Primatology in southern Brazil: a transdisciplinary approach to the conservation of the brown-howler-monkey Alouatta guariba clamitans (Primates, Atelidae)

Leandro Jerusalinsky,Márcia Maria De Assis Jardim,Rodrigo Cambará Printes,Luisa Xavier Lokschin,Fernanda Zimmermann Teixeira,Gerson Buss,Juliane Nunes Hallal Cabral,André Alonso

doi:10.1590/s0073-47212010000400015

Abstract

Human interventions in natural environments are the main cause of biodiversity loss worldwide. The situation is not different in southern Brazil, home of five primate species. Although some earlier studies exist, studies on the primates of this region began to be consistently carried out in the 1980s and have continued since then. In addition to important initiatives to study and protect the highly endangered Leontopithecus caissara Lorrini & Persson, 1990 and Brachyteles arachnoides E. Geoffroy, 1806, other species, including locally threatened ones, have been the focus of research, management, and protection initiatives. Since 1993, the urban monkeys program (PMU, Programa Macacos Urbanos) has surveyed the distribution and assessed threats to populations of Alouatta guariba clamitans (Cabrera, 1940) in Porto Alegre and vicinity. PMU has developed conservation strategies on four fronts: (1) scientific research on biology and ecology, providing basic knowledge to support all other activities of the group; (2) conservation education, which emphasizes educational presentations and long-term projects in schools near howler populations, based on the flagship species approach; (3) management, analyzing conflicts involving howlers and human communities, focusing on mitigating these problems and on appropriate relocation of injured or at-risk individuals; and finally, (4) Public Policies aimed at reducing and/or preventing the impact of urban expansion, contributing to create protected areas and to strengthen environmental laws. These different approaches have contributed to protect howler monkey populations over the short term, indicating that working collectively and acting on diversified and interrelated fronts are essential to achieve conservation goals. The synergistic results of these approaches and their relationship to the prospects for primatology in southern Brazil are presented in this review.

Highlights

Human interventions in natural environments are the main cause of biodiversity loss worldwide
Programa Macacos Urbanos (PMU) has developed conservation strategies on four fronts: (1) scientific research on biology and ecology, providing basic knowledge to support all other activities of the group; (2) conservation education, which emphasizes educational presentations and long-term projects in schools near howler populations, based on the flagship species approach; (3) management, analyzing conflicts involving howlers and human communities, focusing on mitigating these problems and on appropriate relocation of injured or at-risk individuals; and (4) Public Policies aimed at reducing and/or preventing the impact of urban expansion, contributing to create protected areas and to strengthen environmental laws
The synergistic results of these approaches and their relationship to the prospects for primatology in southern Brazil are presented in this review

Summary

Primate Species in Southern Brazil

The southern region of Brazil, which encompasses the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul, contains large areas of Atlantic forest ecosystems. Seasonality in southern Brazil offers particular conditions for primatological research, which has generated, for example, interesting results on biogeography (BICCA-MARQUES, 1990; PRINTES et al, 2001; CODENOTTI et al, 2002; KOEHLER et al, 2005; AGUIAR et al, 2007) and on behavioral and ecological plasticity in these extreme climates (PRATES et al, 1990b; JARDIM & OLIVEIRA, 2000; MIRANDA et al, 2004.; MIRANDA et al, 2005) These primate species are categorized as threatened or endangered in global, national, or regional red lists (Tab. I). According to MELO et al (2009), research priorities in southern Brazil include: a) studies on biogeography, mainly in Santa Catarina; b) studies on population ecology, including demography, population dynamics, and estimates of population sizes; c) analyses of the main threats, to more effectively guide conservationist management efforts; d) evaluation and control of the potential impacts of the introduced species, primarily Callithrix Erxleben, 1777 in Santa Catarina; and e) studies on the impact of yellow fever on A. g. clamitans and especially A. caraya populations in Rio Grande do Sul

Primatology working groups in southern Brazil

Alegre and vicinity

Findings

Future prospects