Black-faced uakari
| Black-faced uakari | ||||||||||||
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Drawing from the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (vol. 1849, page 9) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Cacajao melanocephalus | ||||||||||||
| ( Humboldt , 1811) |
The black-faced uakari or black uakari ( Cacajao melanocephalus ) is a primate species from the genus of the uakaris within the New World monkeys (Platyrrhini). He lives in northwestern South America , north of the Rio Negro , a large tributary of the Amazon . It lives in larger groups and mainly eats hard-shelled fruits and seeds.
features
As is typical of the Uakaris, the face is naked. It is colored black, as are the hairless palms and soles of the feet. The fur on the head, arms and hind legs is also black. The flanks, thighs and tail, on the other hand, are cinnamon red. The belly is almost hairless, but is covered by the long flank hair. The back fur is colored golden yellow.
Males are larger than females. Their head-torso length is 44 to 49 centimeters, in females 37 to 45 centimeters. As with all Uakaris, the tail is shortened and not suitable for grasping, it measures 15 to 19 centimeters. The weight of this species is 2.5 to 3.7 kilograms, with only males weighing more than 3 kilograms.
distribution and habitat
purple - black-faced uakari ,
green - spix- black- headed uakari ,
red - red uakari .
Black-faced uakaris live in northwestern South America in the Amazon basin . Their distribution area is in northwestern Brazil and in the extreme south of Venezuela between the Rio Negro in the south and west, the upper reaches of the Orinoco in the north and the Rio Aracá in the east. Their habitat is the tropical rainforest , where they live along the banks of black water rivers , and there they prefer to live in the Igapó , a type of forest that is characterized by seasonal floods.
Black-faced uakaris usually move on all fours. You can jump up to ten meters.
Way of life
Black-faced uakaris are diurnal tree dwellers. In the branches they usually move on all fours, they can jump up to 10 meters. Occasionally they come to the ground in the dry season. These primates live in groups of several males and females made up of 20 to 30 animals. There have also been reports of smaller associations of 3 to 10 animals. It is possible that there is a fission-fusion organization (temporary merging and separation) in which larger associations split up into smaller subgroups while searching for food. The animals stay in contact with each other through constant calls. Aggressive behavior between group members was not observed.
Little is known about reproduction. A single young is generally born. The birth takes place between February and April when the rainy season begins.
food
The diet consists mainly of unripe, hard-skinned tree fruits. In total, the fruits of 120 different plant species have been identified as part of the diet of the black uakari. Are most in demand rubber tree , Micrandra , Eperua and Eschweilera . In addition to fruits, leaves, flowers and insects are also eaten, but only at times when there is a shortage of fruits. Since the black-faced uakari specializes in very hard fruits, there are no food competitors among the other primates in its range.
Danger
Some Indian peoples hunt black-faced uakaris. They are especially easy to hunt from a canoe, as they always live on the banks of the river. For the Yanomami and Tucano tribes, however, the hunt for black uakaris does not play a major role.
The IUCN classified the species as "critically endangered" until 1994, when it was downgraded to "not endangered" because of new findings about its frequency. However, the ongoing destruction of the rainforests could soon change this status again.
Systematics
The systematics of the species within the Uakaris is controversial. Until 2008, the books on primates only listed the red and black uakari, which are easy to distinguish on the outside. Two subspecies were often distinguished within the Black Uakari: the nominate form Cacajao melanocephalus melanocephalus with black dorsal fur, described by Alexander von Humboldt in 1811, and the form with golden yellow dorsal fur, first described by Johann Baptist von Spix in 1823, which in the late 20th century was mostly known as the subspecies Cacajao melanocephalus ouakary or as a separate species Cacajao ouakary . Boubli et al. a. (2008) found this division of the Black Uakari to be unjustified. They stated that Humboldt clearly described his type specimen (which was later lost) with a yellowish dorsal fur and that the location was not known because Humboldt acquired the animal from a local who kept it as a pet. The two subspecies were therefore grouped together. At the same time two authors to Boubli described north of the Rio Negro to:, so living in the originally specified for the black face-Uakari distribution area populations as new species Neblina Uakari ( Cacajao Hosomi ,) which is somewhat larger and longer, denser fur has in the back is colored reddish-brown, and the Aracá-Uakari ( Cacajao ayresi ), which is slightly smaller and has a significantly darker coat. In 2014 Ferrari and colleagues contradicted this division into new species and reinstalled the animal described by Spix as a separate species under the name Cacajao ouakary . Based on their research results, these authors can imagine the Aracá-Uakari as a subspecies of the black-faced Uakari with the name Cacajao melanocephalus ayresi . The Neblina-Uakari is for them the nominotypical subspecies as described by Humboldt in 1811. It is therefore led under the name Cacajao melanocephalus melanocephalus . The transitions or delimitations between the two subspecies have not yet been adequately researched.
Subspecies
Two subspecies of the black-faced uakari have been recorded since 2014:
- Neblina-Uakari Cacajao melanocephalus melanocephalus
- Aracá-Uakari Cacajao melanocephalus ayresi
The former subspecies Cacajao melanocephalus ouakary south of the Rio Negro is considered a separate species, Cacajao ouakary .
Individual evidence
- Jump up ↑ a b Stephen F. Ferrari, Patricia G. Guedes, Wilsea MB Figueiredo-Ready & Adrian A. Barnett: Reconsidering the taxonomy of the Black-Faced Uacaris, Cacajao melanocephalus group (Mammalia: Pitheciidae), from the northern Amazon Basin. Zootaxa 3866, 3, pp. 353-370, September 2014 doi : 10.11646 / zootaxa.3866.3.3
- ↑ Jean P. Boubli, Maria Nazareth F. da Silva, Manuella V. Amado, Tomas Hrbek, Francisco Boavista Pontual, Izeni P. Farias: A Taxonomic Reassessment of "Cacajao melanocephalus" Humboldt (1811), with the Description of Two New Species . International Journal of Primatology, Vol. 29, 3, pp. 723-741, 2008 ISSN 0164-0291
literature
- Adrian A. Barnett: Cacajao melanocephalus. In: Mammalian Species . No. 776, 2005, ISSN 0076-3519 , pp. 1–6, online (PDF; 340 kB)
- Thomas Geissmann : Comparative Primatology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin et al. 2003, ISBN 3-540-43645-6
Web links
- Cacajao melanocephalus_old in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2009. Posted by: A. A. Barnett, J.-P. Boubli, L. M. Veiga, E. Palacios, 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
- Information and photos at Primate Factsheets