White-faced saki

White-faced saki[1]
Male at Singapore Zoo
Female at Philadelphia Zoo
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Family: Pitheciidae
Genus: Pithecia
Species:
P. pithecia
Binomial name
Pithecia pithecia
White-faced saki range
Synonyms
  • Pithecia pithecia ssp. pithecia (Linnaeus, 1766)
  • Simia pithecia (Linnaeus, 1766)

The white-faced saki (Pithecia pithecia), called the Guianan saki and the golden-faced saki, is a species of the New World saki monkey. They can be found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela. This species lives in the understory and lower canopy of the forest, feeding mostly on fruits, nuts, seeds, and insects. Although they are arboreal creatures and are specialists of swinging from tree to tree (brachiation), they are also terrestrial when foraging. White-faced sakis typically live around 14 years in their natural habitat and have been recorded to live up to 36 years in captivity. Sakis are active in the day and sleep highly elevated (15-20m) in trees with many leaves to shelter them from weather and flying predators.[3]

A formerly recognized subspecies of this monkey, P. p. chrysocephala,[4] was elevated to full species status as P. chrysocephala in 2014.[5]

  1. ^ Groves, C. P. (2005). "Order Primates". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. ^ Marsh, L.K.; Mittermeier, R.A.; Boubli, J.P.; Röhe, F.; Urbani, B.; de Azevedo, R.B. (2021) [amended version of 2018 assessment]. "Pithecia pithecia". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2021: e.T43942A192447247. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-1.RLTS.T43942A192447247.en. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Grubich2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Groves, C. P. (2005). "Pithecia pithecia chrysocephala". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  5. ^ Marsh, L. K. (July 2014). "A Taxonomic Revision of the Saki Monkeys, Pithecia Desmarest, 1804". Neotropical Primates. 21 (1): 1–165. doi:10.1896/044.021.0101. S2CID 86516301.