Patas Monkey

This slender monkey is one of the fastest monkeys in the world. It has long, thin legs for running, and short digits. The Patas monkey lives in troops of up to around 40 individuals. If the troop is threatened, a male will distract the predator while the females and babies get away to safety! The males also watch out for danger. However, the troops are led by females, and the girls are actually the ones who fight and protect their territories. These monkeys are omnivorous. They eat buds, leaves, roots and fruit, and also grubs and insects. They live in West to East Africa, in shrub/grassland habitats. Unlike most monkeys, the Patas monkey does not spend most of it's time in the canopy. They are highly sociable monkeys, and are fairly common.

Ganges River Dolphin

I haven't written in my blog for a while, because I've been so busy! However, I have a brand new animal of the week for today. The Ganges river dolphin looks as though it came from prehistoric times. However, this dolphin is living in our world right now, although they are critically endangered. This toothed whale (dolphins are technically toothed whales) lives only in fresh water. It has a long beak filled with over 70 small, sharp teeth. This dolphin looks a bit frightening sometimes, because some of it's upper teeth fit outside of the beak's tip, creating a cage for fish. The Ganges dolphin catches it's food with echo-location, since it's eyes are small and adapted to the murky river water. As for geographical location, this dolphin lives in rivers in Southern Asia. An a amazing thing about this dolphin is that it can bend it's neck to 90 degrees! They are able to do this so that they can catch fish in a small river environment. They often travel in small groups of 4-6 individuals, but as many as 30 have been seen at one time. Little else is known about this rare and elisive species.