I am perpetually interested in monkeys. One of the most remarkable and interesting of them all has to be the uniquely Bornean Proboscis monkey Nasalis larvatus , also sometimes called the Long-nosed monkey or Bekantan.Proboscis monkeys are famously named for the enormous, pendant, tongue-shaped noses of adult males; those of juveniles and females are shorter and upturned. While there have been suggestions that the nose plays a role in heat dissipation or in improving the loud, resonant 'honk' calls made by males, it seems most likely that it's a sexually selected visual signal, its size presumably conveying information on a male's maturity and genetic quality. It's that enormous nose, and apparently the monkey's pink face and rotund belly, that led people in the Indonesian half of Borneo to call them 'Dutchman monkeys'. If you're wondering, the adjacent illustration is explained below. [More]














Source: The amazing swimming Proboscis monkey (part I)