Their full name is black crowned Central American squirrel Monkeys and can be found in the tropics.

Here are some truths about them:

1. Unlike the other New World monkeys, their tail is not used for climbing, but as a kind of “balancing pole” and as a tool.

2. Squirrel monkey’s fur is short and close. Its color is olive at the shoulders and yellowish orange on its back and extremities. Their throat and the ears are white and their mouths are black. Their head is orange or reddish-orange in color, with a black cap.

3. Squirrel monkeys love eating fruits and insects. Occasionally they also eat nuts, buds, eggs and small vertebrates.

4. Squirrel monkeys are very small. They only grow up to 25 to 35 cm, plus a 35 to 42 cm tail.

5. They live about 15 years old in the wild and about 20 years in captivity.

6. Their movements in the branches are extremely speedy.

7. They live together in multi-male/multi-female groups with up to 500 members. These large groups can, however, occasionally break into smaller troops.

8. By 1983, the Central American squirrel monkey had already declined drastically by deforestation. Currently, deforestation and habitat fragmentation due to agriculture and tourism development are still the major causes of decline. Insecticide spraying, the pet trade and electrocution from electric power lines have also negatively affected these monkeys.

9. Squirrel monkeys spread urine on the bottoms of the hands and feet. So other monkeys can smell this as it marks the territory.

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I believe most of us have heard about sloths, but do we really know their best kept secrets?

1. Sloths are extremely slow-moving mammals. Actually they are the world’s slowest mammal, so sedentary that algae grow on its furry coat.

2. Their hair is grayish brown but, at times they look grey-green in color because of the tiny camouflaging algae that grows all over their coats.

3. Sloths are omnivores. They may eat insects, small reptiles, and birds, but their most common food consists mostly of buds, tender shoots, and leaves.

4. Altogether, sloths’ bodies usually are anywhere between 50 and 60 cm long. They also have stubby tails, usually 6–7 cm long. These guys’ weight can be 8.75 pounds.

5. The average amount of years a sloth lives is 20 years. Although there have been 40 year old sloths.

6. Most people used to think that sloths slept 18 hours a day. But a recent study indicated that sloths sleep just under 10 hours a day.

7. They go to the ground to urinate and defecate about once a week, digging a hole and covering it afterwards. They go to the same spot each time and are vulnerable to predation while doing so.

8. Mothers also give birth to their babies upside down. Infant sloths normally cling to their mother’s fur.

9. Females normally bear one baby every year. But sometimes sloths’ low level of movement actually keeps females from finding males for longer than one year. They also mate while hanging.

10. They have an extra neck vertebra that allows them to turn their heads 270 degrees.

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Not many of us know about the silky anteater. This is your chance to get to know them:

1. Silky anteaters are the smallest anteater species in the world. They have a total length ranging from 3.6 to 4.5 cm and usually weighing less than 0.88 pounds.

2. They have a dense and soft golden brown fur, short snout, partially prehensile tail and two enlarged claws in each fore paw.

3. The Silky Anteater is a slow moving animal and feeds mainly on ants, between 100 and 8000 a day. Sometimes it can also feed on other insects, such as termites and small beetles.

4. Silky anteaters do not have very long lives. The average is of 2 years.

5. It is a nocturnal, arboreal and solitary animal. During the day they typically sleep curled up in a ball in some tree branch.

6. Although they are rarely seen in the forest, it is said that they can be found more easily when they are foraging on lianas at night.

7. A female silky anteater gives birth to a single young that is usually placed inside a nest of dead leaves built in tree holes.

8. Silky anteater numbers are relatively stable, but they are being negatively affected by how fast their habitat is being destructed.

9. Because they rarely descend from trees, they obtain their water from licking moisture, such as dew or rainwater, from leaves.

10. Silky anteaters can be found in lowland rain forests with continuous canopy where they can move to different places without the need to descend from trees.

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Raccoons are medium-sized mammals that learned to live close to humans. And have a reputation of nocturne thieves. In real life they are just animals trying to adjust to the changes men are producing. They are found throughout different landscapes of Costa Rica such as rainforests, cloud forests and beaches.

Here are some things that will make you understand them a little bit better:

1. The dense under-fur is almost 90% of the raccoon’s grayish coat. Two of its most distinctive features are its black paws and its facial mask.

2. Females often share a common area, while unrelated males live together in groups of up to four animals to maintain their positions against foreign males during the mating season and other potential invaders.

3. Although captive raccoons have been known to live over 20 years, their average life expectancy in the wild is only 1.8 to 3.1 years.

4. After a gestation period of about 65 days, two to five young are born in spring. The kits are raised by their mother until its time to leave in late fall.

5. Raccoons usually mate in a period between late January and mid-March. During the mating season, males roam their home ranges in search of females in an attempt to court them during the three-to four-day-long period when conception is possible. These encounters will often occur at central meeting places.

6. Hunting and traffic accidents are the two most common causes of death in many areas. They are not endangered.

7. Raccoons are also noted for their intelligence. Studies have shown that they are able to remember the solution to tasks up to three years later.

8. Tree hollows in old oaks or other trees and big rocks are preferred by raccoons. If they are unavailable or accessing them is inconvenient, raccoons utilize burrows dug by other mammals.

9. These guys are 41 to 72 cm long and can weigh between 7.9–19.8 pounds.

These guys, also known as honey bears, are very interesting and here are some facts about them:

1. They are also known as honey bear, because when in captivity they seem to enjoy eating honey.

2. The kinkajou’s woolly fur consists of an outer coat of gold or brownish-gray overlapping a gray undercoat.

3. 90% of their diet consists of ripe fruit. Leaves and flowers make up much of the other 10% of their diet. Also they sometimes eat insects, particularly ants.

4. An average adult kinkajou weighs 4–7 pounds and an average adult body length is 40–60 cm. In addition to body length, the average tail length is 40–55 cm.

5. They normally live 23 – 24 years, but in a Hawaiian zoo they had a kinkajou that lived for 40 years!

6. Scent glands near the mouth, on the throat, and on the belly allow kinkajous to mark their territory and their travel routes.

7. Kinkajous sleep in family units and groom one another. But they are usually solitary when foraging although they occasionally forage in small groups.

8. The kinkajou’s peak activity is usually between about 7:00 PM and midnight, and again an hour before dawn. During daylight hours, kinkajous sleep in tree hollows or in shaded tangles of leaves, avoiding direct sunlight.

9. This arboreal mammal is not an endangered species, though it is rarely seen by people because of its strict nocturnal habits. However, they are hunted for the illegal pet trade, for their fur and for their meat.

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Coatis are these long animals with a long snout. They look nothing like raccoons, yet they are family. Join me to discover some secrets about them:

1. Coatis feed on a variety of invertebrates such as beetles, grubs, ants, termites, spiders, scorpions, and land crabs, and some other animals like lizards, frogs, small rodents, and some fruit. They will also feed on reptile eggs.

2. The males are significantly larger than the females and may be more than 1.27 m long and may weigh up to 25 pounds.

3. In the wild they live about 9 years and nearly 20 years in captivity.

4. Males are typically solitary except during breeding season and are active during the night, but females and their young usually form small groups called bands of 4 to 20 individuals.

5. The breeding season is in February and March. During this time the male is subservient to the female. The closest dominant males to a given band join temporarily. The dominant male breeds with all the females in season from the band. Soon after mating, the male is expelled from the band. Then females construct nests of sticks and leaves in a secluded area, usually in a tree.

6. Their ankles are double jointed and extremely flexible, enabling the animal to descend trees headfirst.

7. Coatis are not endangered, but their numbers are reducing fast. They are hunted by humans for food and for damaging crops.

8. They live in a wide variety of terrain, such as the lowland rainforests, river woodlands-Tortuguero, bushy and rocky terrain, though they are usually found in heavily forested areas.

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