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Publications (147)
Our knowledge of the fossil avifauna from the Middle Miocene La Venta locality in Colombia is limited almost entirely to aquatic birds. Phorusrhacidae, popularly known as ‘terror birds’, are a group of highly diversified cursorial birds that played the role of apex predators during most of the Cenozoic. Here we present the first record of a phorusr...
Tropical floodplain lakes are increasingly impacted by human activities, yet their pathways of spatial and temporal degradation, particularly under varying hydrological connectivity regimes and climate change, remain poorly understood. This study examines surface-sediment samples and 210Pb-dated sediment cores from six floodplain lakes, representin...
Tree cavities used as sleeping sites are a limited resource for arboreal mammals. The shared use of arboreal cavities as sleeping sites between Neotropical mammals is rarely observed and has been little studied. We documented an event of sleeping site sharing between two medium-sized mammals, the Caribbean night monkey (Aotus griseimembra) and the...
Anointing occurs when animals rub substances on their own or other individuals’ bodies for various purposes. Although this behavior has been described in several species, it has only been observed in captivity in night monkeys. We present the first report of anointing (self and allo-anointing) in wild night monkeys, occurring specifically in the Ca...
Forest fragmentation is one of the main drivers of global biodiversity loss leading to the isolation of wildlife populations. This study focuses on understanding the role of restoration corridors as a strategy promoting resilience and viability of mammal and bird populations in a fragmented landscape in Colombia. We installed 98 camera-trap station...
The cosmopolitan distribution of the Barn Owl Tyto alba and its relatively well documented diet through the study of pellets have provided evidence of the broad diversity of prey it relies on. In most studies, both in tropical and temperate regions, rodents are its main prey, with other small mammals and vertebrates, and insects complementing its d...
Tropical drylands are characterized by extreme environmental conditions that, coupled with anthropogenic habitat degradation, can limit the occurrence of native species. Species that are most sensitive to these pressures may be prone to disappear in the context of climate change. In this study, we evaluated the influence of environmental and anthro...
Kinkajous are one of the most widely distributed Neotropical mammals, nonetheless, their nocturnal habits have posed challenges on the study of their ecology and behavior. Here, we used arboreal camera trapping in a pristine Amazonian forest in Ecuador, and ad libitum data from direct encounters in a lowland and a highland forest in Colombia to des...
Conservation funding is currently limited; cost-effective conservation solutions are essential. We suggest that the thousands of field stations worldwide can play key roles at the frontline of biodiversity conservation and have high intrinsic value. We assessed field stations’ conservation return on investment and explored the impact of COVID-19. W...
The La Venta deposits (Colombia) record one of the most fossil-rich regions in tropical South America and offers an exceptional opportunity to study the effect of the Miocene climatic changes and the evolution of extinct and extant clades in a low-latitude ecosystem. Land and freshwater vertebrates, and less commonly plants and invertebrates, const...
Neoreomys Ameghino, 1887 is among the most representative genera of South American Miocene rodents. The systematics of this taxon have been unclear, but currently, the most accepted hypothesis places it within Cavioidea, with ambiguous relationships inside the clade. Neoreomys is abundant and well-represented at high latitudes, with two species fro...
Neotropical primates (Platyrrhines) are commonly parasitized by pinworm nematodes of the genus Trypanoxyuris Vevers, 1923. The taxonomic identity of Trypanoxyuris sampled in night monkeys (Aotus Iliger) has been rather controversial. Two species have been described, namely T. microon (Linstow, 1907) and T. interlabiata (Sandosham, 1950). The latter...
Los diversos afloramientos de La Venta (desierto de la Tatacoa) en Colombia son de gran importancia para analizar la estructura ecológica de los ecosistemas del Mioceno medio en el norte de Suramérica. Esta región ha sido ampliamente estudiada, derivando en diversos hallazgos de vertebrados como mamíferos, tortugas, caimanes y peces óseos. Sin emba...
Owl monkeys are small, elusive, and nocturnal, making them some of the hardest animals to survey and study in the wild. We summarize the use of traditional field methods as well as more recent technology that has improved opportunities for investigating the behavior, ecology, and population biology of these neotropical primates. Over the years, res...
The subtropical populations of owl monkeys (Aotus) and some lemurs have flexible patterns that include activity during both day and night. Early studies on the activity patterns of tropical owl monkeys in seminatural conditions evidenced their nocturnal behavior and a strong influence of moonlight on their activity. In this chapter, we review previ...
The owl monkeys, genus Aotus, are among the most widely distributed of all platyrrhine genera. The 13 currently recognized taxa are found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. They range from lowland tropical moist and dry forests to over 3000 m.a.sl. in the cloud forests of the Andes. Owl monkeys...
This contribution contains the 3D models described and figured in: New remains of Neotropical bunodont litopterns
and the systematics of Megadolodinae (Mammalia: Litopterna). Geodiversitas.
Vocal communication is particularly important for nocturnal species as well as those living in dense forests, where visual abilities can be somewhat constrained. The Andean night monkey (Aotus lemurinus) is a nocturnal American primate living in mountain forests in the Northern Andes with scant information on its behavior and ecology. The main goal...
Mesocarnivores play a key role in ecosystem dynamics through the regulation of prey populations and are sensitive to environmental changes; thus, they are often considered good model organisms for conservation planning. However, data regarding the factors that influence the habitat use of threatened small wild felids such as the Andean tiger cat (L...
Two-toed sloths (genus Choloepus) are almost exclusively arboreal. However, they often descend to the ground in places known as mineral licks or “saladeros'' and feed from soil, which presumably enhances their digestion of toxins and helps them obtain minerals not readily available in their diet. Mineral licks are risky areas which may increase the...
Los fragmentos de bosques que aún persisten dentro de los ambientes antropizados, juegan un papel fundamental en la conservación de diferentes especies de animales. Diferentes organismos, usan los fragmentos de bosque como hábitats permanentes o como corredores de paso dentro de los agropaisajes. El objetivo de este estudio es reportar los mamífero...
Infection with Blastocystis sp. has been reported in free-living and captive non-human primates (NHPs); however, surveys on Blastocystis sp. from north-western South America are scarce. This study aimed to identify Blastocystis sp. in free-ranging NHPs living in Colombia. A total of 212 faecal samples were collected from Ateles hybridus, Cebus vers...
Myiases are parasitic infections caused by the larval stages of some fly species. In American nonhuman primates (NHP), three bot fly species causing cutaneous myiasis have been reported: Cuterebra baeri, Cochliomyia hominivorax, and Dermatobia hominis. Studies on myiasis in NHP are scarce and mainly based on morphologic identification of larvae, wh...
Food-sharing is a cooperative behaviour related to the transfer of resources between conspecifics, and it is considered a complex prosocial behaviour because of its associated costs. It is more likely that an individual cooperates with closely related kin (e.g., in food sharing), and particularly with close maternal kin. In female philopatric speci...
Arthropods are important food for primates such as night monkeys (Aotus spp.) because they provide easily digestible protein and fat. However, the record of their consumption has been underestimated due to the opportunistic nature of their capture and difficulties in identification. We describe arthropod consumption by a group of Andean night monke...
The Magdalena River in Colombia is one of the world's largest (discharge = 7100 m3 s−1) tropical rivers, hosting > 170 aquatic vertebrate species. However, concise synthesis of the current ecological and environmental status is lacking. By documenting the anthropogenic stressors impacting the river on time scales ranging from centuries to decades,...
Nocturnal curassows (Nothocrax urumutum) are one of the most enigmatic birds from South American rainforests. Their elusive habits and their nocturnal vocal behavior have led to the generalized assumption that they differ from other curassows in their presumable nocturnal habits. Here, we compiled camera trap data from long term projects in the Ama...
The study of diet and food selection is foundational to understanding how primates interact with their environment. Due to the potential evolutionary relationship between fruit physical traits and frugivory in animals, our goal was to understand the composition and the evolutionary relationships of plant species in the Andean night monkey’s diet (A...
Albinism in a wild Caribbean night monkey (Aotus griseimembra) in a fragmented landscape in Colombia Albinismo en un mono nocturno caribeño (Aotus griseimembra) silvestre en un paisaje fragmentado en Colombia Albinism results from the complete absence of melanin due to mutations in the OCA and TYR genes. This condition has been considered rare in p...
The diversity, spread, and evolution of parasites in non-human primates (NHPs) is a relevant issue for human public health as well as for NHPs conservation. Although previous reviews have recorded information on parasites in NHPs (Platyrrhines) in the Americas, the increasing number of recent studies has made these inventories far from complete. He...
The Colombian weasel, Neogale felipei (Izor & de la Torre, 1978), is one of the most enigmatic and threatened carni-vores in South America, with only six confirmed records in the Andes of Ecuador and Colombia. During a long-term trail camera survey conducted at Mesenia-Paramillo Natural Reserve, we recorded the northernmost occurrence of the specie...
This study presents the long‐term evolution of two floodplains lakes (San Juana and Barbacoas) of the Magdalena River in Colombia with varying degree of connectivity to the River and with different responses to climate events (i.e., extreme floods and droughts). Historical limnological changes were identified through a multiproxy‐based reconstructi...
In tropical ecosystems, habitat degradation and fragmentation are some of the most important drivers of biodiversity loss. In Colombia, the Magdalena River basin is home to a megadiverse wildlife community, which has been historically exposed to pervasive habitat loss and fragmentation. Within a long-term project on the conservation of Critically E...
With 14 species recorded, the Miocene La Venta bat fauna is the most diverse bat paleocommunity in South America. It includes the oldest plant-visiting bat in the New World and some of the earliest representatives of the extant families Phyllostomidae, Thyropteridae, and Noctilionidae. La Venta's Notonycteris magdalenensis is an extinct member of t...
IUCN Red List Assessment for Lagothrix lagothricha
Scent marking is a type of communication that consists in leaving chemical signals that persist in the environment and can be perceived via olfaction by conspecifics. Among primates, there is scant information from wild studies about the function of scent marking partly given the assumption that olfaction has been partially replaced by visual sense...
A recent focus in community ecology has been on how within‐species variability shapes interspecific niche partitioning. Primate color vision offers a rich system in which to explore this issue. Most neotropical primates exhibit intraspecific variation in color vision due to allelic variation at the middle‐to‐long‐wavelength opsin gene on the X chro...
South American night monkeys (genus Aotus) are the only nocturnal simian primates. Early activity recordings in North Colombian A. griseimembra monkeys kept under semi-natural conditions and extensive chronobiological studies carried out in laboratory settings revealed a strictly nocturnal behavior and strong activity enhancing (disinhibiting) effe...
Forest fragmentation and deforestation are major threats to primates at a global scale. The survival of primates in forest fragments largely depends on their behavioral and dietary flexibility, as well as their ability to use a modified matrix in anthropogenic landscapes, hence the importance of determining these ecological parameters in habitats w...
Most primates live in lowland ecosystems; however, some species have been particularly successful at colonizing higher altitudes, such as night monkeys (genus Aotus). Studies of the ecology of night monkeys in tropical forests are numerous, but behavioral data are limited due to the challenges associated with their nocturnal habits. Although Andean...
The extinction of megafauna in the Neotropics is thought to have reduced the potential of large seeds to be dispersed over long distances by endozoochory (ingestion by animals), but some seed dispersal systems have not been considered. We describe the role of oilbirds (Steatornis caripensis) as seed dispersers, in terms of seed width and dispersal...
Evaluation of the conservation status of Ateles belzebuth
The middle Miocene La Venta bat fauna is the most diverse bat palaeocommunity in South America, with at least 14 species recorded. They include the oldest plant-visiting bat in the New World, and some of the earliest representatives of the extant families Phyllostomidae, Thyropteridae and Noctilionidae. La Venta’s Notonycteris magdalenensis is an e...
With their large body size and “slow” life histories, atelin primates are thought to follow a risk‐averse breeding strategy, similar to capital breeders, in which they accumulate energy reserves in anticipation of future reproductive events such as gestation and lactation. However, given the paucity of longitudinal data from wild populations, few s...
Resumen Los primates que habitan en los ecosistemas de montaña de la cordillera de los Andes en Colombia están expuestos a fuertes amenazas como consecuencia del desarrollo de la infraestructura y la transformación del uso del suelo en lo que corresponde a la región más densamente poblada de Colombia. Para el género Aotus cuyos hábitos son principa...
http://repository.humboldt.org.co/handle/20.500.11761/35544
In the original publication of the article, figure 1 was wrongly published as a duplication.
Over the past 20 years, GPS collars have emerged as powerful tools for the study of nonhuman primate (hereafter, "primate") movement ecology. As the size and cost of GPS collars have decreased and performance has improved, it is timely to review the use and success of GPS collar deployments on primates to date. Here we compile data on deployments a...
Here, we report on a previously unknown population of white-bellied spider monkeys living in the highland forests in the Eastern slope of the Eastern Andes in Colombia, in the departments of Casanare and Boyacá. This population accounts for the northern-most record of white-bellied spider monkeys in the Andes Piedmont in Colombia, and is present in...
Pinworms of primates are believed to be highly host specific parasites, forming co-evolutionary associations with their hosts. In order to assess the strength and reach of such evolutionary links, we need to have a broad understanding of the pinworm diversity associated with primates. Here, we employed an integrative taxonomic approach to assess pi...
Documenting the natural diversity of eukaryotic organisms in the nonhuman primate (NHP) gut is important for understanding the evolution of the mammalian gut microbiome, its role in digestion, health and disease, and the consequences of anthropogenic change on primate biology and conservation. Despite the ecological significance of gut-associated e...
Background:
Parasites from the genus Plasmodium, the aetiological agent of malaria in humans, can also infect non-human primates (NHP), increasing the potential risk of zoonotic transmission with its associated global public health concerns. In Colombia, there are no recent studies on Plasmodium spp. infecting free-ranging NHP. Thus, this study ai...
We examined photic and ecological factors related to initiation of feeding by four sympatric primates in the rain forest of Amazonian Ecuador. With rare exceptions, morning activities of all taxa began only after the onset of nautical twilight, which occurred 47–48 min before sunrise. The larger spider and woolly monkeys, Ateles belzebuth and Lagot...
Dataset used for the study.
Group or Individual: For Plectrocebus and Pithecia, social group is indicated by one or two letters, and both sexes are considered together. For Ateles and Lagothrix, the individual and its sex is indicated. If the individual or sex was unknown, the corresponding cell is empty. When a female/male pair of individuals is l...
Random factors in final models.
(DOCX)
Space requirements are essential to assess population ecology especially for endangered species. The goal of this study was to estimate home range size and daily traveled distances (DTD) of two groups of woolly monkeys using two different sampling methods: direct observations of focal animals using handheld GPS devices and GPS collars located on fo...
El capítulo describe el estado actual de conservación de Ateles belzebuth en el Ecuador, además se indica la descripción, historia natural, distribución, hábitat, situación actual, amenazas, medidas de conservación, y los estudios sobre la especie en el Ecuador.
El paisaje natural del valle del Magdalena medio correspondió históricamente a bosque húmedo tropical y se estima que el 75% ha sido reemplazado por agroecosistemas con plantaciones de palma de aceite y pastizales para ganadería. En la presente contribución pretendemos describir la comunidad de mamíferos en un paisaje altamente fragmentado. Para el...
The inter-Andean tropical rainforests and dry forests of the Magdalena river basin (Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena biodiversity hotspot) in northern Colombia have undergone significant forest loss and degradation in recent decades. Six primate species inhabit this region, five of which are currently threatened with extinction and one of which—the brown spi...
Zika virus (ZIKV) was first discovered in 1947 in Uganda, but was not considered a public health threat until 2007 when found to be the source of epidemic activity in Asia. Epidemic activity spread to Brazil in 2014 and continues to spread throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are abundant....
Loss and degradation of natural habitats continue to increase across the tropics as a result of agricultural expansion. Consequently, there is an urgent need to understand their effects, and the distribution and habitat requirements of wildlife within human-modified landscapes, to support the conservation of threatened species, such as felids. We c...
