Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:27:04.643Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Humboldt's woolly monkeys decimated by hunting in Amazonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2009

Carlos A. Peres
Affiliation:
Museu Goeldi/Zoologia, C.P. 399, Belém, Pará, 66.000, Brazil; and Sub-Department Veterinary Anatomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QS, UK.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Humboldt's woolly monkeys Lagothrix lagotricha have been systematically hunted, mostly for food, to the point of becoming locally extinct wherever humans share their habitat. Remaining populations in the extensive lowland Amazonian range of this species are restricted to remote, unflooded terra firme forests. These populations are, however, quickly wiped out once access is opened by new roads. Terra firme forests, even in entirely undisturbed sites, are seasonally far less productive and can only sustain relatively low population densities. Woolly monkeys are currently more susceptible to hunting than perhaps any other vertebrate in the New World tropics and, as such, should be regarded as highly endangered.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1991

References

Ayres, J.M., Lima, D.M., Martins, E.S. and Leme, J.L. 1990. On the track of the road: changes in subsistence hunting in a Brazilian Amazonian village. In Wildlife Uses in the Neotropics, (eds Robinson, J. G. and Redford, K.). Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Bodmer, R.E., Fang, T.G. and Ibanez, L.M. in press. Primates and ungulates: a comparison in susceptibility to hunting. Primate Conservation.Google Scholar
Castro, N., Revilla, J. and Neville, M. 1976. Came de monte como una fuente de proteinas en Iquitos, con referenda especial a monos. Rev. Forestal Peru, 6, 1932.Google Scholar
Defler, T. 1989. Wild and Woolly. Animal Kingdom, 09 1989.Google Scholar
Fooden, J. 1963. A revision of the woolly monkeys (genus Lagothrix). J. Mammal. 44, 213217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freese, C.H., Castro, R.N., Heltne, P.G. and Whitesides, G. 1982. Patterns and determinants of monkey densities in Peru and Bolivia, with notes on distributions. Int. J. Primatol. 1, 5390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, K.M. 1976. The nonhuman primate trade in Colombia. In Neotropical Primates: Field Studies and Conservation (eds Thorington, R. W. Jr and Heltne, P. G.). Nat. Acad. of Sciences, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Johns, A.D. 1986. Effects of habitat disturbance on rainforest wildlife in Brazilian Amazonia. Unpubl. report to World Wildlife Fund-US, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Mack, D. and Kafka, H. 1978. Breeding and rearing of woolly monkeys at the National Zoological Park, Washington. Int. Zoo Yb. 18, 117122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medina, J.T. 1934. The Discovery of the Amazon According to the Account of Friar Gaspar de Carvajal and Other Documents. American Geographic Society, New York.Google Scholar
Mittermeier, R.A. 1987. Effects of hunting on rain forest primates. In Primate Conservation in the Tropical Rain Forest, (eds Marsh, C. and Mittermeier, R. A.). Alan R. Liss, New York.Google Scholar
Peres, C.A. 1990. Effects of hunting on western Amazonian primate communities. Biol. Cons. 54, 4759.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rylands, A.B. 1985. Conservation areas protecting primates in Brazilian Amazonia. Primate Conservation, 5, 2427.Google Scholar
Soini, P. 1972. The capture and commerce of live monkeys in the Amazonian region of Peru. Int. Zoo. Yb. 12, 2636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soini, P. 1986. A synecological study of a primate community in the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, Peru. Primate Conservation, 7, 6371.Google Scholar
Symington, M.M. 1987. Ecological and social correlates of party size in the black spider monkey, Ateles paniscus chamek. Unpubl. Ph.D. Thesis. Princeton University, Princeton.Google Scholar
Thornback, J. and Jenkins, M. 1982. The IUCN Mammal Red Data Book, Part I: Threatened mammalian taxa of the Americas and Australasian zoo-geographic regions (excluding Cetacea). International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Gland.Google Scholar
Williams, L. 1967. Breeding Humboldt's woolly monkey Lagothrix lagotricha at Murrayton Woolly Monkey Sanctuary. Int. Zoo. Yb, 7, 8689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Youst, J.A. and Kelley, P.M. 1983. Shotguns, blowguns, and spears: the analysis of technological efficiency. In Adaptive Responses of Native Amazonians (eds Hames, R. B. and Vickers, W. T.), Academic Press, London.Google Scholar