In today’s post we are going to talk about the challenges and dangers of primates living in our cement jungles, i.e. cities. While growing up momkey’s babies and juveniles have different challenges and threats that they need to overcome and learn to identify in order to survive.
Monkeys explore those challenges in the same way they will do it if they were living in the forest. This means they will bite, lick and touch everything around them while exploring and learning from their moms what is good and what is not. In the forest this includes biting sticks, leaves and fruits while trying to learn what is tasty. In the city this can also means biting and licking metal surfaces, biting electrical cords, licking cement surfaces with or without toxic substances as well as the few trees, fruits, flowers and leaves in our gardens, parks and forest remnants.
How this affect them is poorly understood. For now we know that biting cords can be one of the causes of electrocution of young monkeys in some urban areas, as well as the bad conditions of these cord insulation. In addition in some areas electrical cords are also used to move between trees and buildings increasing their probability to electrocutions.
Crossing busy roads in cities is an additional challenge for monkeys in cities that is poorly mitigated despite of some studies showing monkey’s use of canopy bridges located in specific pathways. Presence of big trees is possible in cities along narrow roads that can make natural bridges for monkeys still possible. However many cities have policies that includes periodic trim and more common these days complete cut old trees, despite of their benefits to reduce temperature in cities.
An additional challenges is the presence of stray dogs roaming in the streets and sometimes hunting in packs that not always can be avoided. Baby monkeys and juveniles learn from their moms how to recognize those dogs as threats, however roadkill, electrocutions and sometimes mother’s death can make this learning more difficult.
We are trying to monitor those threats (dogs, electrocutions and roadkill) in Villavicencio city and San Martín town to find strategies that reduce those threats for monkey’s populations in urban areas. This threats are also present in rural areas however it seems its intensity is less strong. However more data is need it.
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In today’s post, we will like to talk about the impacts of feral dogs and cats. For the last two years we had been thinking on ways to assess the effects of feral dogs and cats on our study area’s biodiversity. Our anecdotal observations and farm workers reports over the past 5 years seems to highlight an increase of feral dogs in the area, also supported by some data of camera traps. However feral cats seems to be more difficult to register, at least on the main study area of Zocay Project in San Martín town.
In Villavicencio, feral cats effects on biodiversity seems to be more evident in some areas, such as urban parks. However street dogs affecting biodiversity seems to be more difficult to assess.
Feral dogs and cats had been reported to have a huge impact on small vertebrates mortalities near and within urban areas. Additionally to their impact as hunters, they are also reservoirs of disease that can be transmitted to wild carnivorous present in these fragmented areas. At Zocay Project area it is particularly important due to the presence of ocelots and other carnivorous that can get some disease from domestic dogs and cats.
One of the strategies that seems to start giving some results to assess feral dogs impacts seems to be camera traps as we had detected at least 5 different individuals of domestic dogs roaming in the core area of our study area. Although not hunting activity had been detected yet. However in past year we had local reports of a group of 4 dogs hunting goats in one of the farms in which Zocay Project is working.
Although we still have questions about feral dogs and cats effects on our study area, identification and detection of feral dogs and cats is a starting point to assess those impacts. Some interviews and assessment of vaccination status of domestic dogs and cat in neighboring farms can give us additional information to evaluate their effects and guide us on which management action can we suggest to landowners.
If you want to support our activities, please visit https://fineartamerica.com/art/xyomara+carretero or get in contact with as at xcarretero@gmail.com if you want to collaborate, donate or volunteer in our activities
© Copyright Disclaimer. All pictures used on this web page are protected with copyrights to Xyomara Carretero-Pinzón. If you want to use any of these pictures, please leave a message on the website. Thank you.