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| Common Name: | White-faced saki monkey | Family: | Pitheciidae |
| Latin Name: | Pithecia pithecia | Diet: | Omnivore |
| Type: | Mammal | Habitat: | Tropical rainforests |
| Native To: | South America | Social Unit: | Group |
| IUCN Red List Status: | least concern |
White-faced saki monkeys at Edinburgh Zoo
Edinburgh Zoo has a breeding pair of white-faced saki monkeys, as well as a young female that was born in January 2007 and a male that was born in April 2009. This is great for the breeding programme! When the youngsters reach sexual maturity, they will be moved on to another collection. In the wild, young saki monkeys of this age would move away from their family group to look for a partner and start their own family.
When white-faced saki monkey youngsters are born, they are the same colour as the adult female regardless of the sex. They will stay that colour until they are about 2 months; at that point, if the baby is a male, the black hair starts to come through and the white ring around the face appears.
Where it can be found at Edinburgh Zoo
Magic Forest
White-faced saki monkeys in the wild
White-faced saki monkeys (Pithecia pithecia) are given that name because the males have a white ring around their faces, although the females do not. Both males and females are a grizzled brown colour with slight white streaks on the side of the nose. They are found in the rainforest of the Amazon Basin, and live in evergreen, coastal, secondary, and gallery forests. They are rarely found in flooded forest. White-faced saki monkeys spend most of the time in the trees, rarely going down to the ground, but they have occasionally been found on the ground or on new-growth trees.
White-faced sakis use the lower levels of the trees because of the competition with food with bearded sakis (Chiropotes satanas). White-faced saki monkeys have long fingers and long nails, which make gripping branches and moving around in the trees easier. They prefer to move around in the trees on solid branches in the lower to middle-canopy levels.
The wild diet of the sakis is an interesting one; fruit intake is about 55-60 percent, seeds 30 percent, and flowers 6-7 percent. Their diet occasionally includes animal prey, such as small birds and bats.
White-faced saki monkeys have special canine teeth, which enable them to crack large nuts that other monkeys would leave alone. They also eat termite nests, which are high in iron. When sakis need to drink, they will go to a hollow or hole in the tree where water has gathered and put their hands in, then lick the water droplets off the hand.
White-faced saki monkeys have an aggressive display. This can start off with a growl, then they will start shaking their body with an arched body posture and a growl. If that doesn’t work, then they start to shake branches using their whole body.
Breeding programme category: EEP
IUCN Red List category: Least concern
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