By Connor Fleck
The word primate is used to classify many interesting animals including humans. When people talk about primates many people just think of gorillas and monkeys, but there is so much more that people don’t know. In this article, I’d like to shed some light on a few less popular primates. So take a break from essay writing or working on that math project, and enjoy the animal world for a few minutes.
The first and possibly my favorite are tamarins. There are many different kinds of tamarins, but the two most fascinating ones are golden lion tamarins and emperor tamarins.
Golden lion tamarins are primates no larger than 25 inches in length from tail to head and weighing about 20 ounces. They have relatively long orange fur which is what gives them their name. These tamarins involve themselves with only one mate at a time and they usually give birth to twins.
Emperor tamarins, on the other hand, have shorter black fur with long white whiskers reminiscent of a mustache, which again gives them their name. These tamarins max out their length at around 27 inches and with an average weight of 12 ounces. When these tamarins feel threatened they flick out their tongue, although this clearly wouldn’t deter humans.
Another interesting primate is a lemur called the aye-aye. Everyone who has seen a lemur knows they look very peculiar, but the aye-aye looks almost alien to our planet and has been described as nightmare fuel. Aye-ayes are about 12 to 16 inches long and weigh anywhere from 5 to 6 pounds. They have very large ears and eyes befitting of their nocturnal nature. Their most distinguishable feature, however, is their long fingers that they use to tap bark to see if there are any bugs underneath that they will end up eating.
Primates cover such a broad span of animals which are all unique in their own way. Next time you need a break, do a quick google search on interesting primates.
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