How Do Monkeys Keep Their Nails Clipped?

by Courtney Mroch | More from this Blogger

31 Jan 2008 04:19 PM

Do they even have nails to keep clipped? These are the type of burning questions that keep me up at night. (Okay, they don't keep me up at night. But I was thinking about it before I drifted off last night.)

So I did some cursory Internet searching today and found that apes and most monkeys do in fact have nails, but some have claws.

I could not find any mention of how they keep them trimmed. While clever, I'm fairly certain no ape or monkey colony has come up with a nail salon out in the wild.

But if I really stop to think about, they probably just chew them down. Or, for the climbers of the species, perhaps scaling trees keeps them naturally under control.

Primate Facts I Learned Today That I Previously Did Not Know

1. There are three families of monkeys: marmosets, capuchin-like, and Old World.

2. Monkeys are categorized by Old World and New World status.

3. Old World monkeys are so classified because of their features. Their tails are for balance only and their noses are narrower and more downward sloped than their New World cousins. Guenons, mangabeys, colobus, langus, and baboons are all considered Old World species.

4. Marmosets and capuchin-like monkeys come from Central and South America and are considered "New World" because they were the newest monkeys to be discovered.

5. I always thought the critters in the movie Gremlins were pure fiction. Wrong! Apparently they were inspired by pygmy marmosets.

6. New World cousins they may be, but capuchin-like monkeys are bigger than marmosets and boast spider monkeys, wooly monkeys, capuchin monkeys, and howler monkeys in their family tree.

7. As for apes, they have their own great ape separations too: gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, and bonobos.

8. Apes and monkeys are not the same. (I knew this on some level, but always think of them together. I guess because, like us, they're both primates.)

9. Apes don't have tails like monkeys, spend more time upright, rely on their eyes more than their noses, and are smarter than monkeys.

10. Chimpanzees share more similar genetic material with humans than gorillas. (Approximately 99%.)

See all the stuff I would not have learned today if I hadn't wondered how monkeys keep their nails clipped?

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Learn more about Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a wife, a proud pet parent, and a writer. She's been with her husband, high school sweetheart Wayne Pryor, over 20 years, married 11 of those. She's "mom" to Mr. Meow, a.k.

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