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201504Mar18:36

New Titi mon­key species dis­cov­ered in the Ama­zon Rainforest

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 04 March 2015 | mod­i­fied 04 March 2015
Archived

Group of Titi monkeysSci­en­tists have dis­cov­ered a new species of titi mon­key in Brazil, accord­ing to a recent paper pub­lished in the open access sci­en­tific jour­nal Papéis Avul­sos de Zoolo­gia.

Titis are new world mon­keys, of the genus Cal­lice­bus, found across South Amer­ica. These tree-​dwelling pri­mates have long, soft fur and live in small fam­ily groups con­sist­ing of a monog­a­mous pair and their off­spring. Rather touch­ingly, they are often observed sit­ting or sleep­ing with their tails entwined.

In 2011, researcher Julio César Dalponte spot­ted an unusual look­ing titi mon­key on the east bank of the Roo­sevelt River, whose coloura­tion did not match any known species. Intrigued, a team of sci­en­tists sup­ported by the Con­ser­va­tion Lead­er­ship Pro­gramme (CLP — a part­ner­ship between three NGOs, includ­ing Fauna & Flora Inter­na­tional) headed back into the field to col­lect the infor­ma­tion needed to for­mally describe what they believed to be a new species.

Titi monkey speciesOver the course of a num­ber of expe­di­tions, the team recorded sev­eral groups of these unusual mon­keys, whose ochre side­burns, bright orange tail and light grey fore­head stripe set them apart from other known species in the genus. Based on these mor­pho­log­i­cal dif­fer­ences, sci­en­tists were able to for­mally describe the mon­key as a new species, which they have named Cal­lice­bus mil­toni (or Milton’s titi mon­key) in hon­our of Dr Mil­ton Thi­ago de Mello, a noted Brazil­ian pri­ma­tol­o­gist who is cred­ited with train­ing many of the country’s top pri­mate experts.

More than luck”

It goes with­out say­ing that we are really excited about this new dis­cov­ery, but it will take more than luck if we are to keep mak­ing sci­en­tific finds like this
Felipe Ennes Silva, Con­ser­va­tion Lead­er­ship Pro­gramme alumnus »

Milton's Titi monkey distributionFound in a small area of low­land rain­for­est south of the Ama­zon River in Brazil, Milton’s titi mon­keys spend most of their time in the upper reaches of the for­est, where they feed on fruits.

Like their close rel­a­tives, they live in small groups con­sist­ing of a mated pair and their off­spring. These groups are ter­ri­to­r­ial and use warn­ing calls to keep oth­ers at bay — they are par­tic­u­larly vocif­er­ous early in the morn­ing and dur­ing the rainy season.

Because they are not able to swim or cross moun­tain­ous ter­rain, these mon­keys are restricted to a small area, effec­tively hemmed in by a num­ber of rivers and hills. This small range could put the species at risk from human activ­i­ties, par­tic­u­larly because only around a quar­ter of this area is protected.

Defor­esta­tion rates are high in this region, with for­est fires also pos­ing a sig­nif­i­cant threat. Added to this, the Brazil­ian Government’s ongo­ing devel­op­ment pro­gramme includes sev­eral new hydro­elec­tric­ity dams and an exten­sion of the road sys­tem planned within the Amazon.

It goes with­out say­ing that we are really excited about this new dis­cov­ery,” said researcher Felipe Ennes Silva, who col­lected the data for the new species descrip­tion. “It is always thrilling to find some­thing new in the Ama­zon, as it reminds us just how spe­cial this rain­for­est is and how lucky we are to have it on our doorstep.

But it will take more than luck if we are to keep mak­ing sci­en­tific finds like this. The rain­for­est is under threat like never before, and it will take ded­i­cated, hard work — not just by con­ser­va­tion­ists but by the gov­ern­ment and every other sec­tor of soci­ety too — to make sure that this for­est ecosys­tem can con­tinue to sup­port a wide diver­sity of life and help reg­u­late our planet’s climate.”



(Source: Fauna & Flora Inter­na­tional media release, 04.03.2015)


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