coaita

Updated: June 12, 2025

The Coaita is a large black monkey, covered with coarse hair, and having the prominent parts of the face of a tawny flesh-coloured hue. It occurs throughout the lowlands of the Lower and Upper Amazons, but does not range to the south beyond the limits of the river plains. The Coaitas are called by zoologists spider monkeys, on account of the length and slenderness of their body and limbs.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons

Among the most curious of the monkey tribe are the ateles, or spider-monkeys, called also Cebidae, and, by the natives sapajous, one of the species of the coaita, or quata. As they are seen gambolling among the trees, with their long limbs, and still longer tails, ever actively employed, their resemblance to huge spiders is remarkable.

William Henry Giles Kingston - The Western World: Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North: and South America

Coaitas are more frequently kept in a tame state than any other kind of monkey. The Indians are very fond of them as pets, and the women often suckle them when young at their breasts. They become attached to their masters, and will sometimes follow them on the ground to considerable distances. I once saw a most ridiculously tame Coaita.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons