Yellow-tailed woolly monkey

Yellowtail woolly monkey ( Oreonax flavicauda )

The Yellow -tailed woolly monkey ( Oreonax flavicauda ) is a primate of the family of peg-tail monkeys ( Atelidae ). He lives only in northern Peru and is one of the most endangered American primates.

Description

Have yellowtail woolly monkeys get their name from a yellow tuft of hair in the genital area and a yellow stripe on the tail. The rest of your fur is brownish in color, the nose is whitish. Females reach a weight of 6 males and 8 kilograms.

Dissemination and lifestyle

Yellowtail woolly monkeys live only in a small area in northern Peru ( San Martín and Amazonas regions ). Their habitat is mountainous cloud forests at an altitude 1800-2700 meters. They are diurnal and arboreal, moving on all fours through the branches and can use the tail as a prehensile tail. They live together in groups of several males and females and should, like other peg-tail monkeys show little competitive behavior. The diet consists mainly of fruits, besides they take leaves and even lichens to himself.

Threat

Until the 1950s they were relatively protected by the inaccessibility of its range, through road construction and forest clearing the way but has been decimated. Two protected areas have been established, yet include yellowtail woolly monkeys also due to their low reproductive rate of the most threatened species. The total population is clearly in decline, the IUCN lists the species as " threatened with extinction " ( critically endangered ).

System

Previously, the yellowtail woolly monkeys were counted among the woolly monkeys ( Lagothrix ), but recent studies show that they could closely be related to the spider monkeys ( Ateles ). Today, they are usually performed in a separate genus, Oreonax.