First record of the Peruvian yellow-tailed woolly monkey Lagothrix flavicauda in the Región Junín, Peru S EAN M. MC H UGH,FANNY M. CORNEJO,JASMINA M C K IBBEN,MELISSA Z ARATE C ARLOS T ELLO,CARLOS F. JIMÉNEZ and C HRISTOPHER A. SCHMITT Abstract The Critically Endangered Peruvian yellow-tailed Cornejo et al., ). Research on L. flavicauda has focused woolly monkey Lagothrix flavicauda was presumed to only on sparse museum and genetic samples to elucidate its taxo- occur in the tropical montane cloud forests between the nomic placement. Phenetic and morphological analyses had Marañón and Huallaga rivers in northern Peru. Here we placed it in the monospecific genus Oreonax (Thomas, ; report the discovery of a population to the south of its Groves, ), or as a sister species to the other woolly previously known range, in the Región Junín. During monkeys in the genus Lagothrix (Fooden, ; Matthews September–December we carried out transect surveys & Rosenberger, ; Rosenberger & Matthews, ). to record large mammals present near the village of San Recent molecular genetic analyses support the latter (Ruiz- Antonio in the district of Pampa Hermosa, at ,–, m Garcia et al., ; Di Fiore et al., ). Knowledge of altitude. We recorded five primate species during transect this species comes mainly from long-term study sites in surveys. Lagothrix flavicauda was seen four times, and remnant high-elevation tropical Andean forests in the appeared phenotypically distinct from populations to the Región Amazonas and Región San Martín in Peru (Graves north, with notable white patches above each eye and a &O’Neil, ; Leo Luna, , ; Butchart et al., ; reduced yellow patch at the end of the tail. The presence DeLuycker, ; Cornejo, ; Shanee et al., ; of L. flavicauda in Junín extends its known geographical Shanee, ; Shanee et al., a,b; Allgas et al., ). range over km southwards from the closest previously The last assessment of viable habitat in this area, in , known population in the Huánuco region, and presents a estimated a reduction by almost % since surveys in unique opportunity for the conservation of this Critically (Buckingham & Shanee, ), leading to an estimated Endangered species. % decline of L. flavicauda numbers in this area (Shanee & Shanee, ). Early estimates of the geographical range Keywords Andean montane forest, distribution, Lagothrix of L. flavicauda placed it in the pre-montane and montane flavicauda, Neotropical primates, Peru, primate conserva- forests between the Marañón and Huallaga rivers, but recent tion, yellow-tailed woolly monkey research has expanded that range southwards into Región Supplementary material for this article is available at Huánuco and east of the Río Huallaga near the border https://doi.org/./SX with Región Pasco (Shanee et al., a; Aquino et al., a,b; Aquino et al., ; Fig. ). There are also reports of L. flavicauda in areas of Región La Libertad (Parker & he Peruvian yellow-tailed woolly monkey Lagothrix fla- Barkley, ; Shanee et al., b) and Región Loreto Tvicauda is categorized as Critically Endangered both (Patterson & Wong, ), but these potential occurrences nationally in Peru (Heymann, ; MINAGRI, ) and have been neither consistently observed nor studied. Neither internationally (Cornejo et al., ), and is one of the field surveys nor distribution niche modeling have placed most threatened primates (DeLuycker & Heymann, ; L. flavicauda further south than south-east Huánuco (Shanee et al., a;Shaneeetal.,;Aquinoetal.,; Aquino et al., ), although further field surveys of Pasco SEAN M. MCHUGH (Corresponding author, orcid.org/0000-0002-3306-8832) and JASMINA MCKIBBEN Rainforest Partnership, 800 W 34th St Suite #105, and Junín are necessary to assess its presence in these regions Austin, Texas 78705, USA. E-mail [email protected] (Aquino et al., ). Here we report L. flavicauda km FANNY M. CORNEJO Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological south-east of previous observations in Huánuco. Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA, and Our study area is the upper and lower montane forest Yunkawasi, Lima, Peru adjacent to the Río Pampa Hermosa, near the village of San MELISSA ZARATE Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Antonio in Región Junín (Fig. ), where accessible forest at lower elevations has been cleared for small-scale cultiva- CARLOS TELLO and CARLOS F. JIMÉNEZ Yunkawasi, Lima, Peru tion of coffee, coca, corn and yucca. Cattle ranching is also CHRISTOPHER A. SCHMITT ( orcid.org/0000-0003-2143-9226) Department of Anthropology and Biology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA a contributing factor to this deforestation. Because of the steep slopes and terrain, however, most of the forest remains Received February . Revision requested April . Accepted July . First published online October . intact, albeit with some selective logging. Our study area has Oryx, 2020, 54(6), 814–818 © 2019 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S003060531900084X Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.14, on 29 Sep 2021 at 01:50:56, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003060531900084X Peruvian yellow-tailed woolly monkey 815 individuals, which comprised one adult male, one subadult male, three adult females, three juveniles and three infants. According to people we spoke with in San Antonio, infants and juveniles can be seen with their mothers during December–January. The size of the infants observed in December suggest that one was a newborn and the other two perhaps months old, suggesting births in October– December. The yellow-tailed woolly monkeys in San Antonio are phenotypically distinct from those further north. All ob- served individuals had distinct white patches on the brow, one above each eye (Plate ). This trait has been seen among populations in San Martín and Amazonas, but paler in colour and not in all individuals. The eponymous patch of yellow fur that surrounds the callus friction pad at the ventrodistal end of the prehensile tail is smaller in the Junín individuals than in those further north. All other aspects of appearance (mahogany fur, bright yellow scrotal tuft and pubic hair, white muzzle) seem consistent with other members of the species (Aquino et al., ). Despite being accessible from major towns such as Satipo, via road A, the forest in our study area is not heavily frag- mented and still has high connectivity, with large tracts of primary forest on the steep slopes. Closer to San Antonio the forest is disturbed, largely by farming. The forest sur- rounding San Antonio is better preserved and more intact on the northern side of the Río Pampa Hermosa because of the steep terrain, which limits accessibility for farming. FIG. 1 Known observations of Lagothrix flavicauda From there, the forest is contiguous for km to the border (Supplementary Table ), including the newly discovered of the Bosque de Protección Pui Pui. The area to the south of population in Junín. the river is more degraded, with widespread farming and cattle ranching contributing to fragmentation, creating a a unique primate community (Supplementary Material ) mosaic of habitat types, including pastures and secondary along with terrestrial mammals such as the Andean bear and riparian forests. Tremarctos ornatus, red brocket deer Mazama americana, The greatest threats to the forests around San Antonio collared peccary Pecari tajacu, ocelot Leopardus pardalis are selective logging and clear cutting for agriculture. These and tayra Eira barbara. The University of Central Peru activities particularly affect the forest between Mariposa administers a , ha Área de Concesión de Conservación and the settlement of Calabaza, adjacent to road Aand (Conservation Concession Area) that comprises a portion the Río Pampa Hermosa, with higher rates of deforestation of our study area (Fig. ). eastwards to Satipo. The selective logging of rare and During a camera-trap study of terrestrial large mam- valuable trees, such as Cedrela angustifolia and Prumnopitys mals, we opportunistically observed the primate com- harmsiana, puts L. flavicauda at risk. Increased forest frag- munity. We surveyed . km of cleared logging trails mentation could limit the species’ access to lower eleva- and Andean bear trails over altitudes of ,–, m. In tion forests and important seasonal fruit resources. As the addition to L. flavicauda, we observed other primate species human population increases, poaching could become a (Supplementary Material ). risk, as at other sites (Shanee, ; Shanee & Shanee, We encountered L. flavicauda four times (Table ), ). Although this does not currently affect L. flavicauda in primary forest. The monkeys did not flee, but rather or the other primates around San Antonio, it is imperative approached and descended to observe us more closely, that intact forests are managed properly, to prevent the de- behaviour consistent with unhabituated lowland woolly gree of forest fragmentation prevalent in San Martín and monkeys Lagothrix lagotricha spp. and yellow-tailed Amazonas (Buckingham & Shanee, ; Shanee, ). woolly monkeys at other sites (FMC & CAS, pers. obs.), Our observations expand the geographical range of L. allowing us to take photographs (Plate ). We were able to flavicauda to central Junín, well beyond the southernmost determine the composition of one of the groups, with limit of the species proposed by Aquino et al. (b, ). Oryx, 2020, 54(6),