Which monkey uses its tail as a fifth limb to grip branches?

The spider monkey uses its tail as a fifth limb to grip branches. Its long, muscular, prehensile tail is specialized for life high in the tropical forest canopy.

The tail can be up to about 89 centimetres long and has a flexible, often hairless tip with skin grooves that improve its grip. This allows a spider monkey to hang by its tail, stabilize itself while reaching for fruit, and move beneath branches while its arms and legs remain free. Spider monkeys also have long limbs and hook-like fingers, but their thumbs are reduced or absent, an arrangement that supports swinging and climbing.

Spider monkeys are New World monkeys in the genus Ateles, found in tropical forests from southern Mexico through much of Central and South America. They are sometimes confused with orangutans or gibbons because all are capable climbers, but those animals do not have the same fully prehensile tail. Koalas also climb trees, yet their tails are short and not used as a gripping fifth limb. Spider monkeys mainly eat fruit and spend much of their time in the upper canopy.