The Colombian black-handed titi monkey (''Cheracebus medemi'') is a species of

titi The titis, or titi monkeys, are New World monkeys of the subfamily Callicebinae, which contains three extant genera: ''Cheracebus'', ''Callicebus'', and ''Plecturocebus.'' This subfamily also contains the extinct genera ''Miocallicebus, Homuncul ...

, a type of

New World monkey New World monkeys are the five families of primates that are found in the tropical regions of Mexico, Central and South America: Callitrichidae, Cebidae, Aotidae, Pitheciidae, and Atelidae. The five families are ranked together as the Ceboidea ( ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. It was originally described in the genus ''

Callicebus ''Callicebus'' is a genus of monkeys known as titi monkeys. Historically, titis were monogeneric, comprising only the genus ''Callicebus'' Thomas, 1903. Owing to the great diversity found across titi monkey species, a new genus-level taxonomy wa ...

'' in 1963.

Description

Colombian black-handed titis sare relatively small

primates Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

with a fluffy coat and a long, bushy tail. This is longer than the body and cannot be used as a

prehensile tail A prehensile tail is the tail of an animal that has adapted to grasp or hold objects. Fully prehensile tails can be used to hold and manipulate objects, and in particular to aid arboreal creatures in finding and eating food in the trees. If the ta ...

. The fur is predominantly black, and in contrast to closely related species, so are the hands. The head is small and roundish, along the throat a white or yellow, collar-like marking extends to the ears.

Distribution and habitat

Colombian black-handed titis are restricted to southern

. Their range is located in the departments of Caquetá and Putumayo. The habitat of this species is

tropical rainforests Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equator ...

Behavioral ecology and nutrition

Their behaviour has not been studied much. They live in family groups in which they stay together as a monogamous pair - usually for life - together with their common offspring. They are territorial, and express this by jointly emitting sounds when pairs from other groups enter their own territory. Their diet consists mainly of fruit. To a lesser extent they also eat other parts of plants and insects.

References

Colombian black-handed titi The Colombian black-handed titi monkey (''Cheracebus medemi'') is a species of titi, a type of New World monkey, endemic to Colombia. It was originally described in the genus '' Callicebus'' in 1963. Description Colombian black-handed titis s ...

Mammals of Colombia Endemic fauna of Colombia

Taxa named by Philip Hershkovitz {{newworld-monkey-stub