Esmerelda Spider Monkey

It can be tough to look different from everyone else, but Esmerelda seems to do okay.

She gets along well with the rest of the group, but she is pretty big and sports a different kind of look. You can always spot her even if she is in a group of friends.

And who would not want her as a friend? Esmerelda is very social and extremely athletic! But this is where her problems started. Esmerelda is a black spider monkey who eventually made her way to Brookfield Zoo after being taken from the wild to be someone’s pet. And while you can certainly understand why someone would want to have Esmerelda around, no monkey ever makes a good housemate. They are messy, can be aggressive, and can share diseases with people. Most importantly, they are illegal to own as pets.

So when Esmerelda was confiscated by the authorities, they had to find a new home for her. Because she was used to humans, she could not go back to her home in the rainforests of South America. Instead, living in a zoo with other monkeys like her seemed the best option…

…except that she is the only one of her kind anywhere in North America!

There are plenty of other spider monkeys in zoos. But they are a different species---which is why she stands out. Esmerelda is a black spider monkey, native to Guyana and Surinam in northern South America. The rest of Brookfield Zoo’s spider monkey group are black-handed spider monkeys who are native to Mexico and parts of Central America.

It is very easy to tell the two species apart. Esmerelda is covered in jet black fur, with a pink, hairless face. She is noticeably larger than the rest of the monkeys in her troop. The black-handed spider monkeys have shorter, lighter colored hair over their bodies, with darker forearms and hands. Their faces have fur and their bellies have a bit more of a paunch to them. Besides the difference in appearance, thanks to the pioneering work of Brookfield Zoo’s genetic lab, we also know that there are differences between the spider monkeys’ DNA, too.

Despite being different species, the monkeys get along very well. Esmerelda is quieter and has different vocalizations from the other monkeys, but their behavior is very similar. Both types of spider monkeys live in the top of the rainforest canopy and love to eat fruit. You can see Esmerelda swinging around with her black-handed buddies in Tropic World: South America every day.