Monkey Forest Tales: news from the field

In today’s post we are going to talk about some of our recent news from the field. This month field season was a little bit longer due to a small anonymous donation to our field surveys. We continue with our samplings of Colombian squirrel monkey’s babies (Saimiri albigena) in Villavicencio and San Martin. We also had the opportunity to see other primate species during our surveys.

During these surveys we try to count as many monkey groups of black-capped capuchins (Sapajus apella), red howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus) and ornate titi monkeys (Plecturocebus ornatus) as possible. We also have the opportunity to spend time observing Colombian squirrel monkey’s babies during their first months of their lives. At the moment, Colombian squirrel monkeys have babies from one to three months old. So, some of the older babies are starting to move a little bit away from their mother’s body, starting to bite branches and trying to bite fruits, showing interest in their environment. However, this also means that Colombian squirrel monkey’s babies living in the city, also explore human structures while growing up in the city. Unfortunately, this means that in cities babies bite not only tree branches as well as electricity cables, which is a huge risk for this endemic species of Colombian primate.

It is time for ornate titi monkey’s babies too, however the ornate titi monkey’s groups we had seen up to now didn’t have any. However, we saw one six month old black capped capuchin baby in one of the groups we saw in San Martin. No babies had been observed for red howler monkeys. We will continue surveying monkey groups in both areas and will be able to make an additional sampling in Villanueva next month. Information about when and how many babies are born every year is important information to know the birth rate of monkey’s population. Over the years we have tried to compiled information about as many groups as possible of all monkey’s species in San Martin area, however resources are not always easy to get, so in some years we had not been able to collect all the information necessary, an effort we will try to correct this year and if possible, in the following years.

If you want to support our activities, please visit https://fineartamerica.com/art/xyomara+carretero or get in contact with us at xcarretero@gmail.com if you want to collaborate, donate or volunteer in our activities. You can also support our activities by buying our ornate titi monkeys stuff dolls https://www.instagram.com/p/Ctm_sEORvk8/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== and our new journals in Amazon https://www.amazon.com/X-Carretero/dp/B0CWD1DBJM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?© 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 or contact xcarretero@gmail.com

Monkey Forest Tales: More results from nocturnal monkeys (Español abajo)

We continue to our series of blogs about some of our recent published results, this time again about Brumback nights monkeys (Aotus brumbacki). Despite the difficulties we had following and even finding these monkeys who move at night, over the years we have been able to make a few observations about what they eat and that is the focus of the short note we are going to talk about today. You can find the note here. In this note we collected observations done during surveys and random encounters with night monkeys. Every time any student, local people or I observed a night monkey group eating any fruit or flower or found a fecal sample, we registered information to identify the tree from which the monkeys were eating. This note has a preliminary list of plants that Brumback night monkey consumed. Why is it important to have a list of plant species consumed by these monkeys? This list can help us to choose plant species useful to regenerate and reforest areas close to places where monkeys live. It also can help us to choose plants to enrich living fences used by monkeys and other animals to move between forest fragments. Have you seen nocturnal monkeys eating fruits or flowers? Share with us your observations!EspañolContinuamos con nuestra serie de blogs acerca de nuestros resultados recientemente publicados, esta vez sobre los monos nocturnos llaneros (Aotus brumbacki). A pesar de las dificultades para seguir e incluso encontrar estos monos que se mueven en la noche, a lo largo de los años hemos podido hacer algunas observaciones sobre lo que comen y ese es el enfoque de la nota de la que vamos a hablar hoy. Puede encontrar la nota aca.

En esta nota reunimos las observaciones realizadas durante muestreos y encuentros al azar con grupos de monos nocturnos. Cada vez que un estudiante, persona local o yo observamos un grupo de mono nocturno comiendo cualquier fruto o flor o cada vez que encontramos heces de estos micos, registramos información para identificar el árbol del que los monos estaban comiendo. Esta nota tiene una lista preliminar de plantas de las cuales los monos nocturnos llaneros se alimentan. ¿Por qué es importante tener una lista de especies consumidas por estos monos? Esta lista puede ayudarnos a escoger las especies de plantas útiles para regenerar y reforestar áreas cercanas a lugares donde los monos viven. También puede ayudarnos a escoger las plantas para enriquecer cercas vivas usadas por los monos y otros animales para moverse entre fragmentos de bosque. ¿Alguna vez has observado a los monos nocturnos comiendo frutos o flores? ¡Comparte tus observaciones con nosotros!If you want to support our activities, please visit https://fineartamerica.com/art/xyomara+carretero or get in contact with us at xcarretero@gmail.com if you want to collaborate, donate or volunteer in our activities. You can also support our activities by buying our ornate titi monkeys stuff dolls https://www.instagram.com/p/Ctm_sEORvk8/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== and our new journals in Amazon https://www.amazon.com/X-Carretero/dp/B0CWD1DBJM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?© 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 or contact xcarretero@gmail.com