WHITE FACED SAKI MONKEY

Our White Faced Saki Monkeys live here as a lively family group of five. Corey and Maya are proud parents to son Manuel, daughter Pitinga, and their newest daughter, born in March 2025 (yet to be named!).

Corey and Maya have been a successful breeding pair for many years as part of the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP), helping to ensure the future of this incredible species. In 2024, one of their older daughters, Neevah, moved to Monkey World in the UK to join a new family group.

This cute family group can be found in our new primate house, where you can watch them climb, leap, and play together—so be sure to stop by and meet them!

White Faced Saki Monkeys live in wet and dry forests in Brazil, Suriname, Guyana & French Guiana. 

In the wild these Saki monkeys eat fruit, seeds, flowers, leaves and animal prey, such as insects.  

White Faced Saki Monkeys live in small groups of only 2 – 4 individuals. They are highly social and grooming between individuals in an important activity. 
In the wild, these Sakis tend to be either polygynous (where a single male mates with numerous females) or polyandrous (where a single female mates with numerous males). Females will give birth to one offspring at a time and older siblings will help care for it. 

White Faced Saki Monkeys are primarily threatened by loss of their natural habitat due to deforestation. Unfortunately, they attract hunters for their meat and their highly-valued tails. 
They are also affected by the illegal wildlife trade, often being captured from the wild and sold as pets.

These Saki monkeys are sexually dichromatic (a rare trait in new world monkeys), meaning that males and females have different physical characteristics. Males are black with a white face and a black nose. Females are agouti brown and have white stripes along the sides of their nose. 
The rapid bipedal hopping of these Sakis has earned them the nickname ‘flying jacks’ in Guyana. 
Due to their diet, they act as important seed dispensers of the plants they consume, thus benefiting the local ecosystem. 
They sleep on tree branches, in a curled round position, remembering a house cat.