The owl monkey is a small primate that lives exclusively at night. Its large exorbitant eyes earned it the nickname of the owl monkey. It hunts and moves without any noise with amazing mastery.

Its nyctalopia greatly helps it to find its way even when the light is extremely weak. It feeds on ripe fruits, nectar, flowers, insects, birds’ eggs, and even chicks. During the day, it rests in the cavities of the tree trunks where this trio has been caught.

sometimes called the night monkey, the owl monkey occupies the tropical forests of South America. Its particularity is to live exclusively at night. This monkey belongs to the so-called “tiny” primates, with a height varying from 25 to 35 centimeters when adult, and weight varying between 600 grams and 1 kilogram.

Its belly is usually gray or light brown/orange, its face generally white, marked by large eyes (not without reminding the owl). With a very long tail, sometimes equal to or even bigger than the whole body, this aotus can keep an exceptional balance when jumping from tree to tree to pick fruits or chase small birds. Its reputation as a discreet animal is not usurped, since it hunts and moves generally without the slightest noise, absorbing its falls, and moving very quickly, thanks to its lightness and great flexibility. The douroucouli is also helped by its nyctalopia: its large eyes are provided with a greater quantity of rods than the normal human eye, but the number of cones is reduced. Thus, it orientates itself perfectly well and distinguishes its environment by an extremely weak luminosity; on the other hand, its perception of the colors could, according to certain studies, be distorted.

Moreover, one of its particularities, which is surprising, to say the least, is the fact that it can reproduce, by the only means of its gullet, a great number of sounds, going from the cries of wild animals to sounds reminiscent of a bell or a gong. Socially, the owl monkey gathers in small communities (each often occupying the same hollow trunk during daytime sleep) of a few dozen individuals at most.