As we all know, the sound of the lion is earth-shattering, very penetrating, often frightening the beasts, people usually use "lion roar" to describe its call.
The resulting "Lion Roar" gong is known as the secret legendary skill of the Shaolin Temple, and the master often makes the enemy frightened and creepy after being issued. This skill has also become a superior martial art practiced by martial arts masters in martial arts novels or film and television dramas.
In fact, there are several kinds of animals that are higher than the "lion roar". In the network hot article "Inventory of the 10 loudest animals in nature" released some time ago, the lion's voice is between 110-114 decibels, ranking tenth. Among the animals in front of it was a monkey whose voice was as high as 128 decibels and traveled up to 5 kilometers. It is a veritable howler monkey.
Collective roaring howler monkey Image source: Artemii Sanin shutterstock
01
The "hanging monkey" living in the tree
Howler monkeys belong to the genus Of Howler Monkeys of the Primate Spider Monkey Family, mainly living in the tropical rainforests of the Americas, with a thick body, adult monkeys over 7 kg, and are the largest American monkeys.
One of the characteristics of the howler monkey is that its tail is long and has a winding function, so it was once included in the capuchin family, also known as the hanging monkey. The tail of an adult howler monkey is between 70-90 cm long, which is about the same length as the body. The main function of monkey tail is two: one is to hang itself upside down and eat leaves, fruits or flowers directly with its mouth; The second is to hook the food in front of you with your tail and put it in your mouth. The tail does the work of the forelimbs, which can be used to climb or hang branches.
As the premier hanging monkey in its size, the howler monkey is a master of jumping between the woods because of its strong forelimbs. They like to stay in trees for long periods of time, and even female monkeys raise and breastfeed in trees. When the cub accidentally falls to the ground, the male monkey yells at the female until the female gets down to the ground and carries the cub back to the tree.
It is known that in the howler monkey family, the male monkey bears the responsibility of protecting the family, but also has the right to dominate other members, which is to say that the "parent" is the same.
In fact, male monkey parents also have a cold-blooded side. It will strictly control the number of members of the family, and when the number is exceeded, it will start with the oldest child and expel them from the family. If the children are just cubs, they will wait for the cubs to mature before evicting them, but from then on, regardless of whether the other party can start their own new family.
Howler monkeys in the jungles of South America Source: Wikipedia
02
A loud "gentleman"
In the forests of Costa Rica, North America, swarms of howler monkeys are often seen shuttling through tails wrapped around or their forelimbs clutching branches. They often sit on trees to enjoy leaves, fruits or flowers, and occasionally make a loud roar.
As the name suggests, the most prominent feature of the howler monkey is that it calls loudly and travels far. They have thick necks, large mouths and jaws, and a peculiar hyoid bone (actually a box-style resonator) in their throats. After the howler monkey contracts its chest cavity to press out the air, the air flow is transmitted through an orally on the hyoid bone to the mouth of this huge "subwoofer", thus forming a huge and low roar.
At first, the roar was intermittent, and then it was like a string of thunder, and then it passed through the resonance of the trees in the forest, and the sound was heard for several kilometers.
The high pitch of the howler monkey Image source: Artemii Sanin shutterstock
Although the roar is more physically demanding, howler monkeys, especially male monkeys, still roar multiple times a day. In addition to the previous description of when the cub falls to the ground, the male monkey roars and directs the female monkey to get down to the ground to pick up, the howler monkey will also maintain some fixed roaring habits. For example, adult male monkeys like to make a continuous roar in the early morning, one is to clear the mouth and throat, and the other is to warn other groups not to go near their territory.
The battle for territory is also the main platform for the "Monkey Roar" skill. Howler monkeys are typical social animals. When a group of monkeys enters the territory of another, the latter will initiate a demonstrative roar. The battle between the two teams goes like this: the monkeys automatically stand in two teams, the males stand at the front of the line and roar, and the females and young monkeys cheer in the back.
The battle is determined by the size and duration of the roar of the male monkeys, with the most imposing one winning and occupying territory, and the other monkey group taking the initiative to leave. Regardless of the outcome, there will never be a physical conflict between the two sides. This kind of "gentlemanly" style of not moving is extremely rare in the animal kingdom.
It is worth mentioning that among the primates who like to roar, in addition to howler monkeys, there are also famous gibbons. Gibbons start to cry from dawn, and elders can go up to several hours to inform other kinds of people of the location of their disks, so that the other party is "not allowed to come and invade". This is the scientific principle of the verse "The apes on both sides of the strait can't stop crying, and the light boat has passed through the Ten Thousand Heavy Mountains" (Li Bai's "Early White Imperial City").
Howler Monkey Jumping Image source: Artemii Sanin shutterstock
03
Eat more lazy vegetarians
With the exception of the roar, howler monkeys are rarely active, and they lie or sleep on branches more than half of the day, making them well-known sloths in their class. Some scientists even call it a "lazy howler."
The main reason for the reluctance to move is related to the living style and feeding characteristics of howler monkeys. Howler monkeys are typical plant-eating animals, like to eat leaves, fruits and flowers, etc., do not have strong attack and defense capabilities, so they can only try to protect themselves by living in trees and other ways.
In addition, it has two outstanding eating characteristics: one is that eating is very slow, it can be said that it is chewing slowly, for them, there seems to be nothing more important than yelling and eating; Second, the amount of food is very large, and the amount of food eaten every day can reach half of its own weight.
Howler monkeys eat slowly and eat a lot, which is directly related to the geographical environment. Although tropical rainforests are evergreen trees with abundant leaves, they do not like the leaves that make up the vast majority of the rainforest's green food. Because these leaves are low in nutrients and high in fiber, there is no enzyme to digest cellulose in the belly of the roaring monkey.
In other words, most of the leaves in the rainforest are indigestible after eating. Even young leaves rich in protein, due to their low sugar content, howler monkeys only eat selectively.
Howler monkey eating leaves Source: Wikipedia
In order to meet the energy needs of daily activities such as roaring, smart howler monkeys choose to eat slowly and eat more on the one hand, and through lying down and dividing labor on the other hand. The gender division of labor is as follows: the male monkey is responsible for protecting the monkey group and directing the coordination of the family affairs; Female monkeys are responsible for procreation, care for offspring and temporary sexual arrangements arranged by males.
Oh, how similar to the ancient human family division of labor, no wonder it belongs to primates!
【References】
1. "The Loud Voice in the Rainforest - Roaring Monkeys", Youth Science Garden, June 2009
2. "Fish and Bear Paws" of Male Howler Monkeys, Xu Jingxuan, Vip Journal Professional Edition
3. "The Year of the Monkey", Qiao Yilun, "Life World", April 2016
4. "A Brief Discussion on the Movement Of Primates", Yang Dong, Forestry Survey and Planning, No. 1, 2008
END
Tadpole stave original article, reprinted indicating the source
Editor-in-charge/Heart & Paper
The reproduced content represents the views of the author only
Does not represent the position of the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
If you need to reprint, please contact the original public account
Source: Tadpole staves
Edit: Paarthurnax