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Night Monkeys
Aotus
Night monkeys, also known as owl monkeys or douroucoulis (), are nocturnal New World monkeys of the genus Aotus, the only living member of the family Aotidae (). The genus comprises eleven species which are found across Panama and much of South America in primary and secondary forests, tropical rainforests and cloud forests up to 2,400 metres (7,900 ft). Night monkeys have large eyes which improve their vision at night, while their ears are mostly hidden, giving them their name Aotus, meaning "earless".
Night monkeys are the only truly nocturnal monkeys, although some cathemeral populations of Azara's night monkey have irregular bursts of activity during day and night. They have a varied repertoire of vocalisations and live in small family groups of a mated pair and their immature offspring. Night monkeys have monochromatic vision which improves their ability to detect visual cues at night.
10 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 10 known species

Panamanian Night Monkey
speciesAotus zonalis

Spix's Night Monkey
speciesAotus vociferans

Colombian Night Monkey
speciesAotus lemurinus

Azara’s Night Monkey
speciesAotus azarae

Grey-handed Night Monkey
speciesAotus griseimembra

Black-headed Night Monkey
speciesAotus nigriceps

Brumback's Night Monkey
speciesAotus brumbacki

Nancy Ma’s Night Monkey
speciesAotus nancymai

Andean Night Monkey
speciesAotus miconax

Northern Night Monkey
speciesAotus trivirgatus
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Aotus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 43412.