headed would be black-faced.

Disclaimer: I have never been to the Isle of Wight Zoo, so this is just from my own reasoning :)
 
Chlidonias said:
ah, okay, sorry about that.

The database on Zootierliste isn't always up to date because it depends on information coming from (often) Zoochatters visiting :)

In that case, the Zootierliste page for monkeys (ZootierlisteHomepage) has black spider monkey as an alternative for red-faced spider monkey, and black-headed would be black-faced.

Disclaimer: I have never been to the Isle of Wight Zoo, so this is just from my own reasoning :)
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Okay, thank you. That's kind of what I was thinking. The different latin names were throwing me off bigtime.
 
but a little further googling:

I hadn't looked at your original zoo link. The "black-faced spider monkey" is noted as coming from Blackpool which would (from looking at other photos on Zoochat) make that the Colombian black spider monkey of Zootierliste?

However, googling the "black spider monkey" family of Tino, Ellie and Millie I found a blog from the zoo (Isle of Wight Zoo Blog: Departing Ducks and a Family Portrait) itself saying "a great family portrait of our Black Spider Monkeys (Ateles fusciceps). From left: Mother Ellie; Daughter Millie and Father Tino." - fusciceps is the Colombian black spider monkey on Zootierliste.

I'm kind of confused myself now!
 
I made a bunch of edits to that last post above...

I'm just confused now! I need someone like Maguari to dig me out.
 
Chlidonias said:
but a little further googling:

I hadn't looked at your original zoo link. The "black-faced spider monkey" is noted as coming from Blackpool which would indeed make that the black-headed spider monkey.

However, googling the "black spider monkey" family of Tino, Ellie and Millie I found a blog from the zoo (Isle of Wight Zoo Blog: Departing Ducks and a Family Portrait) itself saying "a great family portrait of our Black Spider Monkeys (Ateles fusciceps). From left: Mother Ellie; Daughter Millie and Father Tino." - fusciceps is the Colombian black spider monkey on Zootierliste.
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Thank you! That is so helpful. The two other zoos listed had one being a Colombian spider monkey and the other, a Peruvian spider monkey. This is great confirmation! I did go to Blackpool's site to find if they had them listed but I assume he was moved as he was their last one.

Edit: Yep, multiple different zoos are using the same common name for multiple different species and sub-species. It's kind of a mess...
 
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Zootierliste.de currently lists 2.0 Ateles (paniscus) chamek at IoW Zoo.
Distribution area range states: Brasil W, E Peru and N-E Bolivia.

There is an EEP for red-faced spider monkeys Ateles paniscus paniscus. The population had been somewhat stagnant for years, but recently some signs of better reproduction (even my hometown zoo has now - thankfully - managed a birth again this year)
 
yes, so it looks like "black-faced spider monkey" is Ateles chamek (as on Zootierliste) and "black spider monkey" is Ateles fusciceps ("Colombian black spider monkey" on Zootierliste).
 
It is confusing, but as far as I know, the spider monkeys at Sandown Zoo always used to be labelled as Colombian Black spider monkeys, at a time when there were many other Colombian black spider monkeys were commonly found in UK zoos, and I thought the current animals were descendants from those previously kept ? The confusion often arises when people keep changing the names of species, a trend that is more common these days it seems. Obviously when the names are updated, the old name suddenly gets forgotten, hence the confusion. In theory the scientific name should not easily change, and so you could still identify the animals, but that is not always the case these days.
 
Sorry to add to the confusion, but on my visit a couple of weeks ago to Blackpool Zoo, I thought I saw signage for Brown Headed Spider Monkeys, rather than simply Black. I'll upload a photo of one of them, but I didn't make a real mental or photographic note of the sign
 
littleRedPanda said:
Sorry to add to the confusion, but on my visit a couple of weeks ago to Blackpool Zoo, I thought I saw signage for Brown Headed Spider Monkeys, rather than simply Black. I'll upload a photo of one of them, but I didn't make a real mental or photographic note of the sign
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Brown-headed spider monkey is the common name for Ateles fusciceps fusciceps, though is sometimes incorrectly applied to Ateles fusciceps as a whole.
 
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